Apple releases second developer betas of iOS 26.6 and iPadOS 26.6
Apple is working on iOS 27, but this doesn’t mean that work on the current iOS 26 version has stopped. In fact, iOS 26.5 came out a month ago, which was followed by 26.5.1 to fix a charging issue. Now there is iOS 26.6 on the way too.
Currently, Apple is seeding the second developer beta for iOS 26.6 (build number 23G5043d), iPadOS (23G5043d), watchOS (23U5040d) and macOS (25G5043d). The release notes don’t mention any new features, so this appears to be just a round of polish.
iOS 26.6 developer beta 1 included a security upgrade for Apple Maps. Also, it added a warning in the Contacts app for users that have somehow managed to hit the maximum number of blocked listings – the max is 20,000, which sounds like it should have been enough, but apparently not.
If your iPhone runs iOS 26, it can run iOS 27 – no devices lost compatibility. Of course, the older devices might not have full support for all the Siri AI and Apple Intelligence features. In case you missed it, here’s the list of all new features in iOS 27.
Anyway, iOS 26.6 (and the related iPad, Mac and Apple Watch OSes) will come out before iOS 27 is ready for prime time. The first iOS 26.5 beta came out on March 31 and the stable release was on May 11, so expect stable iOS 26.6 in a month or two.
