This discontinuation will happen in phases, but October 28 is the day Dropbox Passwords will be entirely shuttered. On August 28, the platform will become view-only in both the mobile app and browser extension. The autofill functionality also deactivates on that date.
On September 11, the mobile app will stop working, though information will still be retrievable via the browser extension. As previously mentioned, users lose access to everything on October 28 as all data will be "permanently and securely deleted."
Dropbox didn't give an actual reason behind this move, only saying that it's "part of our efforts to focus on enhancing other features in our core product." That likely means it wasn't attracting many people to platform, despite being a fairly solid offering. It's been a free perk of the larger Dropbox suite since 2021, after first being offered to just Pro users.
The company recommends current users transition over to 1Password, which happens to be our pick for the best password manager. However, there are plenty of other platforms out there to try out.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/dropbox-is-pulling-the-plug-on-its-password-manager-184720450.html?src=rss
Sex toy company Lovense is leaking the email addresses of its app users and allowing account takeovers without asking for a password, according to a security researcher. As reported by TechCrunch, BobDaHacker, who describes themself as an ethical hacker committed to exposing and reporting security vulnerabilities, published an extensive report in which they accuse Lovense of failing to fix a serious bug it was first made aware of in 2023.
According to the hacker (and later verified by TechCrunch), Lovense allows any username to be turned into their email address with the right know-how, a flaw they initially discovered after muting someone on the app. With their access to Lovense’s API, they were able to obtain the emails associated with any public username in less than a second when running the modified request process through an automated script. They noted that the vulnerable nature of these accounts is "especially bad for cam models" who use the Lovense platform for work, and may share their usernames for these purposes.
The researcher also realized that with a user’s email address (either one you already know or one obtained using the aforementioned disclosure bug), they could generate auth tokens that allowed them to take over the associated account without a password. This allegedly worked for the Lovense Chrome Extension and Lovense Connect app, as well as the company’s Cam101 and StreamMaster software — and even admin accounts.
BobDaHacker said they initially reported the bugs to Lovense with assistance from the sex tech hacking project The Internet Of Dongs in March 2025, and received $3,000 in total for flagging them via the HackerOne security platform. After a series of interactions with Lovense representatives, they were told in early June that the account takeover bug had been fixed during the previous month, which the researcher claims is not true. Regarding the email disclosure flaw, Lovense said in a statement printed by BobDaHacker that it could take up to 14 months to fix the issue, as a faster one-month fix would "require forcing all users to upgrade immediately," which it said would "disrupt support for legacy versions."
The researcher went on to say that they were contacted by a Twitter user who claimed to have found the same account takeover bug as far back as 2023, and were told shortly after reporting it to Lovense that the bug had been resolved, which wasn’t the case. They said a patch eventually fixed their method, which used an HTTP endpoint to convert a username into an email address, but that it wasn’t rolled out until early 2025. BobDaHacker said they had requested comment from Lovense but at the time of writing had not received one.
This isn’t the first time Lovense users have stumbled upon privacy concern bugs. In 2017, a Redditor discovered that the Lovense app, which allows users to control their sex toys remotely, was recording audio without their consent and saving it to their phone. A commenter on the Reddit post, who claimed to be a Lovense representative, called the recordings a "minor software bug" that affected the Android version of the app and said at the time that it had been fixed in an update.
Updated 7/30/25 7:51 AM ET: In a statement to BleepingComputer, Lovense said that a fix is rolling out in the app stores: "The full update is expected to be pushed to all users within the next week. Once all users have updated to the new version and we disable older versions, this issue will be completely resolved."
The company's spokesperson stated that the exposed email addresses flaw was fixed at the end of June, although BobDaHacker says this issue still remains.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/a-lovense-security-flaw-may-be-letting-people-take-over-accounts-without-a-password-160528730.html?src=rss
Cash App has debuted a new group payment feature that allows folks who don't even use the app to contribute to a kitty. Pools enables Cash App users to invite folks to chip in for a large purchase (such as a group vacation) via Apple Pay and Google Pay. A small number of users have access to Pools at the jump, though Cash App owner Block expects to offer it to all of the service's customers in the coming months. Block told CNBC this is the first time that Cash App is opening up to external payments from Apple Pay and Google Pay.
Through Pools, users can collect and track contributions from others via $Cashtags (for other Cash App users), or shareable links for Apple Pay and Google Pay. Users can start a pool through the Cash App, and set up a name and target amount. The organizer can close the pool whenever they like, move the money to their Cash balance and then use that to pay for whatever the group is planning to buy.
Pools is a seemingly handy feature that could assist Cash App in competing with Venmo by helping Block expand the app's user base. It might help iOS and Android users who haven't tried it out learn more about the app and decide to check it out. However, it's perhaps worth bearing in mind that Cash App was subject to data breaches within the last few years. Block has also been fined over its handling of fraud on the platform.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/cash-app-opens-up-to-apple-pay-and-google-pay-with-a-group-payment-option-154019254.html?src=rss
Adobe is rolling out a series of new Photoshop tools in beta that it claims will eliminate "tedious steps, reduce friction, and make precision editing faster and more intuitive."
The new features include Generative Upscale for desktop and web, allowing you to enhance images by up to 8 megapixels before losing quality. This tool can be used for things such as improving photos you want to print or updating older files. According to Adobe, this feature has been one of the most requested among its users.
Then there's the updated Remove tool, courtesy of the new Adobe Firefly Image Model. It does all the tidying and erasing you would expect, but also should provide a more realistic image. As Adobe puts it, there should be "fewer artifacts" left of the thumb, background people or whatever else you removed from the photo. It's also available in beta on desktop and web.
Adobe is also rolling out the Harmonize feature, first discussed as Project Perfect Blend during the company's October 2024 Max conference. Powered by the Adobe firefly Image Model, Harmonize "intelligently analyzes the surrounding context, automatically adjusting color, lighting, shadows, and visual tone to create seamless, cohesive composites." Adobe claims this will reduce the time needed for manual adjustments. On top of trying out the beta on desktop or web, it's also available in Early Access for mobile iOS users.
You can now use the Gen AI Model Picker to move between the different Firefly Image Models, as they each offer something a bit different when using the tools. Plus, Photoshop is rolling out something else in beta called Projects which, well, manages your projects. It should keep all your files in one place and let you send out entire collections, rather than one version at a time.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/photoshops-newest-ai-tool-makes-it-easy-to-upscale-old-photos-135942810.html?src=rss
Managing your finances doesn’t have to be complicated, and there are so many tools available now that can make things easier (and even partially automated) for you. I was a Mint user for many years, but I was forced to find a new budgeting app after the service shut down in March 2024. Mint’s parent company, Intuit, prompted folks to try their other financial app, Credit Karma. However, after testing Credit Karma myself, I found it to be a poor Mint replacement. So I set out to try all of the best budgeting apps available today to find a new home for all of my financial tracking and goal-setting. Hopefully my journey can help you find the best budgeting app for you and your money as well.
Best budget apps of 2025
Other budgeting apps we tested
PocketGuard
PocketGuard used to be a solid free budget tracker, but the company has since limited its “free” version to just a free seven-day trial. Now, you’ll have to choose between two plans once the trial is over: a $13 monthly plan or a $75 annual plan. When I first tested it, I found it to be more restricted than NerdWallet, but still a decent option. The main overview screen shows you your net worth, total assets and debts; net income and total spending for the month; upcoming bills; a handy reminder of when your next paycheck lands; any debt payoff plan you have; and any goals. Like some other apps, including Quicken Simplifi, PocketGuard promotes an “after bills” approach, where you enter all of your recurring bills, and then PocketGuard shows you what’s left, and that’s what you’re supposed to be budgeting: your disposable income.
Although PocketGuard’s UI is easy enough to understand, it lacks polish. The “accounts” tab is a little busy, and doesn’t show totals for categories like cash or investments. Seemingly small details like weirdly phrased or punctuated copy occasionally make the app feel janky. More than once, it prompted me to update the app when no updates were available. The web version, meanwhile, feels like the mobile app blown up to a larger format and doesn’t take advantage of the extra screen real estate. Ultimately, now that the free tier is gone, it just doesn’t present the same value proposition as it once did.
How we test budgeting apps
Before I dove in and started testing out budgeting apps, I had to do some research. To find a list of apps to try out, I consulted trusty ol’ Google (and even trustier Reddit); read reviews of popular apps on the App Store; and also asked friends and colleagues what budget tracking apps (or other budgeting methods) they might be using for money management. Some of the apps I found were free and these, of course, show loads of ads (excuse me, “offers”) to stay in business. But most of the available apps require paid subscriptions, with prices typically topping out around $100 a year, or $15 a month. (Spoiler: My top pick is cheaper than that.)
All of the services I chose to test needed to do several things: import all of your account data into one place; offer budgeting tools; and track your spending, net worth and credit score. Except where noted, all of these apps are available for iOS, Android and on the web.
Once I had my shortlist of six apps, I got to work setting them up. For the sake of thoroughly testing these apps, I made a point of adding every account to every budgeting app, no matter how small or immaterial the balance. What ensued was a veritable Groundhog Day of two-factor authentication. Just hours of entering passwords and one-time passcodes, for the same banks half a dozen times over. Hopefully, you only have to do this once.
Budgeting app FAQs
What is Plaid and how does it work?
Each of the apps I tested uses the same underlying network, called Plaid, to pull in financial data, so it’s worth explaining what it is and how it works. Plaid was founded as a fintech startup in 2013 and is today the industry standard in connecting banks with third-party apps. Plaid works with over 12,000 financial institutions across the US, Canada and Europe. Additionally, more than 8,000 third-party apps and services rely on Plaid, the company claims.
To be clear, you don’t need a dedicated Plaid app to use it; the technology is baked into a wide array of apps, including all of the budgeting apps listed in this guide. Once you find the “add an account” option in whichever one you’re using, you’ll see a menu of commonly used banks. There’s also a search field you can use to look yours up directly. Once you find yours, you’ll be prompted to enter your login credentials. If you have two-factor authentication set up, you’ll need to enter a one-time passcode as well.
As the middleman, Plaid is a passthrough for information that may include your account balances, transaction history, account type and routing or account number. Plaid uses encryption, and says it has a policy of not selling or renting customer data to other companies. However, I would not be doing my job if I didn’t note that in 2022 Plaid was forced to pay $58 million to consumers in a class action suit for collecting “more financial data than was needed.” As part of the settlement, Plaid was compelled to change some of its business practices.
In a statement provided to Engadget, a Plaid spokesperson said the company continues to deny the allegations underpinning the lawsuit and that “the crux of the non-financial terms in the settlement are focused on us accelerating workstreams already underway related to giving people more transparency into Plaid’s role in connecting their accounts, and ensuring that our workstreams around data minimization remain on track.”
Why did Mint shut down?
When parent company Intuit announced in December 2023 that it would shut down Mint, it did not provide a reason why it made the decision to do so. It did say that Mint's millions of users would be funneled over to its other finance app, Credit Karma. "Credit Karma is thrilled to invite all Minters to continue their financial journey on Credit Karma, where they will have access to Credit Karma’s suite of features, products, tools and services, including some of Mint’s most popular features," Mint wrote on its product blog. In our testing, we found that Credit Karma isn't an exact replacement for Mint — so if you're still looking for a Mint alternative, you have some decent options.
What about Rocket Money?
Rocket Money is another free financial app that tracks spending and supports things like balance alerts and account linking. If you pay for the premium tier, the service can also help you cancel unwanted subscriptions. We did not test it for this guide, but we'll consider it in future updates.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/best-budgeting-apps-120036303.html?src=rss
Microsoft has debuted a Copilot Mode for its Edge web browser. When enabled, this experimental feature can search across multiple open browser tabs and analyze the information on each page. An example posted on X by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella shows Copilot Mode examining several papers published by the company's researchers and assessing if they make any similar points.
Today we’re introducing Copilot Mode in Edge, our first step in reinventing the browser for the AI age.
My favorite feature is multi-tab RAG. You can use Copilot to analyze your open tabs, like I do here with papers our team has published in @Nature journals over the last year.… pic.twitter.com/iF0gmbqTSW
This feature will also support natural voice navigation and adds a dynamic pane for Copilot to be available wherever you're browsing. The company is working on more advanced options as well. For instance, if you grant it permission to access your web history and credentials, Copilot Mode will "soon" be able to execute actions such as booking a reservation or suggesting whatever the chatbot deems as relevant information to a query. Copilot Mode will be available for a limited time for users with Edge on Windows or Mac machines to try out. If those people prefer, they can also turn Copilot Mode off in their browser settings.
Many tech companies have set their sights winning the race to have an AI-equipped browser. Perplexity, OpenAI, Opera, and The Browser Company have been pushing to get their products in front of users. Although Microsoft has been putting Copilot in both hardware and software, the business may have a ways to go to become a frontrunner in adoption of its AI tools.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/microsoft-trials-copilot-mode-in-edge-201851903.html?src=rss
Earlier this month, Block CEO and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey unveiled a peer-to-peer, Bluetooth-based messaging app he put together. Now, anyone with a compatible iPhone, Mac or iPad (or even Apple Vision Pro) can try Bitchat as it's available on the App Store.
Dorsey created Bitchat under the auspices of "and Other Stuff," an open-source development collective he has backed financially. Per the free app's description, it allows users to chat with others who are physically close to them without needing to have their email address or phone number, which could make Bitchat handy for in-person events. Messages are private and encrypted, while the Panic Mode function allows you to delete all your Bitchat data with a triple tap.
Dorsey said he built Bitchat as an experiment in "Bluetooth mesh networks, relays and store and forward models, message encryption models and a few other things." The app doesn't need internet access to function, making it a useful option in situations in which authorities block mobile data and Wi-Fi connectivity. Other apps that offer Bluetooth mesh messaging first started appearing over a decade ago.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/jack-dorseys-bluetooth-messaging-app-is-now-on-the-app-store-185000786.html?src=rss
Tea, an app that claims to help women "make sure your date is safe, not a catfish and not in a relationship," is experiencing a security breach. 404 Mediareports that a database posted on 4chan allowed anyone to access users' data. (It's since been removed.) The dataset included thousands of images, including driver's licenses.
4chan users claimed the data came from an exposed database hosted on Firebase, Google's app development platform. 404 Media verified that the exposed storage bucket URL matches one found in Tea's Android app.
The company confirmed the breach. In a statement to 404 Media, Tea said it "identified unauthorized access to one of our systems and immediately launched a full investigation to assess the scope and impact." The company stated that the exposed information included data from over two years ago. It included 72,000 images, including selfies, photo IDs and pictures from app posts and DMs.
"This data was originally stored in compliance with law enforcement requirements related to cyber-bullying prevention," Tea said. "We have engaged third-party cybersecurity experts and are working around the clock to secure our systems. At this time, there is no evidence to suggest that current or additional user data was affected. Protecting our users' privacy and data is our highest priority. We are taking every necessary step to ensure the security of our platform and prevent further exposure."
Google Play Store
The app allows users to post photos of "red-flag" men. "Already swiping for dates on Tinder, Bumble, Match or Hinge?" the app's Play Store pitch reads. "Tea is a must-have app, helping women avoid red flags before the first date with dating advice and showing them who's really behind the profile of the person they're dating."
Its Play Store listing highlights a reverse phone number lookup. It has sections for men's real names, ages, addresses, social profiles and relationship statuses. Other features include a reverse image search and background checks to help women "get the tea on your date." Users can poll others about whether they should date new matches.
The app requires new users to submit a verification selfie and a photo of their government-issued ID. Tea told 404 Media that it uses this to verify that new signups are indeed women.
The timing of the breach coincided with the app's surge in popularity. According toBusiness Insider, Tea hit the top of Apple's App Store this week. The app first launched in 2023.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/tea-app-suffers-breach-exposing-thousands-of-user-images-190731414.html?src=rss
VSCO, the photo filter and editing app that spawned an entire culture, has released a dedicated camera app called VSCO Capture. The free iOS‑only app is a camera with live previews where users can choose from over 50 different presets with real‑time film effects and manual settings like shutter speed and exposure for fine‑tuning. The app takes the guesswork out of how your photo will look after you apply VSCO's iconic filters.
“VSCO Capture is a direct response to our community’s desire to get closer to the lens, to reduce editing fatigue and find more joy in the process of making authentic, stylized photography using their phone,” said Eric Wittman, CEO of VSCO.
The app's non‑destructive presets retain the original captured image so users can modify them later and change filters after the fact. VSCO Capture supports RAW and ProRAW formats for maximum flexibility when editing. Capture syncs instantly with the main VSCO app for additional edits and sharing.
VSCO Capture is available for download now on iOS.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/vsco-launches-dedicated-capture-app-with-live-previews-184005036.html?src=rss
AdGuard said the decision was made due to a "privacy concern," going on to say that "the very idea of background screen captures is unsettling." A blog post on the matter suggested that the tool could "snap a screenshot of a private chat window, an online form where you’re entering your credit card or simply something personal you didn’t want saved."
🚨 Microsoft Recall — new threat or improvement?
In May 2024, Microsoft introduced a new feature in Windows 11 that was actively taking screenshots of everything happening on the screen, including messages in WhatsApp and Signal. These screenshots were stored on the device… pic.twitter.com/C97KDylXPj
Brave also cited privacy concerns, suggesting that a user's "entire browsing history" could be captured by the tool. "We think it’s vital that your browsing activity on Brave does not accidentally end up in a persistent database, which is especially ripe for abuse in highly-privacy-sensitive cases," the company wrote in a blog post.
The chat app Signal made a similar move back in May, urging "AI teams building systems like Recall" to think "through these implications more carefully in the future." Brave says it was "partly inspired" by Signal.
AdGuard and Brave both offer toggles to bring Recall back into the mix. Microsoft's controversial tool lets people jump to whatever was previously on a screen. This includes web pages, images, documents, emails, chat threads or whatever else. It actually sounds like a pretty nifty productivity tool, despite the privacy concerns. It's available with some Copilot+ PCs.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/brave-and-adguard-now-block-microsoft-recall-by-default-152601475.html?src=rss
As a long-time Mint user, I was frustrated to say the least when news broke at the end of 2023 that Intuit would shut Mint down. I, like millions of others, enjoyed how easily Mint allowed us to track all accounts in one place and monitor credit scores. I also used it regularly to track spending, set goals like pay my mortgage down faster and with general money management.
So I set out to find the best Mint alternatives in the wake of its disappointing demise. I gave Credit Karma, Intuit’s other financial app, a try but found it to be a poor Mint substitute. The following guide lays out my experience testing some of the most popular Mint replacement apps available today in search of my next budgeting app.
Our pick for best Mint alternative remains Quicken Simplifi, even long after Mint shutting down, thanks to its easy to use app, good income and bill detection and its affordable price. But there are plenty of other solid options out there for those with different needs. If you’re also on the hunt for a budgeting app to replace Mint, we hope these details can help you decide which of the best budgeting apps out there will be right for you.
No pun intended, but what I like about Quicken Simplifi is its simplicity. Whereas other budgeting apps try to distinguish themselves with dark themes and customizable emoji, Simplifi has a clean user interface, with a landing page that you just keep scrolling through to get a detailed overview of all your stats. These include your top-line balances; net worth; recent spending; upcoming recurring payments; a snapshot of your spending plan; top spending categories; achievements; and any watchlists you’ve set up.
Another one of the key features I appreciate is the ability to set up savings goals elsewhere in the app. I also appreciate how it offers neat, almost playful visualizations without ever looking cluttered. I felt at home in the mobile and web dashboards after a day or so, which is faster than I adapted to some competing services (I’m looking at you, YNAB and Monarch).
Getting set up with Simplifi was mostly painless. I was particularly impressed at how easily it connected to Fidelity; not all budget trackers do, for whatever reason. This is also one of the only services I tested that gives you the option of inviting a spouse or financial advisor to co-manage your account. One thing I would add to my initial assessment of the app, having used it for a few months now: I wish Simplifi offered Zillow integration for easily tracking your home value (or at least a rough estimate of it). Various competitors including Monarch Money and Copilot Money work with Zillow, so clearly there's a Zillow API available for use. As it stands, Simplifi users must add real estate manually like any other asset.
Dana Wollman / Engadget
In practice, Simplifi miscategorized some of my expenses, but nothing out of the ordinary compared to any of these budget trackers. As you’re reviewing transactions, you can also mark if you’re expecting a refund, which is a unique feature among the services I tested. Simplifi also estimated my regular income better than some other apps I tested. Most of all, I appreciated the option of being able to categorize some, but not all, purchases from a merchant as recurring. For instance, I can add my two Amazon subscribe-and-saves as recurring payments, without having to create a broad-strokes rule for every Amazon purchase.
The budgeting feature is also self-explanatory and can likely accommodate your preferred budgeting method. Just check that your regular income is accurate and be sure to set up recurring payments, making note of which are bills and which are subscriptions. This is important because Simplifi shows you your total take-home income as well as an “income after bills” figure. That number includes, well, bills but not discretionary subscriptions. From there, you can add spending targets by category in the “planned spending” bucket. Planned spending can also include one-time expenditures, not just monthly budgets. When you create a budget, Simplifi will suggest a number based on a six-month average.
Not dealbreakers, but two things to keep in mind as you get started: Simplifi is notable in that you can’t set up an account through Apple or Google. There is also no option for a free trial, though Quicken promises a “30-day money back guarantee.”
Monarch Money grew on me. My first impression of the budgeting app, which was founded by a former Mint product manager, was that it's more difficult to use than others on this list, including Simplifi, NerdWallet and Copilot. And it is. Editing expense categories, adding recurring transactions and creating rules, for example, is a little more complicated than it needs to be, especially in the mobile app. (My advice: Use the web app for fine-tuning details.) Monarch also didn’t get my income right; I had to edit it.
Once you’re set up, though, Monarch offers an impressive level of granularity. In the budgets section, you can see a bona fide balance sheet showing budgets and actuals for each category. You'll also find a forecast, for the year or by month. And recurring expenses can be set not just by merchant, but other parameters as well. For instance, while most Amazon purchases might be marked as “shopping,” those for the amounts of $54.18 or $34.18 are definitely baby supplies, and can be automatically marked as such each time, not to mention programmed as recurring payments. Weirdly, though, there’s no way to mark certain recurring payments as bills, specifically.
Dana Wollman / Engadget
Not long after I first published this story in December 2023, Monarch introduced a detailed reporting section where you can create on-demand graphs based on things like accounts, categories and tags. That feature is available just on the web version of the app for now. As part of this same update, Monarch added support for an aggregator that makes it possible to automatically update the value of your car. This, combined with the existing Zillow integration for tracking your home value, makes it easy to quickly add a non-liquid asset like a vehicle or real estate, and have it show up in your net worth graph.
The mobile app is mostly self-explanatory. The main dashboard shows your net worth; your four most recent transactions; a month-over-month spending comparison; income month-to-date; upcoming bills; an investments snapshot; a list of any goals you’ve set; and, finally, a link to your month-in-review. That month-in-review is more detailed than most, delving into cash flow; top income and expense categories; cash flow trends; changes to your net worth, assets and liabilities; plus asset and liability breakdowns. In February 2024, Monarch expanded on the net worth graph, so that if you click on the Accounts tab you can see how your net worth changed over different periods of time, including one month, three months, six months, a year or all time.
On the main screen, you’ll also find tabs for savings and checking accounts (and all others as well), transactions, cash flow, budget and recurring. Like many of the other apps featured here, Monarch can auto-detect recurring expenses and income, even if it gets the category wrong. (They all do to an extent.) Expense categories are marked by emoji, which you can customize if you’re so inclined.
Monarch Money uses a combination of networks to connect with banks, including Plaid, MX and Finicity, a competing network owned by Mastercard. (I have a quick explainer on Plaid, the industry standard in this space, toward the end of this guide.) As part of an update in late December, Monarch has also made it easier to connect through those other two networks, if for some reason Plaid fails. Similar to NerdWallet, I found myself completing two-factor authentication every time I wanted to get past the Plaid screen to add another account. Notably, Monarch is the only other app I tested that allows you to grant access to someone else in your family — likely a spouse or financial advisor. Monarch also has a Chrome extension for importing from Mint, though really this is just a shortcut for downloading a CSV file, which you’ll have to do regardless of where you choose to take your Mint data.
Additionally, Monarch just added the ability to track Apple Card, Apple Cash, and Savings accounts, thanks to new functionality brought with the iOS 17.4 update. It's not the only one either; currently, Copilot and YNAB have also added similar functionality that will be available to anyone with the latest versions of their respective apps on a device running iOS 17.4. Instead of manually uploading statements, the new functionality allows apps like Monarch's to automatically pull in transactions and balance history. That should make it easier to account for spending on Apple cards and accounts throughout the month.
Monarch also recently launched investment transactions in beta. It also says bill tracking and an overhauled goals system are coming soon. Monarch hasn't provided a timeline for that last one, except to say that the improved goals feature is coming soon.
Copilot Money might be the best-looking budgeting app I tested. It also has the distinction of being exclusive to iOS and Macs — at least for now. Andres Ugarte, the company’s CEO, has publicly promised that Android and web apps are coming soon. But until it follows through, I can’t recommend Copilot for most people with so many good competitors out there.
Copilot Money for Web and Android!
Thanks to the support from our users, and the overwhelming positive reception we're seeing from folks migrating from Mint, we can now say that we'll be building @copilotmoney for Web and Android with a goal to launch in 2024.
There are other features that Copilot is missing, which I’ll get into. But it is promising, and one to keep an eye on. It’s just a fast, efficient, well designed app, and Android users will be in for a treat when they’ll finally be able to download it. It makes good use of colors, emoji and graphs to help you understand at a glance how you’re doing on everything from your budgets to your investment performance to your credit card debt over time. In particular, Copilot does a better job than almost any other app of visualizing your recurring monthly expenses.
Behind those punchy colors and cutesy emoji, though, is some sophisticated performance. Copilot’s AI-powered “Intelligence” gets smarter as you go at categorizing your expenses. (You can also add your own categories, complete with your choice of emoji.) It’s not perfect. Copilot miscategorized some purchases (they all do), but it makes it easier to edit than most. On top of that, the internal search feature is very fast; it starts whittling down results in your transaction history as soon as you begin typing.
Dana Wollman / Engadget
Copilot is also unique in offering Amazon and Venmo integrations, allowing you to see transaction details. With Amazon, this requires just signing into your Amazon account via an in-app browser. For Venmo, you have to set up [email protected] as a forwarding address and then create a filter, wherein emails from [email protected] are automatically forwarded to [email protected]. Like Monarch Money, you can also add any property you own and track its value through Zillow, which is integrated with the app.
While the app is heavily automated, I still appreciate that Copilot marks new transactions for review. It’s a good way to both weed out fraudulent charges, and also be somewhat intentional about your spending habits.
Like Monarch Money, Copilot updated its app to make it easier to connect to banks through networks other than Plaid. As part of the same update, Copilot said it has improved its connections to both American Express and Fidelity which, again, can be a bugbear for some budget tracking apps. In an even more recent update, Copilot added a Mint import option, which other budgeting apps have begun to offer as well.
Because the app is relatively new (it launched in early 2020), the company is still catching up to the competition on some table-stakes features. Ugarte told me that his team is almost done building out a detailed cash flow section as well. On its website, Copilot also promises a raft of AI-powered features that build on its current “Intelligence” platform, the one that powers its smart expense categorization. These include “smart financial goals,” natural language search, a chat interface, forecasting and benchmarking. That benchmarking, Ugarte tells me, is meant to give people a sense of how they’re doing compared to other Copilot users, on both spending and investment performance. Most of these features should arrive in the new year.
Copilot does a couple interesting things for new customers that distinguish it from the competition. There’s a “demo mode” that feels like a game simulator; no need to add your own accounts. The company is also offering two free months with RIPMINT — a more generous introductory offer than most. When it finally does come time to pony up, the $7.92 monthly plan is cheaper than some competing apps, although the $95-a-year-option is in the same ballpark.
You may know NerdWallet as a site that offers a mix of personal finance news, explainers and guides. I see it often when I google a financial term I don’t know and sure enough, it’s one of the sites I’m most likely to click on. As it happens, NerdWallet also has the distinction of offering one of the only free budgeting apps I tested. In fact, there is no paid version; nothing is locked behind a paywall. The main catch: There are ads everywhere. To be fair, the free version of Mint was like this, too.
Even with the inescapable credit card offers, NerdWallet has a clean, easy-to-understand user interface, which includes both a web and a mobile app. The key metrics that it highlights most prominently are your cash flow, net worth and credit score. (Of note, although Mint itself offered credit score monitoring, most of its rivals do not.) I particularly enjoyed the weekly insights, which delve into things like where you spent the most money or how much you paid in fees — and how that compares to the previous month. Because this is NerdWallet, an encyclopedia of financial info, you get some particularly specific category options when setting up your accounts (think: a Roth or non-Roth IRA).
Dana Wollman / Engadget
As a budgeting app, NerdWallet is more than serviceable, if a bit basic. Like other apps I tested, you can set up recurring bills. Importantly, it follows the popular 50/30/20 budgeting rule, which has you putting 50% of your budget toward things you need, 30% toward things you want, and the remaining 20% into savings or debt repayments. If this works for you, great — just know that you can’t customize your budget to the same degree as some competing apps. You can’t currently create custom spending categories, though a note inside the dashboard section of the app says “you’ll be able to customize them in the future.” You also can’t move items from the wants column to “needs” or vice versa but “In the future, you'll be able to move specific transactions to actively manage what falls into each group.” A NerdWallet spokesperson declined to provide an ETA, though.
Lastly, it’s worth noting that NerdWallet had one of the most onerous setup processes of any app I tested. I don’t think this is a dealbreaker, as you’ll only have to do it once and, hopefully, you aren’t setting up six or seven apps in tandem as I was. What made NerdWallet’s onboarding especially tedious is that every time I wanted to add an account, I had to go through a two-factor authentication process to even get past the Plaid splash screen, and that’s not including the 2FA I had set up at each of my banks. This is a security policy on NerdWallet’s end, not Plaid’s, a Plaid spokesperson says.
Precisely because NerdWallet is one of the only budget trackers to offer credit score monitoring, it also needs more of your personal info during setup, including your birthday, address, phone number and the last four digits of your social security number. It’s the same with Credit Karma, which also does credit score monitoring.
Related to the setup process, I found that NerdWallet was less adept than other apps at automatically detecting my regular income. In my case, it counted a large one-time wire transfer as income, at which point my only other option was to enter my income manually (which is slightly annoying because I would have needed my pay stub handy to double-check my take-home pay).
YNAB is, by its own admission, “different from anything you’ve tried before.” The app, whose name is short for You Need a Budget, promotes a so-called zero-based budgeting system, which forces you to assign a purpose for every dollar you earn. A frequently used analogy is to put each dollar in an envelope; you can always move money from one envelope to another in a pinch. These envelopes can include rent and utilities, along with unforeseen expenses like holiday gifts and the inevitable car repair. The idea is that if you budget a certain amount for the unknowns each month, they won’t feel like they’re sneaking up on you.
Importantly, YNAB is only concerned with the money you have in your accounts now. The app does not ask you to provide your take-home income or set up recurring income payments (although there is a way to do this). The money you will make later in the month through your salaried job is not relevant, because YNAB does not engage in forecasting.
The app is harder to learn than any other here, and it requires more ongoing effort from the user. And YNAB knows that. Inside both the mobile and web apps are links to videos and other tutorials. Although I never quite got comfortable with the user interface, I did come to appreciate YNAB’s insistence on intentionality. Forcing users to draft a new budget each month and to review each transaction is not necessarily a bad thing. As YNAB says on its website, “Sure, you’ve got pie charts showing that you spent an obscene amount of money in restaurants — but you’ve still spent an obscene amount of money in restaurants.” I can see this approach being useful for people who don’t tend to have a lot of cash in reserve at a given time, or who have spending habits they want to correct (to riff off of YNAB’s own example, ordering Seamless four times a week).
My colleague Valentina Palladino, knowing I was working on this guide, penned a respectful rebuttal, explaining why she’s been using YNAB for years. Perhaps, like her, you have major savings goals you want to achieve, whether it’s paying for a wedding or buying a house. I suggest you give her column a read. For me, though, YNAB’s approach feels like overkill.
Other Mint alternatives we tested
PocketGuard
PocketGuard used to be a solid free budget tracker, but the company has since limited its “free” version to just a free seven-day trial. Now, you’ll have to choose between two plans once the trial is over: a $13 monthly plan or a $75 annual plan. When I first tested it, I found it to be more restricted than NerdWallet, but still a decent option. The main overview screen shows you your net worth, total assets and debts; net income and total spending for the month; upcoming bills; a handy reminder of when your next paycheck lands; any debt payoff plan you have; and any goals. Like some other apps, including Quicken Simplifi, PocketGuard promotes an “after bills” approach, where you enter all of your recurring bills, and then PocketGuard shows you what’s left, and that’s what you’re supposed to be budgeting: your disposable income.
Although PocketGuard’s UI is easy enough to understand, it lacks polish. The “accounts” tab is a little busy, and doesn’t show totals for categories like cash or investments. Seemingly small details like weirdly phrased or punctuated copy occasionally make the app feel janky. More than once, it prompted me to update the app when no updates were available. The web version, meanwhile, feels like the mobile app blown up to a larger format and doesn’t take advantage of the extra screen real estate. Ultimately, now that the free tier is gone, it just doesn’t present the same value proposition as it once did.
What is Plaid and how does it work?
Each of the apps I tested uses the same underlying network, called Plaid, to pull in financial data, so it’s worth explaining in its own section what it is and how it works. Plaid was founded as a fintech startup in 2013 and is today the industry standard in connecting banks with third-party apps. Plaid works with over 12,000 financial institutions across the US, Canada and Europe. Additionally, more than 8,000 third-party apps and services rely on Plaid, the company claims.
To be clear, you don’t need a dedicated Plaid app to use it; the technology is baked into a wide array of apps, including the budget trackers I tested for this guide. Once you find the “add an account” option in whichever one you’re using, you’ll see a menu of commonly used banks. There’s also a search field you can use to look yours up directly. Once you find yours, you’ll be prompted to enter your login credentials. If you have two-factor authentication set up, you’ll need to enter a one-time passcode as well.
As the middleman, Plaid is a passthrough for information that may include your account balances, transaction history, account type and routing or account number. Plaid uses encryption, and says it has a policy of not selling or renting customer data to other companies. However, I would not be doing my job if I didn’t note that in 2022 Plaid was forced to pay $58 million to consumers in a class action suit for collecting “more financial data than was needed.” As part of the settlement, Plaid was compelled to change some of its business practices.
In a statement provided to Engadget, a Plaid spokesperson said the company continues to deny the allegations underpinning the lawsuit and that “the crux of the non-financial terms in the settlement are focused on us accelerating workstreams already underway related to giving people more transparency into Plaid’s role in connecting their accounts, and ensuring that our workstreams around data minimization remain on track.”
How to import your financial data from the Mint app
Mint users should consider getting their data ready to migrate to their new budgeting app of choice soon. Unfortunately, importing data from Mint is not as easy as entering your credentials from inside your new app and hitting “import.” In fact, any app that advertises the ability to port over your stats from Mint is just going to have you upload a CSV file of transactions and other data.
To download a CSV file from Mint, do the following:
Sign into Mint.com and hit Transactions in the menu on the left side of the screen.
Select an account, or all accounts.
Scroll down and look for “export [number] transactions” in smaller print.
Your CSV file should begin downloading.
Note: Downloading on a per-account basis might seem more annoying, but could help you get set up on the other side, if the app you’re using has you importing transactions one-for-one into their corresponding accounts.
How we tested Mint alternatives
Before I dove into the world of budgeting apps, I had to do some research. To find a list of apps to test, I consulted trusty ol’ Google (and even trustier Reddit); read reviews of popular apps on the App Store; and also asked friends and colleagues what budget tracking apps they might be using. Some of the apps I found were free, just like Mint. These, of course, show loads of ads (excuse me, “offers”) to stay in business. But most of the available apps require paid subscriptions, with prices typically topping out around $100 a year, or $15 a month. (Spoiler: My top pick is cheaper than that.)
Since this guide is meant to help Mint users find a permanent replacement, any services I chose to test needed to do several things: import all of your account data into one place; offer budgeting tools; and track your spending, net worth and credit score. Except where noted, all of these apps are available for iOS, Android and on the web.
Once I had my shortlist of six apps, I got to work setting them up. For the sake of thoroughly testing these apps (and remember, I really was looking for a Mint alternative myself), I made a point of adding every account to every budgeting app, no matter how small or immaterial the balance. What ensued was a veritable Groundhog Day of two-factor authentication. Just hours of entering passwords and one-time passcodes, for the same banks half a dozen times over. Hopefully, you only have to do this once.
What about Rocket Money?
Rocket Money is another free financial app that tracks spending and supports things like balance alerts and account linking. If you pay for the premium tier, the service can also help you cancel unwanted subscriptions. We did not test it for this guide, but we'll consider it in future updates.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/the-best-budgeting-apps-to-replace-mint-143047346.html?src=rss
I’m not going to beat around the bush: iPadOS 26 and its new multitasking features are a game-changer for Apple’s tablets. Pretty much ever since Steve Jobs introduced the iPad 15 years ago (!), Apple has tried to straddle two worlds. In one, the iPad is a super-simple, easy-to-use tablet with a gorgeous display and tons of good apps from the App Store for gaming, entertainment and light work. The other world is one where the iPad replaces your traditional computer, letting people do the serious work that’s been typically reserved for a Mac or Windows PC. iPadOS has too often served as a hindrance to the latter goal over the years, particularly as the iPad Pro has gotten more powerful.
The Stage Manager multitasking experience Apple introduced with iPadOS 16 in 2022 was a major step towards making the iPad’s software suitable for power users — but it was rather buggy at launch and not as flexible as iPad power users were hoping for. The calls to just put macOS on the iPad grew louder. But this year, Apple took a different approach: it brought crucial macOS features like the familiar “stoplight” window controls, the menu bar at the top of the screen and vastly improved window management tools to iPadOS 26. The result is an iPad experience where you can easily jump between multiple windowed apps set up just how you like and one where you go full screen to focus on your content. It’s a massive refinement over the old Stage Manager experience and one that I think will finally satisfy iPad die-hards who want to push their tablets to the limit.
Before diving into the details, a quick word on betas and stability. As usual, Apple’s public betas feel pretty stable and capable, but that doesn’t mean you won’t run into weirdness here and there. App crashes, particularly with third-party apps, happened far more on this beta than with iPadOS 18. I’m confident those things will be ironed out as more developers update their apps for the new OS, but you’ll also run into things like UI inconsistencies and occasional stutters and jerkiness when jumping between apps. As we always say, think hard about what you’re willing to put up with to try a beta, even the relatively stable public beta. After all, the final version of iPadOS 26 will be out in just a few months.
Time for the nitty-gritty. When you update to iPadOS 26, you’ll be asked if you want to enable multitasking or have apps run in full screen mode only. When Apple says full screen only, they mean it. Past versions of iPadOS offered either Stage Manager or a basic, two-app split screen view with a third app available in a Slide Over window. The latter option is gone now, though you can still easily set up two or three apps side by side with iPadOS 26’s window tiling features. You can use multitasking mode or full screen only, with no in between. I think that’s a smart move, as plenty of people who use an iPad probably never use these multi-app features, and having a “multitasking on or off” toggle keeps things simple.
When you turn on multitasking mode, apps still open in full screen first — but you can grab any corner of the window to resize it or touch the top of the app and drag it around the screen. You could already do this with Stage Manager, so what really sets this new mode apart is how it interacts with other windows. Swiping up from the bottom of the display reveals the usual Home Screen view, but with your apps tucked to the side as a visual cue that you can add another app to that group. And, as before, you can move, resize and stack that app window wherever you want.
As I’m writing this, I have nine separate app windows open on my iPad, and getting around them feels more Mac-like than ever before. I can swipe up and hold from the bottom of the Home Screen and see every open app in a smaller window, which makes finding the specific thing I want a lot easier; I can also just command-tab through them. Apps can be minimized down to the dock and when I want the app back, it’ll pop open in the same size window and same placement as before. Swiping up from the bottom of the screen twice minimizes everything I have open to start fresh — but again, if I reopen those apps, they’ll go back to exactly where I had them set up before.
I realize it sounds kind of silly to make a big deal of this, but it’s hard to overstate how much this improves the iPad multitasking experience. With Stage Manager, I was never quite sure where an app would open or if it would be full screen or windowed. It can be useful for setting up multiple groups of apps, but adding and removing apps from that view was not terribly intuitive. Just opening everything in one space is a lot more intuitive. And if you want to have various different spaces with specific apps, you can still turn on Stage Manager. It’s a lot easier to add and remove apps from various different groups than it used to be; minimizing a window puts it into its own space that you can add more apps to (or just use it on its own).
There are a few other new components that make multitasking work as well as it does. These should be quite familiar to Mac users: The three-button “stoplight” controls and the menu bar. The stoplight buttons replace a similar three-dot window management system from older versions of iPadOS but are far more intuitive. The red one closes an app window entirely, the green one makes a window full screen and then yellow one minimizes it to the dock. These controls are crucial to making iPadOS 26 feel more flexible and fluid than ever before, particularly if you want to have more than one window of a single app open. I’ve also found them to be crucial when working with multiple apps on a smaller display, like on the 11-inch iPad Pro. Stage Manager usually felt like more trouble than it was worth on anything but a 13-inch iPad, but these new multitasking features make it easy to flip through a bunch of apps and pop into full screen if I need more space.
The expanded window tiling controls here also make that easier. If you press and hold the stoplight buttons, you’ll get more options to resize apps to take up a quarter, third or half the screen; you can also grab drag bars to further adjust how much space each app takes up. I really liked a mode where three iPhone-sized apps fill the screen, and when there was something I wanted to devote more focus to, I just hit its green button and went full screen.
The menu bar, meanwhile, is pretty easy to explain. If you swipe down from the top of the screen (or move your trackpad cursor up to the top) you’ll see familiar menus like File, Edit, Window and so on. It’s a handy way to find more advanced controls for an app, and it also keeps the various toolbars in apps from getting too overloaded with options.
Long story short, this all adds up to a wildly improved iPad experience. It doesn’t compromise the single-screen, focused mode that the iPad has always been known for, and it greatly improves working across multiple windows and apps. And unlike Stage Manager, which was limited to M-series iPads, these new multitasking features will work on any iPad that can run iPadOS 26, including the base A16 iPad and the iPad mini.
Everything else
If this was the only change to iPadOS Apple made this year, it would already be a worthwhile upgrade, but there are a bunch of other improvements coming this fall. These include an improved Files app, the Preview app that has long been a core part of macOS, the new Liquid Glass design, some potentially useful Apple Intelligence features, a nice set of updates to the Messaging app and a new Phone app.
Much has been said about Liquid Glass, with tons of prognostication about how Apple was ruining usability and throwing its UI back to 2006 in a blatant Windows Aero ripoff. As usual, the truth is much more nuanced. No one familiar with Apple’s software will be thrown off by this update — everything works as it did before, and while you’ll definitely notice some refractive visual elements, it’s not the wholesale change that aggrieved social media posters would have you believe. You can make things look very different if you, say, opt for the new clear glass icon look, but you can also leave the standard colorful iOS icons in place.
The Music app’s Now Playing bar is a perfect place to see iPadOS 26’s Liquid Glass transparency in action.
Over the course of the developer betas Apple has released since WWDC, the company has responded to feedback and reduced some of the transparency effects that were present in the first version of Liquid Glass — as it turns out, submitting feedback during a beta works! (Interestingly, they bumped some of the transparency back up in the fourth developer beta, right after turning it down in beta 3. This is still a work in progress.) Probably the biggest functional change is that app controls, toolbars and sidebars float over apps in a new, distinct layer rather than being wholly separate from an app’s content — but again, it’s not the kind of thing that’ll faze anyone who has been using an iPad or any other Apple device.
Preview isn’t exactly a thriller, but it’s a much better way to work with PDFs and images than the old interface that launched them in a separate Files window. You can still find PDFs in Files easily enough, but actually dealing with the document in a separate app is better than making Files pull double duty.
Apple
Speaking of Files, it has even more in common with the Mac Finder than before. You can now put specific folders in the dock for faster access to whatever you’re working on, and the app list view has resizable columns and collapsible folders, just like on the Mac. You can also add emoji and colors to folders for more visual differentiation (and, let’s be honest, a little more fun). And for the first time, you can pick specific apps to open different file types by default — so if you’d rather have PNG images open in Photomator than Preview, go nuts.
There are also major updates to the communication experience across the board in iPadOS 26. The FaceTime app got a nice redesign with large contact posters of your recent calls. But what’s most handy here is that the FaceTime app no longer tries to do double-duty with voice calls. A dedicated Phone app handles that now. Assuming you also have an iPhone, you’ll see all your recent voice calls and voicemails here and you can quickly place a new call through your contact list or using a traditional dialer. I’ve always liked the idea of being able to place calls on devices I’m using during the work day like my Mac or iPad, and this makes it far easier.
Apple
Messages is getting some fun visual enhancements like backgrounds for your conversations, but the thing I’m most interested in is message filtering. The app now identifies unknown senders and puts those messages in a separate folder, and there’s also a new spam folder where it drops messages that Apple strongly believes are spam.
If a message gets filtered into unknown senders or spam, you can mark it as known even if the contact isn’t in your address book and those messages will end up in your main view by default. The system also attempts to recognize when a message from an unknown sender is timely and needs to be delivered to your main inbox — something like a delivery person saying they’re nearby or other urgent content like a two-factor authentication code. This feels primarily like a phone-first feature; I get messages on my iPad, but haven’t seen much get filtered directly to spam or unknown callers yet. Once all my devices are running Apple’s latest software, we’ll see how that goes, but I’m still very excited about any feature that’ll help combat the deluge of spam messages that plague my inbox.
For more details on the updated communications experience and other new features like the Apple Intelligence-powered Live Translation, I’ll point you to my colleague Mat Smith’s iOS 26 overview. As is usually the case, nearly every feature coming to the iPhone this year is also coming to the iPad, meaning Live Translation will arrive on the tablet too.
There’s a lot more here that I haven’t been able to get to, like improved background tasks that let you export a video without keeping the app in focus, updates to Genmoji and Image Playground, the Journal app finally coming to iPad, Apple Intelligence-powered Shortcuts updates and much more. I’ll be continuing to check out how things change between now and the final release this fall, but even based on my experience with the recent beta, I’m quite pleased with where iPadOS 26 is at. The updates to multitasking are so significant that I can’t imagine going back to an iPad without them.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/tablets/ipados-26-preview-a-long-awaited-multi-tasking-update-pays-off-so-far-172522054.html?src=rss
I've learned not to expect much from macOS updates — not through sheer cynicism, but from the obvious reality that Apple pays far more attention to iOS and iPadOS than its desktop platform. I get it. macOS is a thing of the past, while smartphones and tablets are Apple's profitable present and future. But still, I think Mac users deserve more than just widgets, or the ability to merely mirror their iPhones (a feature that's not only genuinely useful, but also cements how crucial iPhones are to Apple and its users today). Now with macOS 26, Apple is finally showing a bit more love to its laptops and desktops.
After testing the macOS Tahoe 26 developer beta for a few weeks, it definitely feels like a more substantial update than the last few versions. The revamped Spotlight alone will likely delight Mac diehards, since it makes it easier to find apps and perform all manner of tasks without requiring your fingers leave the keyboard. Add in a lovely visual refresh thanks to Apple's Liquid Glass design, as well as enhanced iPhone continuity features, and you have an operating system that feels like a genuine step forward for the Mac faithful.
I've never been a heavy Spotlight user, aside from the few times I've needed to quickly look for an app or file. But in macOS Tahoe 26, it's suddenly a lot more useful. Now Spotlight can also help you find specific files; search cloud file services and websites; run Apple shortcuts and automations; and even run basic commands, like looking up your recent screenshots when you type "/screenshot." Spotlight has become more than just a search engine for your Mac, it's practically a super-powered command line. (And notably, it has no real equivalent on Windows. So once again, Mac power users will be able to gloat about the supremacy of macOS.)
Apple
Over the course of my testing, tapping the command key and space bar to trigger Spotlight practically became second nature. I'd bring it up to find files, as usual, but I noticed that it was better at unearthing what I was looking for than before. Spotlight also replaced my usual practice of typing in search strings in Safari or Chrome's address bar. It takes just a few seconds to bring up Spotlight, type "YouTube," hit tab to trigger the search box and type in the video I'm looking for. This intelligent site searching also works for Amazon and IMDB — hopefully, Apple will add more commonly used sites over time (or perhaps just the ability to map a site's internal search engine to Spotlight).
If you're often buried by tons of tabs in your web browser, Spotlight can also quickly search through them. That helped me avoid getting distracted by social media and Slack conversations. I could just stay in my productivity flow, since I didn't have to sift through multiple app windows and tabs. The ability to trigger actions from Spotlight was similarly useful — it's a cinch to pop it up, start typing "Send Message" and jot out a quick text to my wife. Spotlight also learns your most common commands over time, so now I just have to type "se" for the Send Message action to pop up.
I'm sure for a certain type of Mac power user, Spotlight will give them far fewer reasons to ever touch their mouse or trackpad.
Apple
A more refined user interface with Liquid Glass
While Spotlight is the most powerful upgrade in macOS Tahoe 26, you'll notice the spiffier Liquid Glass interface first. As with iOS 26, it basically amounts to more transparencies and visual flourishes spread throughout the OS. The menu bar at the top of the screen is now fully transparent, instead of looking foggy like before. It's not much, but it does make your Mac's screen seem a little bigger (or perhaps that may have just been extra noticeable on the cramped 13-inch MacBook Air I've been testing on).
Similarly, widgets and the Control Center dropdown have more glass-like visual elements that make them look a bit more modern. There's no real practical advantage, but to paraphrase a classic Marge Simpson quote, I just think it's neat. Apple Silicon-equipped hardware has more than enough graphics power to spare, so these visual upgrades also don't hinder performance at all. I didn't notice any slowdown during my testing, and according to Activity Monitor, there didn't seem to be a big hit to CPU or GPU usage.
Apple
Better iPhone integration
Even though you've been able to make phone calls on Macs for a while now through FaceTime, it's taken until macOS Tahoe 26 for Apple to debut a dedicated Phone app. The app itself is nothing special — it gives you a quick glance at your contacts and recent calls, all in a compact Liquid Glass window — but at least it's a more logical place for phone calls.
Even better than the standalone app, though, is the addition of iPhone Live Activities appearing in the macOS Tahoe 26 menu bar. That makes it easier to keep track of an inbound Uber or Doordash order, without whipping out your phone. And if you need to tap into a specific activity, macOS will also automatically launch the app from your phone via iPhone mirroring. It's the sort of usability feature you'd expect from Apple, and notably it's also not easily replicable on Windows. (And sure, you can also view it as a way to keep iPhone users from straying to the dark side too.)
Other useful upgrades
The more I dug into macOS Tahoe 26, the more intriguing it became. Here are a few other updates worth highlighting:
The Shortcuts app seems a lot more powerful now, especially with the addition of custom automations and Apple Intelligence-powered actions. You can have an automation trigger writing tools or Image Playgrounds, and there's also a new "Use Model" command that can tap into on-device AI models and ChatGPT. I'm still trying to wrap my head around building a complex automation, but conceivably it could let you do something like compare an audio transcript to text notes, according to Apple.
Safari has received a Liquid Glass redesign that looks pretty polished. It's not nearly as transformative as the Safari iOS upgrade, which makes it easier to read websites on a small phone screen, but at least it looks nice.
The Notes app now has Apple Intelligence-powered reminders whenever you share content to it. That could help you unearth some key tasks from a large email.
The Photos app has also received the Liquid Glass treatment, and you can finally use Pinned Collections on Macs to keep your favorite photo groups handy.
The Apple Music app can now use AutoMix to intelligently blend songs together, similar to a DJ. I've been using this feature on iOS 26 a lot, and it's honestly delightful — so long as you're not a total gapless playback purist.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/macos-26-beta-preview-spotlights-time-to-shine-171700779.html?src=rss
At WWDC 2025, Apple revealed a major visual shake-up for iOS (not to mention the rest of the company’s operating systems). This is the biggest change, aesthetically, since the shift away from the stitching, textures and skeuomorphic design of the iOS 4. It also comes with significantly fewer AI and Siri updates this time around. However, it’s the smaller touches that make iOS 26 seem like a notable improvement over its predecessor.
I’ve been running the iOS 26 developer beta for the last two weeks and here's how Apple’s new Liquid Glass design — and iOS 26 broadly — stacks up.
iOS 26 looks new and modern. And for once, how Apple describes it — liquid glass — makes sense: it’s a lot of layers of transparent elements overlapping and, in places, the animations are quite… liquidy. Menus and buttons will respond to your touch, with some of them coalescing around your finger and sometimes separating out into new menus.
Liquid Glass encompasses the entire design of iOS. The home and lock screens have been redesigned once again, featuring a new skyscraping clock font that stretches out from the background of your photos, with ever-so-slight transparency. There’s also a new 3D effect that infuses your photos with a bit of spatial magic, offering a touch of Vision Pro for iPhone users.
The experience in the first few builds of the iOS 26 beta was jarring and messy, especially with transparent icons and notifications, due to those overlapping elements making things almost illegible. Updates across subsequent releases have addressed this issue by making floating elements more opaque. There is also a toggle within the Accessibility tab in Settings to reduce transparency further, but I hope Apple offers a slider so that users can choose exactly how “liquid” they want their “glass” to be. If you own other Apple products, then you’ll come to appreciate the design parity across your Mac, iPad and Apple Watch.
One noticeable change I'd been waiting for was the iOS search bar’s relocation to the bottom of the screen. I first noticed it within Settings, but it reappears in Music, Podcasts, Photos and pretty much everywhere you might need to find specific files or menu items now. If, like me, you’re an iPhone Pro or Plus user, you may have struggled to reach those search bars when they were at the top of the screen. It’s a welcome improvement.
Visual Intelligence
Screenshot (Apple)
With iOS 26 on iPhones powerful enough to run Apple Intelligence, the company is bringing Visual Intelligence over to your screenshots. (Previously it was limited to Camera.) Once you’ve grabbed a shot by pressing the power and volume up buttons, you’ll get a preview of your image, surrounded by suggested actions that Apple Intelligence deduced would be relevant based on the contents of your screenshot.
Managing Editor Cherlynn Low did a deep dive on what Visual Intelligence is capable of. From a screenshot, you can transfer information to other apps without having to switch or select them manually. This means I can easily screenshot tickets and emails, for example, to add to my calendar. Apple Intelligence can also identify types of plants, food and cars, even. If there are multiple people or objects in your screenshot, you can highlight what you want to focus on by circling it. There aren’t many third-party app options at this point, but that’s often the case with a beta build. These are features that Android users have had courtesy of Gemini for a year or two, but at least now we get something similar on iPhones.
One quick tip: Make sure to tap the markup button (the little pencil tip icon) to see Visual Intelligence in your screenshots. I initially thought my beta build was missing the feature, but it was just hidden behind the markup menu.
More broadly, Apple Intelligence continues to work well, but doesn't stand out in any particular way. We’re still waiting for Siri to receive its promised upgrades. Still, iOS 26 appears to have improved the performance of many features that use the iPhone’s onboard machine learning models. Since the first developer build, voice memos and voice notes are not only much faster, but also more accurate, especially with accents that the system previously struggled with.
Apple Intelligence’s Writing tools — which I mainly use for summarizing meetings, conference calls and even lengthy PDFs — doesn't choke with more substantial reading. On iOS 18, it would struggle with voice notes longer than 10 minutes, trying to detangle or structure the contents of a meeting. I haven’t had that issue with iOS 26 so far.
Van life vlogger, bald or running for Congress?
Image by Mat Smith for Engadget
Genmoji and Image Playground both offer up different results through the update. Image Playground can now generate pictures using ChatGPT. I’ll be honest, I hadn’t used the app since I tested it on iOS 18, but the upgrades mean it has more utility when I might want to generate AI artwork, which can occasionally reach photorealistic levels.
One useful addition is ChatGPT’s “any style” option, meaning you can try to specify the style you have in mind, which can skirt a little closer to contentious mimicry — especially if you want, say, a frivolous image of you splashing in a puddle, Studio Ghibli style.
Apple also tweaked Genmoji to add deeper customization options, but these AI-generated avatars don’t look like me? I liked the original Genmoji that launched last year, which had the almost-nostalgic style of 2010 emoji, but still somehow channeled the auras of me, my friends and family. This new batch are more detailed and elaborate, sure, but they don’t look right. Also, they make me look bald. And contrary to my detractors, I am not bald. Yet. This feels like a direct attack, Apple.
You might feel differently, however. For example, Cherlynn said that the first version of Genmoji did not resemble her, frequently presenting her as someone with much darker skin or of a different ethnicity, regardless of the source picture she submitted.
Still, the ability to change a Genmoji’s expression, as well as add and remove glasses and facial hair through the new appearance customization options, is an improvement.
A Camera app redesign for everyone
Image by Mat Smith for Engadget
Apple has revisited the camera app, returning to basics by stripping away most of the previously offered modes and settings — at least initially — to display only video and photo modes.
You can swipe up from the bottom to see additional options, like flash, the timer, exposure, styles and more. You can also tap on the new six-dot icon in the upper right of the interface for the same options, though that requires a bit more of a reach. These behave in line with the new Liquid Glass design and you’ll see the Photo pill expand into the settings menu when you press either area. Long-pressing on icons lets you go deeper into shooting modes, adjusting frame rates and even recording resolutions.
What I like here is that it benefits casual smartphone photographers while keeping all the settings that more advanced users demand. None of the updates here are earth-shattering, though. I hope Apple takes a good look at what Adobe’s Project Indigo camera app is doing — there are a lot of good ideas there.
One extra improvement if you use AirPods: Pressing and holding the stem of your AirPod (if it has an H2 chip) can now start video recording.
Apple Music tries to DJ
Alongside the Liquid Glass design touches, the big addition to Apple Music this year is AutoMix. Like a (much) more advanced version of the crossfade feature found on most music streaming apps, in iOS 26, Music tries to mix between tracks, slowing or speeding up tempos, gently fading in drums or bass loops before the next song kicks in. Twenty percent of the time, it doesn’t work well — or Apple Music doesn’t even try. But the new ability to pin playlists and albums is useful, especially for recommendations from other folks that you never got around to listening to.
Messages get a little more fun
Image by Mat Smith for Engadget
Apple is making Messages more fun. One of the ways it’s doing so is by enabling custom backgrounds in chats, much like in WhatsApp. I immediately set out to find the most embarrassing photo of my colleague (and frenemy) Cherlynn Low and make it our chat background. I know she’s also running iOS 26 in beta, so she will see it. [Ed. note: Way to give me a reason to ignore your messages, Mat!]
Apple’s Live translation now works across Messages, voice calls and FaceTime. Setting things up can be a little complicated — you’ll first need to download various language files to use the feature. There’s also some inconsistency in the languages supported across the board. For instance, Mandarin and Japanese are supported in Messages, but not on FaceTime yet. In chats, if your system language is set to English or Spanish, then you’ll only be able to translate into English or Spanish. For those polyglots out there, if you want to translate incoming Japanese texts into German, you’ll need to set your device's language to German.
While I didn’t get to flex my Japanese abilities on voice calls and FaceTime, iOS 26 was more than capable of keeping up with some rudimentary German and Spanish. I’m not sure if I’d rely on it for serious business translation or holiday bookings, but I think it could be a very useful tool for basics.
There’s also the ability to filter spam messages to their own little folder (purgatory). Spam texts remain a nightmare, so I appreciate any potential weapons in the fight. Sadly, it hasn’t quite manage to deal with the TikTok marketing agencies and phone network customer services that continue to barrage my Messages. Still, hopefully Apple will continue to improve its detection algorithms.
One more tool in the battle against spam: You can mute notifications for Messages from unknown numbers, although time-sensitive alerts from delivery services and rideshare apps will still reach you.
New apps are hit-or-miss
Not everything in the beta lands, however. I’ve already touched on how Liquid Glass was initially a semi-transparent mess. The Games App, too, seems like an unnecessary addition. Because it’s a blend of the Games tab of the App Store and a silo of your preinstalled games, I’m not sure what it’s adding. It’s not any easier to navigate, nor does it introduce me to games I want to buy.
Cherlynn did want to highlight that for a casual gamer like herself, it’s intriguing to see if the Games app might start to recommend more mind-numbing puzzles or farming simulations. She was also intrigued by the idea of a more social gaming experience on iOS, issuing challenges to her friends. Still, because the phone she has been testing the beta on doesn’t have access to all her contacts or her gaming history, the recommendations and features are fairly limited at the moment.
Games is one of two new apps that will automatically join your home screen. (Fortunately, they can be uninstalled). The other is Preview, which should be a familiar addition to any Mac user. It offers an easy way to view sent or downloaded files, like menus, ticket QR codes and more. During the developer beta, the app pulled in a handful of my documents that previously lived in the Files app. Navigation across both those apps is identical, although Preview is limited to files you can actually open, of course.
AirPods, upgraded
This is more iPhone-adjacent, but iOS 26 includes several quality-of-life improvements for some of Apple’s headphones. First up: notifications when your AirPods are fully charged, finally! The Apple Watch got this kind of notification back in iOS 14, so it’s great to see Apple’s headphones catch up.
Apple is also promising “studio-quality sound recording” from the AirPods, augmenting recordings with computational audio improvements. There’s a noticable bump in audio quality. It appears that AirPods 4 and AirPods Pro 2 will record files at a sample rate of 48 kHz, which is double the rate used in the past. The sample rate bump happened last year, but it is dependent on what the app you're using. Is it “studio quality”? I don’t think so, but it’s an improvement. While recordings sound slightly better in quiet locations, the bigger change is in loud environments. The algorithm doesn't appear to be degrading audio quality as much while trying to reduce background noise.
iOS 26 also adds sleep detection to the buds. If the AirPods detect minimal movement, they’ll switch off automatically, which could be helpful for the next time I’m flying long-haul.
Wrap-up
In iOS 26, Apple has prioritized design changes and systemwide consistency over AI-centric software and features. While Liquid Glass is a big change to how your iPhone looks, Apple has drawn from user feedback to finesse the design into feeling less jarring and gelling better when the home screen, Control Center and Notification drop-downs overlap with each other.
There are numerous quality of life improvements, including Messages and Visual Intelligence, in particular. If anything, the AI elephant in the room is the lack of any substantial updates on Siri. After the company talked up advanced Siri interactions over a year ago, I’m still waiting for its assistant to catch up with the likes of Google.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/ios-26-beta-preview-liquid-glass-is-better-than-you-think-172155402.html?src=rss
You can now take Apple's 2026 software for a spin. The first public betas for iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 26, watchOS 26 and tvOS 26 are now available, and we have directions on updating your devices if you're feeling brave.
The two most obvious changes serve to unify Apple's platforms. First, we have Apple's biggest cosmetic overhaul to date. Liquid Glass is the company's name for the shiny, translucent redesign that will be heading to its software this fall. The other significant change is in the numbering. Apple traded its old chronological system for a year-based one. Since 2026 is when the software will spend the bulk of its time in the spotlight, "26" it is.
Apple
iOS 26 brings new personalized backgrounds and polls to Messages. Live Translation is another new arrival, making it easier to communicate in Messages, FaceTime and Phone. In addition, Visual Intelligence inches forward: It now lets you interact with content on your iPhone's screen. There are also new screening tools to decide whether a conversation is worth your time. The Phone app even includes Hold Assist, which listens to the Muzak so you don't have to. Check out our preview of iOS 26 for more.
Arguably, Apple's most significant update this year is iPadOS 26. The new software makes Apple's tablet more of a workhorse. The iPad finally has desktop-like window management and Menu Bar dropdown entries. It even includes the Preview app and Exposé, both familiar to Mac users. The update should do a lot to calm the fury over the iPad Pro's wasted productivity potential. We got into the details of the iPadOS 26 public beta and found the new multitasking features to be a big deal.
Apple
Meanwhile, Apple's Mac software adopts the "26" branding without ditching California landmarks. macOS Tahoe 26 adds the Phone app and Live Activities from the iPhone. The update also introduces a more advanced Spotlight that allows you to take actions directly from the launcher. Here's our first look at macOS Tahoe 26.
Finally, watchOS 26 adds Workout Buddy, a virtual fitness coach. The AI-powered feature learns from your fitness history to "identify meaningful insights in real time." A text-to-speech model then communicates those to you verbally. "You're crushing it — closing that move ring for six straight days!"
Although the public betas are less risky than installing a developer beta on day one, remember that this is still pre-release software. Only go this route if you're comfortable with the inherent risks, which could include buggy apps and unpredictable battery life. It also can't hurt to make a local backup of your device before taking the plunge.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/apples-ios-26-ipados-26-macos-tahoe-26-and-watchos-26-public-betas-are-ready-to-download-170800133.html?src=rss
The latest version of iOS will arrive officially this fall, but you don’t need to wait to start testing the software on your iPhone, thanks to Apple’s public beta rollout. Here’s everything you need to know about setting up the iOS 26 beta, along with the respective betas for iPadOS 26 and watchOS 26, which Apple also revealed in its WWDC 2025 keynote.
Before we get started:, no, you haven’t accidentally slept through eight versions of major Apple OS updates. In case you missed the news, from now on all of the company’s various operating systems will be named after years to keep everything aligned and easy to follow. So rather than iOS 19, we’re getting iOS 26 this year, which refers to the year after each update rolls out. Presumably that’s because we’ll be using it for longer in 2026 than what will remain of this year once the full version is in the wild.
It’s also important to keep in mind that any beta is software in a pre-release state, meaning it's far more likely you’ll encounter bugs, crashes and other issues with apps and in general use, which Apple and third-party developers will attempt to fix before the final version rolls out to users worldwide.
Install any beta at your own risk and think carefully before doing so with the device you use every day. It’s also very important that you back up any device you want to test software on before you download it.
If your iPhone isn’t listed above, that probably means it’s too old to run iOS 26, so you’ll need to upgrade to one of the listed models.
How to install the iOS 26 beta
Installing betas used to be a fiddly process, but it’s very easy these days. If it’s your first time installing an iOS public beta, you’ll need to first visit the Apple Beta Software Program website and sign up using your Apple credentials.
After that, navigate to Settings > General > Software Update on your compatible iPhone, and choose “iOS 26 public beta”. You should then see the option to download and install the beta software.
Here are the supported models for the iPadOS 26 beta
iPad Pro (M4)
iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation or later)
iPad Pro 11-inch (1st generation and later)
iPad Air (M3)
iPad Air (M2)
iPad Air (3rd generation and later)
iPad (A16)
iPad (8th generation and later)
iPad Mini (A17 Pro)
iPad Mini (5th generation and later)
How to install the iPadOS 26 public beta
Like with iOS above, you’ll need to first visit the Apple Beta Software Program website and sign up using your Apple credentials if you’ve never taken part in one before.
After that, navigate to Settings > General > Software Update on your supported iPad, and choose “iPadOS 26 public beta”. You should then see the option to download and install the beta software in the Software Update screen.
While Apple Watch users can also participate in beta programs in the same way as iOS and iPadOS testers, doing so carries greater risk. That’s because if you’re not enjoying the experience and decide you want to downgrade to watchOS 11, well, you can’t. Apple doesn’t allow it. And if you downgrade your watch’s paired iPhone to iOS 18, your Apple Watch won’t work correctly with your phone until it’s back on the new software version. You can, however, leave your Apple Watch on watchOS 11 when your phone is on the iOS 26 beta.
Be extremely sure, then, that you’re comfortable with the possibility of waiting it out for a few months with an Apple Watch plagued with issues before downloading the watchOS 26 beta. For most people, it likely isn’t worth the hassle.
watchOS 26 supported devices
You’ll need one of these models to run the watchOS 26 beta
Apple Watch SE. (2nd generation)
Apple Watch Series 6
Apple Watch Series 7
Apple Watch Series 8
Apple Watch Series 9
Apple Watch Series 10
Apple Watch Ultra
Apple Watch Ultra 2
How to install the watchOS 26 public beta
If you've assessed the risks for your Apple Watch and still choose to install the watchOS 26 beta, you’ll first need to have already updated your paired iPhone to the iOS 26 beta (see above).
After that, make sure your Apple Watch is paired to your iOS 26-running iPhone and open the Watch app on your iPhone. Then, navigate to General > Software Update, and choose the watchOS 26 public beta. After doing that, you should be able to download the beta software.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/how-to-install-the-ios-26-public-beta-171117199.html?src=rss
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