r/ios26beta

When I go back to the home screen from any app, all apps, including the apps in the App Library, are loaded weirdly.

As the title suggests https://github.com/OpenMinis/ish-arm64

You can now update to iOS 26.5 RC

Release notes:

This update includes the following enhancements:
• End-to-end encrypted RCS messaging (beta) in Messages is available with supported carriers and will roll out over time. For more information visit:
https://support.apple.com/109526
• Pride Luminance wallpaper that dynamically refracts a spectrum of colors, is available for download
• Suggested Places in Maps displays recommendations based on what's trending nearby and your recent searches

Running iOS 26.5 beta 4 on my iPhone 15 Pro for the past few days, and this is the first build in a while that actually feels well optimized. I initially did a clean install to fix the system data issue since it was stuck around 36GB on iOS 26.4.2 and wasn’t dropping at all, but that didn’t help.

Eventually decided to move to iOS 26.5 beta 4, and that turned out to be the right call. System data is now much more controlled, staying around 8–12GB instead of spiking unnecessarily.

The biggest change for me is thermals. On 26.4.1 and 26.4.2 the phone would heat up during pretty basic stuff like scrolling, light multitasking and even background app activity. I would often end up turning on Low Power Mode just to keep temperatures in check, which obviously is not ideal for normal usage. On 26.5 beta 4 that behavior is basically gone. The device stays cool and consistent throughout the day.

Battery life has also seen a clear jump. With the same usage pattern nothing extreme just a mix of social apps, browsing, some media and background activity I am now getting around 8 hours of screen on time. Previously I was stuck in the 5.5 to 6 hour range on 26.4.2. That is not a small improvement it is the difference between needing a top up and comfortably getting through the day. Device runs way cooler that I started using phone cases again.

Another thing worth noting I am not using Low Power Mode at all anymore. Earlier builds almost forced me into using it just to manage heat during basic tasks. That dependency is gone here which suggests better overall efficiency rather than just battery optimization on paper.

Only tweak I have made is enabling Reduce Transparency. It is a minor UI change but it might be helping slightly with stability hard to quantify but worth mentioning for anyone testing.

That said apple had a pattern where some beta builds perform better than the final version iOS 26.3 being a good example so I am cautiously optimistic rather than assuming it will stay this way.

Curious if others on the same build are seeing similar improvements especially in thermals and screen on time.

Also attaching wallpaper, if needed!

Widget name is “Something” from widgy app.

Recently I updated to the iOS 26.5 RC on my iPhone 11 pro max and apple added the new pride wallpaper. But when I try to apply the wallpaper the wallpaper just gets stuck on the preview as shown in the screen recording. My iPad mini 5 also experiences the same issue but it’s even worse with it because it just ends up respringing. I thought this was the final beta before the actual release and they end up breaking the only one new thing they added?

Not a fan of this at all. The constantly changing colours make it way harder to scan through albums and the whole app just feels more cluttered than before. Worst part is there's no way to turn it off.

Also if you're using dark mode, good luck as you'll randomly get blasted with a bright background out of nowhere.

Album art backgrounds (second pic) look cool in theory but the text contrast is so bad it's actually hard to read anything. Like I just want a simple clean app, not a disco show every time I open it.

Please at least give us an option to disable both of those features. Animated album art option is already turned off.