Release candidates are out!

so, if its not the exact same bug, it at least is resolved in the exact same way. with VoiceOver off, the VM starts, with VoiceOver on, the VM immediately crashes. you deserve a golden apple, though it probably won't come from Apple. I sincerely hope that this bug is resolved either in the final stable MacOS release or, more likely, with a VMWare update.

It is stable enough for general use. I have it installed on both my iPhone 16 Pro and MacBook Pro M1 and it's working fine with no issues.

Glad that fixed it. Yeah last time this happened it was vmware who ended up patching it as I did email apple accessibility and they said this was on vmware to fix not really on apple. I'm not sure what caused the bug, I think it was something to do with vmware interfacing with Voiceover or... something like that, but cant remember. Report this to broadcom and; hope to God they fix it as their neglect of fusion has been; bad, and I really don't see this, to them; small, miner bug that is a inconvenience for just the blind Community to get taken seriously by them. By vmware before broadcom? Sure. But after the aquisition... I don't see that beeing the case, tbh.

After playing with it for a while, I like that the search bar in apps like music has been moved to the bottom.

I stuck with the classic view in the phone app though, and set Safari back to the bottom bar view. I haven't quite got the hang of the new compact view, (which is the new default), yet. If you like the current view with the toolbar being always visible at the bottom or top of the screen, you'll have to change it back in Safari settings.

1. When closing and article in the Apple News app that you have been reading with VO in the Today tab, VO focus does not return to the article which was just closed in the list of articles. This is a regression I've seen in the last public beta as well as the latest public beta. too bad, because they seemed to have fixed this issue earlier.

2. After exiting the app switcher with VO on, and swiping up from the bottom of the screen with one finger, instead of being brought back to the home screen, I am often now brought to the app library page. Then I have to swipe back many times to get back to the home screen again. Very frustrating. Again, this is definitely a regression in the last public beta as well as the latest public beta.

I haven't had a chance to report this through Apple's feedback system yet since we have out of town visitors, but will.

Has anyone else noticed either of these issues?

System: iOS 26 beta 6, iPhone 15 Pro, Voiceover

--Pete

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
By the way, for those who have already tried out the iOS 26 RC—how’s VoiceOver performing so far?
And specifically, has Eloquence received any improvements compared to how it was in iOS 18? I’m really curious if there are noticeable changes in stability or speech quality.

No new changes for eloquence. however, the speech quality sounds great on the iPhone 16 pro speakers. much clearer to understand with no issues. Higher samplerate is still the same.

Yes, I also get the app library issue, no matter if "Reduce motion" is on or off, which previously fixed it.
My focus usually switches to app library after unlocking the iPhone and going to the home screen, or navigating back to the home screen. I've put in a feedback report, FB20218626.

There seems to be a lot of little bugs still. I think you guys are so brave for testing all of this. I’m definitely not going to update right away. But at least updating is our own choice and we can do it whenever we’re ready. That’s why I have all my automatic updates. Turned off on both of my devices. I don’t think it’s Going to be interesting to read about all the bugs once this one really just come out on Monday though. There seems to be a lot of little bugs. At least it doesn’t seem to be some major ones like some previous iOS updates have been. So at least that’s better. But I will definitely be reading up on more of the blog post. I’m here in different podcast and stuff before I actually update.

No issues with VO. Regarding library, was having issues until someone suggested I go to setting, general, keyboard and turn off external keyboard. For me that stop the app library from popping up.

Thanks a lot Holger! That seems to have solved the app library issue so far.
For me, the setting was under accessibility>keyboards and typing>full keyboard access.

Yes, you are right, thinking of the other keyboard. Glad that help.

I turned on the External Keyboard setting so that I could connect my bluetooth keyboard to my iPhone. With that option turned off, my bluetooth keyboard won't work with the iPhone.

Glad turning that off fixes the issue for some people, but, unfortunately, that fix doesn't work for me and I don't want to have to keep toggling on and off that setting to make things work.

Thanks anyway for the tip.

--pete

The tab issue in safari (also noticed on Zoom web content so it might be a webkit thing maybe, on the previous beta) is still there, but I'm glad to see that the 1password autofill issue with down arrow on safari has been resolved in the RC. The developer options are still missing in the vo-h-h commands menu, only to be found by assigning commands. Will keep you posted, but the 1p is a big deal for me personally.
Imediat edit: yassss! I got Allison back!!!

Look, this update seems pretty stable to me. I encountered virtually no bugs, and many previous issues have been resolved for me. One very annoying one was the one where Siri's voice read typed characters at a very slow speed, even when the reading speed was high. Also, the new feature that allowed me to change the iPhone's default microphone, regardless of connected accessories, was definitely a killer for me.

https://applevis.com/comment/194964#comment-194964

Can't say this is for everyone but, using iPhone 15 pro the focus stays in the AS and you get the sound at both ends. However, as I have no idea if I ever had that bug can't say it is fixed just that it works fine for me.

Fair enough. Thank you for your input.

As far as I'm aware, you can still use an external keyboard with "full keyboard access" turned off. I believe that setting controls the function that lets you press "c" for control center etc. so this might still be viable for you.
That said, this bug should still be fixed of course.

I was hoping this would be resolved in the final version but double tapping on an episode in up next on IOS opens a pop out menu where you then have to tap go to episode, then you hit play. It's a faff and rather daft as, on the Apple TV OS (the box), you simply click the in up next and it starts playing.

Unless I'm missing something, it's just a poor design. Like in podcasts we should be able to use the action menu to simply hit play.