We usually snooze by smashing the alarm button (the third time!), and that may result in missing important morning meetings. Apple may make it tougher to dismiss alarms. The company’s second developer build of iOS 26.1 is here with a few tweaks, but any changes in the alarm centre can be alarming.
In the developer update, alarms and timers are difficult to dismiss because of a new ‘slide to stop’ gesture. In iOS 26.1 beta 2, Apple has replaced the ‘Stop’ button with a new sliding gesture that requires a little more purposeful action. It may result in fewer accidental alarm dismissals. The same logic now applies to timers, which reduces accidental stops and makes wake-ups more reliable.
Snoozing is not all that bad. A couple of years ago, in two studies, researchers set out to examine the effects of snoozing, or using intermittent alarms. They started by surveying over 1,700 people and found that nearly 70 per cent of them routinely hit the snooze button. The subjects mostly did so because they felt too tired to wake up, though 17 per cent said they snoozed because “it feels good”.
There are a few other changes with the new developer beta. In iPadOS 26.1 (second beta), power users of the iPad get a familiar tool back. Slide Over allows you to pin a single floating app over your workspace so you can glance at notes, messages, or a calculator without rebuilding your window layout.
There is a new audio control in Control Centre. It’s handy when you record with an external microphone. Now you can adjust input gain from the Control Centre’s local capture panel. You can also choose where local audio recordings are saved.
Here’s a UI update in iOS 26.1 beta 2: App folder titles are now left-aligned, for example. The same goes for headers inside the Settings app.
Another one: When setting a wallpaper on the Lock Screen, instructions like “Pinch to Crop” show up momentarily rather than being shown all the time.