If you replace to iOS 26 this fall, your iPhone goes to really feel dramatically completely different. There are all the time numerous new options in every main yearly launch, however few are as in-your-face as these this 12 months. There’s an all new design and dramatic adjustments to a number of the apps you utilize most, together with Cellphone, Digicam, Messages, and Safari.
Listed below are the most important adjustments coming to iOS this 12 months.
Leaping as much as 26
Apple is altering its naming scheme from sequential model numbers (which had been in all places, with completely different gadgets having completely different model numbers) to a year-based system. The OS variations that may carry Apple via 2026 will all be model “26.” So that you’ll have iOS 26, macOS 26, visionOS 26, tvOS 26, and so forth.
So don’t be confused—in your iPhone, 26 comes proper after 18!
Liquid Glass
Apple’s bringing an all-new design to iOS and all its different working programs. The featured factor is one thing it calls Liquid Glass, which implies interface components look nearly like glass…clear, 3D, reacting to gentle and your contact.
This impacts icons and widgets, which now have a brand new “clear” possibility along with gentle, darkish, and tinted modes. However it’s additionally a giant change to how interfaces work. Teams of controls now not occupy an oblong bar on the backside of the display, however are stuffed into floating components that come out extra controls, change as you progress between views, and tuck away whenever you scroll.
Apple
This new look will likely be present in Apple’s main apps, and throughout gadgets from Apple TV to Mac and Apple Watch.
Your wallpapers will get new dynamic powers, too. On the Lock Display, for instance, the time grows and shrinks mechanically to fill obtainable area in your photographs, and your photographs slide up as notifications are available in.
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Massive app updates
There are all the time updates to apps within the massive iOS replace, nevertheless it’s uncommon to see so most of the most-used apps altering so dramatically. Listed below are a number of the updates you’ll see this fall:
Digicam: The Digicam app will get a brand new simplified interface that emphasis simply Images and Movies and will get a lot of the different components out of the way in which. Swipe to the facet to indicate different modes like Panoramic or Gradual-mo, swipe as much as present all of your different picture controls, or entry all of your format settings on the high of the display.
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And the Images app is bound to please those that hate the adjustments from iOS 18, as a result of it now has two separate views: one on your library and one for collections, so you may kinda return to the way in which it was earlier than.
Cellphone: The principle display will pins your favourite contacts on the high, after which exhibits latest calls and voicemails in a single chronological checklist beneath. Apple Intelligence summarizes voicemails, too. For those who want your contacts or keypad, you’ll discover them in little “Liquid Glass” flyout menus on the backside of the display. Apple says the brand new view will likely be non-compulsory so in case you just like the outdated manner you may hold it.
However Apple is doing extra with AI to handle ache factors together with your cellphone. A brand new Name Screening possibility will reply calls silently within the background and let somebody describe why they’re calling. Then, you may see the textual content of what they stated in your display and determine whether or not to select up or not. Maintain Help is one other useful possibility. It mechanically detects maintain music and might mute the decision, permitting you to make use of your iPhone for different issues or work oso one thing else with out hanging up. Then, when the dwell agent connects, you’ll get a notification that it’s time to select up.
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Messages: There’s a brand new polls characteristic that’s positive to be common. You’ll be able to add a ballot to iMessage group chats and watch individuals vote in actual time, and AI will recommend polls whenever you ask a query that requires a number of responses. Message threads can now have persistent backgrounds (there are new dynamic backgrounds, or you may select your personal picture). If you get a textual content from an unknown sender, it now goes right into a separate checklist you entry via one of many Liquid Glass menus tucked away within the nook. They arrive in silently till you determine if that sender is legit or spam. However Apple will use AI to be sure to don’t miss necessary information equivalent to one-time authentication codes or texts from a restaurant or different waitlist.
Apple Music: You’ll be able to pin the music you want most, whether or not it’s an artist, album, or playlist. A brand new auto-mix possibility makes use of AI to circulation between songs like a DJ, fading between them and matching beats.
Maps: New AI instruments will acknowledge your most well-liked routes and floor them with information about journey time, and you’ll optionally let AI mechanically detect the locations you go to and hold them in a listing so you may simply recall or share particulars about locations you’ve been. They’re all saved with end-to-end encryption, so no one else (together with Apple) is aware of the place you’ve been. And you’ll delete any saved place with a swipe.
Video games: A brand new Video games app brings collectively your complete video games Library, all of the Apple Arcade video games, and your folks checklist. It’s designed for use in both portrait or panorama and to be navigated with a controller, too.
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Dwell Translation
New dwell, real-time translation instruments permeate iOS 26.
For instance, you may get real-time captions on FaceTime calls. For those who make a voice name, an AI voice can translate what you say to the particular person you’re calling, and translate what they are saying again to you. And that works even when the opposite particular person doesn’t have an iPhone.
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In Apple Music, you may get dwell translation for lyrics on songs in a overseas language. And for some languages, you may get a pronunciation information in actual time, so you may sing alongside in the overseas language.
And naturally, Messages will get translation instruments, too. What you kind could be translated into one other language as it’s despatched to another person, and their replies could be mechanically translated to your language.
Visible Intelligence in all places
Lastly, top-of-the-line options of iOS 18 (on supported iPhones) is getting a lot extra helpful.
Visible Intelligence was type of a digicam mode—it opens a digicam view and it’s important to take a photograph of one thing to get details about it, or add particulars to your contacts or calendar.
Apple
Now, Visible Intelligence primarily works with screenshots. Simply seize a screenshot of any webpage, social media publish, or no matter else you’ve bought in your display. You’ll be able to then spotlight an object or space you wish to get information on or seek for, however Visible Intelligence may even simply take a look at your screenshot to make options like calendar occasions or contacts so you may add them with a faucet.
In fact there are dozens of different options in iOS 26, so make sure to try all our WWDC protection as we dive into the main points.
