Updated June 15 with more details of the new software.

Apple announced the latest iPhone software, iOS 26, on Monday, June 9. The first release for developers came later the same day. Just three days later, Apple released a second build of the first beta — that’s unprecedentedly soon. And it’s now become clear that one of the most anticipated features coming to iOS 26, smart storage, is in the first beta. More on that below.

Almost always, there’s no update until the second beta in late June or early July, and that routinely arrives at least two weeks after the first beta (and the first public beta is scheduled for July). So, what’s going on?

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The update that’s quietly arrived is only for iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 series models. So, iPhone 14 and earlier users won’t see the update for their developer betas.

To check, follow the usual route towards software updates: open Settings, choose General and then Software Update. You need to be a registered developer, of course.

The old build number was 23A5260n and that moves to 23A5260u with this update. In other words, this is a new build of the first beta, not the second developer beta.

Nevertheless, it’s worth updating to it if you’re offered it.

Apple has not revealed what the differences are between the two builds, though some think it’s about the battery life, for instance Juli Clover at MacRumors. “The revised beta addresses an issue that could cause some iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 models to show a low battery symbol and be unable to start up after updating to the initial iOS 26 beta,” Clover reports.

Other analyses suggest something different, like Ryan Christoffel at 9to5Mac, suggests that “Apple discovered a crucial bug or security issue—or perhaps code that leaked future products—and felt it necessary to push a new build,” the report says.

That reference to future products concerns code in the first beta which mentioned AirPods Pro 3.

In the past, if your iPhone storage was almost full, it turned out to be a problem when you came to update. If there was not enough room to install the update, the user might find they had to delete content to avoid a failed update error.

As WCCFTech points out, this could be a thing of the past. “With iOS 26, Apple is proactively addressing this by reserving space ahead of time when automatic updates are enabled in the Settings app,” the report says.

We don’t yet know how this dynamic reservation of space will work, or how much will be automatically be set aside, but it may “align with similar mechanisms in macOS,” the report adds.

However it works, reducing friction for updates can surely only be a good thing.

As more information becomes public, I’ll update this post, so please check back.

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