In his latest "Power On" column, Bloomberg News reporter Mark GurmanPoint outApple is expected to release the official iOS 26.1 update as early as November 3rd (US time). Following the official release of iOS 26.1, Mark Gurman anticipates that the new iOS 26.2 Beta version will be made available to developers for pre-testing the following day, with version 26.2 versions for platforms including watchOS and tvOS also becoming available for testing.
iOS 26.1: Minor update, adds Liquid Glass "Tinted" switch.
Mark Gurman points out that iOS 26.1, which will soon be officially released to general users, is a relatively minor update overall.
Its main new feature is the addition of a new "Tinted" toggle to the "Liquid Glass" visual style adopted in iOS 26. This is in response to some users' complaints that the excessive transparency of Liquid Glass has reduced the readability of the interface. By sacrificing some of the transparent aesthetics, better reading clarity is achieved.
iOS 26.2: Locking in two major promised features before the end of the year
As for the upcoming iOS 26.2 beta, Mark Gurman expects its first beta version to likely not include "major new features," but like version 26.1, more important feature updates are expected to be added in subsequent beta releases.
The main expectations surrounding iOS 26.2 currently focus on two features that Apple previously promised to implement "before the end of this year":
• Apple Wallet now supports US passports:Allowing users to use their U.S. passportsJoin Wallet AppIn this context, it serves as a digital identity document conforming to the REAL ID specification.
• RCS End-to-End Encryption (E2EE):Apple has previously promised to support end-to-end encryption for RCS messages (a cross-platform messaging standard) in a future software update.
iOS 26.2 clearly provides the next, and possibly the last, opportunity for the implementation of these two features. Aside from these two features, Mark Gurman believes that we shouldn't have too high expectations for iOS 26.2 at this time.
As is customary in previous years, the official version of iOS 26.2 is expected to be released to all users in December.
