Apple dropped the sixth developer beta for iOS 26 on Monday. This new beta will likely be the exact same build that Apple releases as public beta 3 in the coming hours or days, which means all testers will be able to experience the new features and changes imminently.
For the rest of us, it’s interesting to keep tabs on how Apple is changing things at this point in the beta cycle. While iOS 26 doesn’t have an official release date yet, it will ship sometime this fall. Going off of precedent, Apple usually chooses mid-to-late September for a release date, which means iOS 26 may only have another month of beta testing or so to go.
While there aren’t any groundbreaking features here, there are some very interesting changes, most of which I hope make it through to the general release this fall. Here’s what’s new:
New ringtones
It might seem odd for somebody who keeps their iPhone on silent almost 100% of the time, but I really love new ringtones. Early on in the iOS 26 beta cycle, Apple added a variation of the default Reflection ringtone, and, to be frank, it’s great. With beta 6, the company added another five variations of Reflection to the mix, and they are also great:
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While I like all of these, perhaps the catchiest is “Dreamer.” Listen to it in full to see what I mean. Who’s going to actually answer the phone when the ringtone is this good?
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But it’s not just the Reflection variants here. Apple also added an original ringtone with this beta called Little Bird. This one might also be a contender for me taking my phone off silent mode:
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Another new animation
Apple’s last iOS 26 beta also shipped with new animations, but this time is a little different. Testers showed off how Apple designed windows to minimize into the app icon they belong to, rather than disappear as they currently do. It’s a new effect, which you can see in the post below:
What do you think so far?
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I’m also seeing a lot of positive posts on X about how “snappy” iOS 26 beta 6 feels. If so, that’s fantastic news. If all Apple does with iOS 26 is get rid of the bugs and make the whole system feel smooth and responsive, I’d be happy.
Liquid Glass changes
Apple continues to refine Liquid Glass with this latest beta release. The update now adds the glassy effect to the Lock Screen clock, widgets with transparent backgrounds, as well as system toggles.
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New walk-through video
Also new to iOS 26 beta 6 is an introductory video to some of the big changes with Apple’s new update. If this sticks through to public release, iOS will walk users through many of the software’s new Liquid Glass updates:
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Camera’s Classic Mode toggle is gone
In beta 5, Apple added a “Classic Mode Switching” toggle to the Camera app’s settings. This option let users reverse the scroll direction of the new Camera app, since some users didn’t like the change. Now, Apple removed the toggle, and made the Classic Mode scroll direction the default to begin with.
