Here's How iOS 26.2 is Going to Affect Your iPhone Daily Use
iOS 26.2 beta introduces AI podcast chapters, improved Apple Watch sleep scores, News app updates, and lock screen customization to enhance daily iPhone use.
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The beta version of iOS 26.2 for iPhone users has been rolled out by Apple, which is already the second update in the iOS 26 series. The update, while not allowing major transformations, still offers a multitude of improvements that are intended to enhance the overall app functionality and user experience.
Apple Podcasts is one of the areas that got the most prominent change. Users can now not only see the already-added chapter markers by the content creators but also benefit from the AI-powered automatic marking that adds the timestamps for these chapters, thus making it easier for listeners to skip around in the more extended episodes. Moreover, the creative can always annotate the AI-chosen chapters with their own and it is going to be done so the users can discover related content through a new "Podcast Mentions" feature without any further search engine work.
The sleep tracking feature on Apple Watch has also undergone some modifications. The revised Sleep Score model categorizes sleep quality in a new way: “Very Low” includes the scores of 0-40, “Low” the scores of 41-60, “OK” the scores of 61-80, “High” the scores of 81-95, and “Excellent” the scores of 96-100. These updated limits will soon replace the old ones aiming at giving the users a more accurate sleep evaluation.
With iOS 26.2, Apple News has undergone a complete makeover in both appearance and functionality. The “Today” view has been modified to include the functionality of quick access to the sections of food, puzzles, politics, and sports. Furthermore, there is the "Following" tab which collects all the saved articles and the stories that have been favored by the users, thus making navigation smooth and easy.
As for the Liquid Glass interface lovers, they are going to be having the new customization possibilities. The new feature in iOS 26.2 enables adjusting the clock's opacity on the lock screen using a slider. It comes as an extension of the tinting option that was introduced in iOS 26.1, thus giving the users even more choice over the aesthetics of the lock screen.
