Following the official release of the 26 generation, Apple has started beta testing the updates for iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, macOS 26.1 Tahoe, watchOS 26.1, tvOS 26.1, and visionOS 26.1.
On September 15, Apple released its 26-generation of operating systems. Users were able to finally install iOS 26, iPadOS 26, watchOS 26, macOS 26 Tahoe, visionOS 26, and tvOS 26 onto their devices.
With the end of one beta-testing cycle, Apple restarts the process for the next one. In this case, it's for the version 26.1 updates of each operating system.
- iOS 26.1 beta 1 is build 23B5044l
- iPadOS 26.1 beta 1 is build 23B5044l
- watchOS 26.1 beta 1 is build 23S5002i
- macOS Tahoe 26.1 beta 1 is build 25B5042K
- visionOS 26 26.1 beta 1 is build 23N5013j
- tvOS 26 26.1 beta 1 is build 23J5543j
At this early stage, it is unknown what Apple is including in this round of updates. Since it's the first following the milestone releases, the content of each is likely to include performance improvements and bug fixes that didn't make it to the initial release.
The builds should also be somewhat different from the same ones for the previous generation. While Apple didn't include Apple Intelligence in the iOS 18 release, it did start performing developer testing for iOS 18.1 which did include it.
AppleInsider and Apple strongly warn against users installing test operating systems or beta software onto primary or "mission-critical" hardware. Due to the increased risk of data loss and other issues, beta participants should use secondary or non-essential hardware and ensure they have sufficient backups of their critical data at all times.
Apple also introduces a public beta build a short time after the developer version. It is advised that non-developers should wait for that build, due to the reduced risk.
Find any changes in the new builds? Reach out to us on Twitter at @AppleInsider or @Andrew_OSU, or send Andrew an email at [email protected].
