General Thoughts

Compared to beta 1, performance is improved, but not by a ton. Animations are still laggy, apps are crashing more than I’m used to, and the iPad still gets pretty hot (though that may pass after a day or so). If you’re not on the beta, I’d probably hold off unless you have a secondary iPad to sacrifice to the cause.

Control Center Legibility

The biggest complaint I’ve seen about Apple’s Liquid Design has been about Control Center. And while I never saw it as “bad” as it was on iPhone, iPad gets the same improvement. It’s looks like Apple has made Control Center less transparent, so it’s easier to read your control center toggles.

New Ringtone

There was a mention maybe a week ago about a hidden ringtone in iOS 26, and it’s now made somewhat visible in this latest build. If you into the Sounds section of Settings and go to Ringtone, you’ll the existing default ringtone called Reflection. There’s now a disclosure arrow on it and if you tap on it, you’ll see the new option under the tag Alt 1. Like most of the ringtones on Apple’s system, I think it sounds pretty good and high quality, but you can be the judge of that.

Visual Intelligence References Removed

In iPadOS 26 Beta 1, there were mentions of Visual Intelligence in a few different apps like Preview and Files. None them worked, but now in Beta 2, those references are gone completely. I’ve written in the past about how I think iPad needs Visual Intelligence, so hopefully working options return in the future.

Apple Music Widgets

Apple Music gains a couple of fun new widgets.

Apple Music Radio Widget

This widget gives you quick access to the live radio stations provided by Apple Music.

Pinned Music Widget

A new feature in the Music app in iPadOS 26 is the ability to pin content from your library in the app for quicker access. This widget gives you quick access to your pinned music.