Apple has just released iPadOS 26.1 beta 4 for developers. Here’s what to expect from today’s update.
Update: Just a few hours later, public beta 4 of iPadOS 26.1 has been released too.
iPadOS 26.1: What’s new so far and expectations for today’s update
iPadOS 26.1 beta 4 brings us closer to the update’s launch.
The next big software update for iPad brings the return of a key multitasking feature that was removed in iPadOS 26: Slide Over.
Slide Over is officially back in iPadOS 26.1, albeit with a new, more restrictive implementation.
On the plus side, you can now resize the Slide Over window to your liking. But the big downside is that Slide Over now only supports a single app at a time. No longer can you keep a bunch of apps stacked together for easy switching.
Outside of Slide Over, other new iPadOS 26.1 features include:
- Apple Music gains a new swipe gesture to change tracks
- Apple Intelligence expands to support eight new languages
- Photos has a new video playback scrubber
Typically during Apple’s beta software cycles, new features are added in early betas but not so much in later ones. Beta 4 is a big question mark, since normally we would get the RC around now.
Usually the closer Apple gets to an update’s wide launch, its teams increasingly focus on bug fixes and stability. Introducing new features can create more instability in a release, so that’s not a priority.
So if you’re installing Apple’s latest iPadOS 26.1 build, it should hopefully be more stable than prior beta releases. But outside of improved performance, it’s unclear what else might change.
We’ll keep you posted on anything new we discover.
Update: iPadOS 26.1 beta 4 includes a new toggle to dial back Liquid Glass’s transparency if you’d prefer a more iPadOS 18-like design.
Do you feel like iPadOS 26.1 is ready for launch yet, or has it been pretty buggy for you? Let us know in the comments.
Best iPad accessories
- Apple Pencil Pro (now only $99, down from $129)
- 100W USB-C power adapter for fast charging
- AirPods Pro 3
- tomtoc Tablet sleeve bag for protection and style
- Baseus 10ft USB-C cable for extended reach
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