Looking at the home screens, the primary difference you'll find is that in iOS 26 the background of the dock and the search option that sits in between the dock and the home screen icons are more transparent and have a sheen to the edges, whereas in iOS 18, these are slightly darker.

In the latest iOS 26 Beta 3 update, the company has rolled out a series of tweaks and bug fixes. But more importantly, it has quietly toned down some of the key design elements of Liquid Glass.