Swiftly after the re-release of the 6th Developer Betas of iOS and iPadOS 26, Apple made the 7th Developer Beta available on Monday August 18th. This update may re-enable some features, fix bugs for certain iPhone users, while overall working towards a more stable build as we get closer to the release of iOS 26 to the public.
.

.
This iteration of the Developer Beta has an “a” rating, which means the build is deemed very close to being RC-ready, according to Apple internally. – Public beta 4 should be out in next few days, as typically with last few weekly iOS release cycles.

• See: iOS & iPadOS 26 Beta 7 Release Notes – Apple
  .
• See also: iOS & iPadOS 26 Beta 7 Release Notes.webarchive.zip (1 MB, download)
  .
• 822.1 MB update for iPhone 16 Pro Max on Beta 6 rerelease, 10.39 GB if not on rerelease DB6.
  .

iOS 26 development timeline

• Up until June 9th WWDC: Internal Testing Only
  .
• June 9th, 2025: Developer Beta 1, Build 23A5260n, (Build 23A5260u iPhone 15/16)
  .
• June 13th, 2025: Developer Beta 1, Build 23A5260u (no release notes published)
  .
• June 23rd, 2025: Developer Beta 2 (Build 23A5276f)
  .
• July 7th, 2025: Developer Beta 3 (Build 23A5287g)
  .
• July 22nd, 2025: Developer Beta 4 (Build 23A5297i)
  .
• July 24th. 2025: Developer Beta 4 & Public Beta 1 (Build 23A5297m)
  .
• August 5th, 2025: Developer Beta 5 (Build 23A5308g)
  .
• August 11th, 2025: Developer Beta 6 (Build 23A5318c)
  .
• August 14th, 2025: Developer Beta 6 (Build 23A5318f) + Public Beta 3
  .
• August 18th, 2025: Developer Beta 7 (Build 23A5326a)

• See more: How to read and interpret Apple OS Build Numbers
  .

Tracking Geekbench 6 Performance

Disclaimer: While artificial benchmarks only tell part of the story when it comes to the performance of any device, they still offer some form of insight. I’ve benched this iPhone 14 Pro on and off throughout the years to get a relative idea of how it performs over time.

• See Links for: CPU / GPU (For the 7th Developer Beta)

.
Multicore is back up as expected, and overall performance is getting better and better over the last few beta builds. The home screen still has some stutters on my iPhone 14 Pro, but most animations are quite fast. As I have put it in other recent reviews of Developer Betas of iOS 26 – this new UI is becoming more and more responsive.
.

.
What’s new in Beta 7?

This update can vary in size depending on the device and OS you’re updating from, and it also doesn’t have any modem updates either. Just like in watchOS 11.6.1, watchOS 26 Beta 7, and iOS 18.6.1, the blood oxygen feature has been re-enabled in this beta for certain Apple Watches purchased in the US after January 2024. There was a lawsuit which made Apple turn this feature off for certain Apple watches purchased in the US after January 2024. They are able to get around this by doing the blood oxygen calculations on the iPhone instead of the watch.

• Odd Liquid Glass and search function bugs persist in Safari, in Developer Beta 7. The Low End Mac website has been okay since the 5th or 6th developer beta from any issues.
  .
• New adaptive power notifications feature (for supported devices)
  .
• You can add 29 different apps to iPadOS dock, dock behavior is slightly different.
  .
• New onboarding screens to show new features, may not for for all users.
  .
• Hardly (if any at all) differences in Liquid Glass from the previous beta. Most iterative changes and feedback was done between betas 1 through 4.
  .
• Updated sports app.
  .

Some Fixed things

• iPhone 15 Pro Max Camera “speck” bug
  .
• Screenshot over saturation/alteration bug
  .

What others are saying

• Users with an iPhone 16 Pro may “go through power like crazy” on adaptive power mode. This may not be a reflection of Beta 7, and is more a reflection of public betas.
  .
• More than a few others are saying it is a very stable, snappy build.
  .

Moving Forward

After this 7th Developer Beta, we can either expect an 8th one or even potentially an RC build, depending on how stable this one is. We will know in a few days, once developers and testers send their bug reports in, and Apple fixes issues with the OS and UI. It all depends on what Apple is planning to do, and what arises.

iOS 18.6.2 doesn’t have a specific date when it’ll be released, but is expected to be released shortly as well. We may also see an iOS 18.7 update before the release of the upcoming iPhone 17 lineup. Then come the device event invites, then pre-orders, iOS release, and possibly some unexpected changes too.