iOS 26.1 just landed to improve several key apps – and Apple Music fans will be particularly happy

2 days ago 2

Liquid Glass interface on an orange background

(Image credit: Apple / Future)

Apple has released the iOS 26.1 beta update
This comes with a host of small but significant changes
That includes a clever new gesture for the Apple Music app

Apple might have just launched iOS 26 and all its new features, but there’s more on the table in the form of iOS 26.1, which Apple has just sent out to beta testers. And this beta update comes with a bunch of little tweaks and features that could make a positive difference to your iPhone, particularly if you regretted upgrading.

One of the neatest iOS 26.1 beta additions has come to the Apple Music app. When you’re playing something, you can now change tracks by swiping along the MiniPlayer. This is the small bar at the bottom of the Apple Music app that shows your currently playing music. Run a finger left or right along it and you can skip your audio back or forward a track.

Apple Music isn’t the only app to benefit from the changes in the iOS 26.1 beta. Apple’s Calendar app has been updated to change the way events from your calendars are displayed.

In some views, events will have a colored background whose tone depends on the calendar it originates in – blue for your family calendar and red for your social one, for example – instead of just a tiny colored icon. That makes it far easier to differentiate between your separate calendar events at a glance.

What else is new?

There’s also an adjustment to Apple’s Liquid Glass design in the Photos app. There, the navigation bar at the bottom of the screen has a more frosted appearance, which makes it easier to see against a light background. It’s not the first time Apple has tweaked Liquid Glass to make it more legible, and it likely won’t be the last time either.

The iOS 26.1 beta update comes with a host of other, smaller changes. That includes a redesigned slider for scrubbing through your videos in the Photos app, new languages for Apple Intelligence and AirPods Live Translation, a wider Tab Bar in Safari, and more.

Overall, though, the most significant changes – those to the Music, Calendar and Photos apps – are all quality-of-life improvements that should make using Apple’s apps easier and more satisfying than before.

While you can download and install the iOS 26.1 beta, you shouldn’t do it on your main device. Things can go wrong with developer betas, and you wouldn’t want to end up losing your important files because the beta caused an issue with your phone. Ensure you back up your iPhone before installing, too, just to be safe.

Alex Blake has been fooling around with computers since the early 1990s, and since that time he's learned a thing or two about tech. No more than two things, though. That's all his brain can hold. As well as TechRadar, Alex writes for iMore, Digital Trends and Creative Bloq, among others. He was previously commissioning editor at MacFormat magazine. That means he mostly covers the world of Apple and its latest products, but also Windows, computer peripherals, mobile apps, and much more beyond. When not writing, you can find him hiking the English countryside and gaming on his PC.

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