Apple quietly revives controversial news summaries in iOS 26 beta 4
Notification summaries for news are back in the fourth beta of
iOS 26 . | Images credit — PhoneArena
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The past mistakes were notable. In late 2024, the BBC flagged several of Apple's summaries for misrepresenting headlines, which all turned out to be inaccurate due to the system combining unrelated articles or removing important context.
So far, there's no confirmation that Apple has retrained the summarization system or introduced new safeguards. But the reappearance of the feature suggests Apple wants to give it another chance, perhaps with more transparency about the risks.
Alongside the return of headline summarization,
iOS 26 beta 4 also introduces a few other small changes. The Liquid Glass interface continues to evolve, with subtle changes to translucency. A new Dynamic wallpaper has also been added, which gradually shifts color based on the time of day. And Call Screening now includes an option to silence unknown callers, which had briefly disappeared in earlier betas.
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But Apple isn't pretending the issues are fixed. A red warning under the News & Entertainment option reads: "Summarization may change the meaning of the original headlines. Verify information." That's a strong signal that Apple is aware of past problems and isn't ready to guarantee that the feature works as intended.The past mistakes were notable. In late 2024, the BBC flagged several of Apple's summaries for misrepresenting headlines, which all turned out to be inaccurate due to the system combining unrelated articles or removing important context.So far, there's no confirmation that Apple has retrained the summarization system or introduced new safeguards. But the reappearance of the feature suggests Apple wants to give it another chance, perhaps with more transparency about the risks.Alongside the return of headline summarization,beta 4 also introduces a few other small changes. The Liquid Glass interface continues to evolve, with subtle changes to translucency. A new Dynamic wallpaper has also been added, which gradually shifts color based on the time of day. And Call Screening now includes an option to silence unknown callers, which had briefly disappeared in earlier betas.While Apple Intelligence continues to expand across the OS, features like notification summaries will need to strike a careful balance between convenience and accuracy — even while it still considered under beta, and especially when dealing with real-world news.
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After being pulled earlier this year, Apple's notification summaries for news apps are back in the latest iOS 26 developer beta, which just launched today. However, questions remain about how reliable the feature will be this time around.In iOS 18 , Apple introduced notification summaries that used AI to condense multiple alerts into one. While that worked well for app updates and social messages, problems started when the system tried to summarize breaking news headlines. Some notifications changed the context entirely, resulting in major factual errors. After backlash from publishers, Apple quietly removed the feature from news apps in January.Now, inbeta 4, the feature is returning. After updating, developers are prompted to choose which types of alerts they want summarized. One of the new categories is "News & Entertainment," which now includes summaries from popular news apps.
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