iOS 26 looks new and modern. And for once, how Apple describes it — liquid glass — makes sense: it’s a lot of layers of transparent elements overlapping and, in places, the animations are quite… liquidy. Menus and buttons will respond to your touch, with some of them coalescing around your finger and sometimes separating out into new menus.

Next, you’ll need to start the update. Visit Settings > General > Software Update. If you’re not new to beta updates, you may immediately see the iOS 26 Beta (or iPad OS 26 Public Beta) selection. In that case, you can skip the next two steps. Otherwise...