Microsoft rolled out new Windows 11 Insider Preview builds across the Beta and Experimental channels on September 25 2026, with practical upgrades focused on mobile phone continuity, accessibility, and power management. Experimental Build 26340.9577 and Beta Build 26220.9568 lead the release, with the Start menu's Phone Companion panel receiving the most significant attention.
Phone Companion Gets a Proper Upgrade
The headline addition is a substantially reworked Phone Companion panel anchored to the right side of the Windows 11 Start menu. It was previously a fairly limited static card showing basic battery status and a small handful of recent items. The updated version replaces that with a dedicated scrollable side pane showing an expanded feed of recent smartphone activity, including recent camera photos, incoming SMS and messaging alerts, and recent calls.
Beta Build 26220.9568 adds hover-based message previews on top of that. Hovering over an incoming text snippet in the Phone Companion flyout expands the full message in a lightweight tooltip, letting you read two-factor authentication codes or conversational replies without leaving whatever you are working on. The pane synchronises automatically with paired Android devices linked through Microsoft's Link to Windows service, and also surfaces quick media transfer tools and instant cellular tethering controls alongside your pinned apps.
Crosshair Pointer and Magnifier Contrast
Build 26220.9568 also introduces an enhanced Pointer Indicator tool found under Settings, Accessibility, and then Mouse pointer and touch. When enabled, prominent crosshair lines render around the cursor, making it immediately locatable across busy multi-monitor setups and high-DPI displays. The overlay can be toggled on and off at any time using Win + Ctrl + X.
A complementary addition lands in Magnifier, where a new contrast mode intelligently dims stark white backgrounds in native application windows without distorting the colour grading of embedded media like photos or video. It is a more considered approach than standard system-wide colour inversion, which tends to break the visual experience in browsers and media apps.
Energy Recommendations in Quick Settings
Experimental Build 26340.9577 surfaces Energy Recommendations directly in the Quick Settings flyout from the taskbar system tray, which is a sensible quality-of-life improvement. Previously finding these options required navigating to System and then Power and battery in the full Settings app. The Quick Settings toggle now puts one-click optimisations including display sleep intervals, dynamic refresh rate adjustments, and dark mode within easy reach, particularly useful on portable laptops and handheld PCs where battery endurance matters.
When It Reaches Everyone
These features are live now for enrolled Windows Insider participants in the Beta and Experimental rings. Following feedback collection and telemetry review, the Phone Companion enhancements and accessibility additions are expected to graduate to general Windows 11 production releases in cumulative updates later this autumn.