Looking at the home screens, the primary difference you'll find is that in iOS 26 the background of the dock and the search option that sits in between the dock and the home screen icons are more transparent and have a sheen to the edges, whereas in iOS 18, these are slightly darker.

When Apple unveiled iOS 26 at its WWDC 2025 event in June, the thing on everyone’s lips was the Liquid Glass redesign. This has brought glassy effects to Apple’s operating systems and has divided opinion in a big way, but the latest iOS 26 beta looks to have dialed it back significantly – and I’m glad to see it.

Apple's streaming music app's navigation bar now has a more solid white background. Notifications are also slightly translucent because of the increased contrast caused by the darker background behind the text.