Apple's Liquid Glass makeover and expanded Apple Intelligence tools arrive this fall, but not every phone can make the leap.

Testing with developer and public beta versions went smoothly for even the oldest supported models. But there are safety measures if upgrading to the beta or release version goes awry.

Apple today provided developers and public beta testers who have an iPhone 11 with a new beta of iOS 26. Apple did not seed the iPhone 11 version

Looking at the home screens, the primary difference you'll find is that in iOS 26 the background of the dock and the search option that sits in between the dock and the home screen icons are more transparent and have a sheen to the edges, whereas in iOS 18, these are slightly darker.

Apple introduced Visual Intelligence last year with the launch of the iPhone 16. At the time, it allowed users to take photos of objects around them and then use the iPhone's AI capability to search for them and find more information. Last month, Apple upgraded the experience by adding Visual Intelligence to the iPhone screen.

We’ve been playing around with the developer betas of Apple’s latest software, and now that we’ve spent time with iOS 26, Liquid Glass and more on actual devices, we have thoughts. From representation in Genmoji and Live Translation adventures to Apple Intelligence musings,

Apple released the first public beta of iOS 26 on July 24, more than a month after the company announced the next iOS version at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June. That

Back in 2024, we described how the then-new iOS 18 enabled you to tint your homescreen icons, allowing you to tweak the look of your iPhone’s display. Now, with Apple’s introduction of its Liquid Glass design for iOS 26, you can make your icons completely clear ( assuming you’re a fan of the new invisible look).