iOS 26.1 is almost here, and it could bring these changes to your iPhone

Apple launched iOS 26.1 release candidate (RC) on Tuesday, more than a month after the company’s release iOS 26which was presented Liquid glass, Call screening and more for you iPhone. iOS 26.1 RC brings some new settings and features to developer devices and beta testers, including a new way to adjust Liquid Glass and a useful security feature.

Since this is RC, I recommend only downloading it on a device other than your primary one. The update may have some bugs and battery life may be short.

There is no information about when Apple will release iOS 26.1 to the general public. However, Apple usually releases the RC a week or two before the update is available to everyone, so I expect the company to release iOS 26.1 soon.

Here are the features developers and beta testers can try out now, and what could be on your iPhone when Apple officially launches iOS 26.1.

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Another way to adjust liquid glass

With iOS 26.1 RC, Apple allows you to further customize your iPhone’s new Liquid Glass design. If you enter Settings > Display & brightness > Liquid GlassYou can choose the new design to be transparent or colored.

“Scanning is more transparent, revealing the content underneath,” Apple wrote of the setting. “Tinted increases opacity and adds more contrast.”

Changing Clear or Tinted only seems to adjust some elements of Liquid Glass for now, like the Notification Center and some search bars on your iPhone. However, there doesn’t seem to be a change to the Liquid Glass elements on your home screen. But you don’t need to run RC to set Liquid Glass to your home screen.

To adjust Liquid glass on your home screenpress and hold your screen, then tap Edit in the upper-right corner of your screen, then tap Customize. From here, make your app icons either clear or colored, then you can tap Light, Dark, or Auto at the bottom of the customization menu to adjust the Liquid Glass elements on your home screen.

If you don’t play RC and don’t like Liquid Glass, you can also go to Settings > Accessibility > Display and text size Then press the switch for Reduce transparency To set the new design.

Automatically install security improvements

Apple is introducing a useful new security setting in iOS 26.1 RC that allows your iPhone to download and install security improvements on its own. You can find this by going to Settings > Privacy & security > Background security improvements.

“Background security improvements provide additional protection for your iPhone between software updates,” according to Apple. “In rare cases of compatibility issues, these security improvements may be temporarily removed and then improved in a future software update.”

This menu also allows you to uninstall the security enhancement. To do this, click on the three dots (…) next to the installed update. A new menu will appear with an option Remove and reboot. This can be useful if you feel that improving security is causing you more problems than fixing it.

This feature reminds me of Apple Fast security responses. The company introduced RSRs in 2023 as a way to quickly deploy security fixes to devices. Although it’s a good idea in theory, Apple hasn’t used RSRs for iOS since its release iOS 16.5.1(c) In July 2023.

This isn’t a flashy setup, but it’s useful and allows you to stay on top of smaller security updates without doing any extra work. Once enabled, this setting takes care of the rest, so you don’t have to check your iPhone every day for new updates for potential security issues.

Stop accidentally opening your camera with this new switch

iOS 26.1 RC also introduces a new toggle switch that may prevent you from accidentally opening the Camera from the Lock screen. To find this switch, go to Settings > Camera And scroll down the list. There you will see a toggle for Lock screen Swipe to open the camera.

“Swipe left on the lock screen to quickly access the camera,” Apple wrote about the setting.

Touch control of phone calls

In iOS 26 RC, there’s a new option to turn off touch when your iPhone connects to or drops a call. This way your iPhone doesn’t vibrate and make you think you’ve received a message or other notification every time you make or stop a call.

To access this setting, go to Settings > Applications > Phone And click on Touch Switch.

Local pickup options

Local Capture is an easy way to record high-quality video and audio recordings of video calls on your iPhone, and iOS 26.1 RC introduces a new settings menu for this feature. The menu gives you the option to select a save location for your recordings, as well as a toggle switch that lets you record audio only when using Local Capture.

“Add Local Capture to Control Center to record your audio and video during a call to save and edit later,” Apple wrote on the Local Capture settings page.

New accessibility option

iOS 26.1 RC introduces a new option to prefer one-touch actions over sliding actions on your iPhone’s screen. You can find this new option by going to Settings > Accessibility > Touch And scroll to the bottom of the page.

The alarm clock gets another update

One of my favorite little upgrades in iOS 26 was the ability to Change the length of the alarm snooze. In iOS 26.1 RC, Apple is making it harder to accidentally dismiss an alarm. When the alarm goes off on the remote, you now have to swipe to stop it instead of pressing a button. This can be annoying if you’re trying to turn off the alarm quickly, or it can help make sure you’re actually awake before turning off the alarm.

Change songs in Apple Music

Apple music It got a number of new features in iOS 26, but iOS 26.1 RC doesn’t change much in terms of the app or service. Instead, the update lets you change songs in a new way.

With iOS 26.1 RC, instead of tapping the Next or Back buttons to change songs, you can swipe left or right on the song title from the music player within Apple Music. You can do this when the player takes up your entire screen or when you’re searching Apple Music and the player is small and near the bottom of your screen. The song title seems to move left or right when changing songs now as well.

More languages ​​direct translation

iOS 26.1 RC adds more languages ​​to the new version Direct translation feature. Apple brought this feature to iPhone and AirPods running iOS 26, and the RC allows developers and beta testers to use it with these languages.

• Chinese (Mandarin, Simplified)
• Chinese (Mandarin, Traditional)
• Italian
• Japanese
• Korean

Apple Intelligence in more languages

If you have an iPhone with Apple Intelligence, iOS 26.1 RC brings AI features to these languages.

• Chinese (Traditional)
• Danish
• Dutch
• Norwegian
• Portuguese (Portugal)
• Swedish
• Turkish
• Vietnamese

Update calendar

This isn’t a huge change, but iOS 26 RC updates the Calendar interface. If you view your calendar in list view, any calendar events you have on a specific day will be colored across the entire bottom of your screen.

New video filter bar

iOS 26.1 RC also brings a small change to the video filtering bar in Photos. If you go to Photos and watch a video, you’ll notice that the bar at the bottom of your screen is more compact and compact compared to the previous cleaning bar, which had play/pause and volume buttons at the top of the bar.

This is another small change that you may not have noticed before.

These are some of the new features that developers and public beta testers can try out with iOS 26.1 RC. Apple may release another RC before iOS 26.1 is released to the public, but I expect these new features and changes to arrive on your iPhone in the next week or two.

For more iOS news, here My review of iOS 26How to reduce Liquid glass Effects of modernization and how Text scan Works on update. You can also check our website iOS 26 cheat sheet.