When they come out soon, and if so, on which devices?
ipadOS 26 excites me greatly and I’m very tempted as it supposedly works like macOS with spaces, and Myke Hurley tipped me over the edge when he said on Upgrade that phone apps run in a window which would mean that you can run 2 Phone apps side by side in the new windowing.
I usually run the iOS public beta, but I’m unsure this year.
I never run betas on my watch, mac or TV.
I have one Mac, one iPhone, and one iPad, and depend on all three. So no betas for me. I think I will check out OS 26 at my local Apple store before I install any final version of it.
I usually wait until at least the .1 bug fix version is released except if there is a day-zero security bug fix.
I’m fortunate enough to have some devices that I’m not absolutely dependent on, so I was brave and tried the developer betas this year.
I was impressed enough with iPadOS 26 dev beta 1 on my iPad Mini (not used for work) that I went ahead and installed it on my iPad Air (which I do use for work).
So far all’s working well, and I like the windowing very much — especially on the Air, though occasionally on the Mini, too.
I’ve toyed a bit with Tahoe in a virtual machine, but not much. My MBP might get on the public beta later in the summer, but not yet.
My phone isn’t likely to get 26 until I’m finished with summer travel, and it’ll be a public beta reported to be pretty stable.
I have a second iPad I rarely use currenty (I mostly use my Mini) and will likely install the second public Beta.
I’ve been running the developer beta of iPad26 since it first came out.
Works ok (in terms of not crashing and most everything I use - I’m a light ipad user now - working).
Not sure about the redesign - it’s ok, but I find I don’t have that much need for variable sized windows, switching between full screen apps, even on my iPad 12.9" works better for me; smaller windows seems more like a hassle than a benefit.
I do like large screens, and 12.9" is barely big enough for me, so YMMV.
Not interested in risking betas on my main use devices - iPhone, Mac Studio, Macbook Air.
I would only run it if you have an extra device. We have a test iPad at work and it is very buggy and has had some major issues with iCloud sync (in our tests we lost some data on our test app that we are developing during sync, resulting in a corrupted configuration file for the app). Of course, this has been reported to Apple.
Fortunately, we are using a test Apple account without any important data in the iCloud. I would not trust this upgrade with any account with important data in iCloud Drive.
Both my iPads will run PB 1. Likewise my personal Mac Studio. My work Mac won’t run a beta. Nor will my watch - unless I’m assured bricking is a thing of the past.
The real question is my iPhone. @geoffaire as a fellow Brit you might be useful here: It’s my bank app (Lloyds) that inhibits me from running PB 1. A positive “it works” from someone would be helpful.
I’m the same with my banking app, hence why I’m undecided
I can’t imagine why people want tiny resized windows on an iPad. It can’t be comfortable or a serious boost for productivity. People are probably more productive when just switched full sized apps or split view (50/50).
As always each person’s mileage may vary. I myself prefer fullscreen, but I know that there are times when I need 2 tiled apps and I could see times when 3 or 4 could be useful.
Last year I did it because I wanted to test run the Reminders + Calendar integration and honestly it wasn’t worth the hassle. Also, I do run a certainly non trivial ecosystem of music production plugins and Logic Pro which is very sensitive to even regular minor macOS releases, last year Apple did somethign to memory protection probably patching some security issue and it basically destroyed the iLok authorization mechanism and like half my plugins began generating noise.
So I’m not in a hurry to update. Perhaps there are some amazing features waiting for me in the betas, but I can wait them out for a couple of months.
I’ve heard guests on podcasts who say they wait 6 months or longer before upgrading to the latest macOS version.
TBF, I can see a use case for people doing a lot of copy/pasting where having both apps open, even if a tiny window into each app, might make that easier.
But I don’t do any heavy lifting on the iPad, so not really a pain point I’ve encountered.
Not having the urgency doesn’t mean I am that patient, that’s for sure 
This year I’m only running the iPadOS beta and I’m planning to stick with it as it moves to public.
This used to be me! I’ve been persuaded to update 1-2 weeks later for work devices, not much past the time needed to make sure no showstopping bugs were released. The idea is that if there is enough fragility that we find ourselves wanting to wait months to update the OS, we should instead make our setups more robust and flexible.
I’m a full-screen user, but there are a couple apps, e.g. Messages, where the smallness reminds me to not spend time in it. The other use where it’s helpful is when I’m using the iPad as a dashboard rather than focusing on it.
I think the logic of waiting 6 months is to allow for a significant bug fix/update after the major release and then the assumption is not just the rough edges, but the finer details have been polished further for those that don’t want bleeding edge challenges?