Apple is now on its second round of developer betas for iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, macOS 26.1 Tahoe, watchOS 26.1, tvOS 26.1, and visionOS 26.1.

The second beta round follows the first, which arrived on September 22. They follow after the formal release of the milestone versions of iOS 26, iPadOS 26, watchOS 26, macOS 26 Tahoe, visionOS 26, and tvOS 26on September 15.

The current beta cycle is for the 26.1 versions of each operating system, marking the first major point release for this generation.

  • iOS 26.1 beta 2 is build 23B5059e, replacing build 23B5044l
  • iPadOS 26.1 beta 2 is build 23B5059e, replacing build 23B5044l
  • watchOS 26.1 beta 2 is build 23S5017d, replacing build 23S5002i
  • macOS Tahoe 26.1 beta 2 is build 25B5057f, replacing build 25B5042K
  • visionOS 26 26.1 beta 2 is build 23N5028e, replacing build 23N5013j
  • tvOS 26 26.1 beta 2 is build 23J5558e, replacing build 23J5543j

In the first beta build of iOS 26.1, Apple updated Apple Intelligence with support for more languages, including Live Translation in Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), Japanese, and Korean. The first signs of Model Context Protocol (MCP) support were also spotted, which could eventually help AI systems to interact with data on the device more effecttively, though a single standard interface.

There were also "Background Security Improvements" instead of "Rapid Security Response" updates, a Liquid Glass improvement to the dialer's keypad and the Photos video scrubber, full-color tags in Calendar, a wider tab bar in Safari, and swiping to change tracks in Apple Music.

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].