Hyderabad: Apple has announced the new iteration of iOS, bringing new design elements and features to the iPhone. The Cupertino-based tech giant has switched the naming convention for its platforms, aligning them with the year. This is why the new iPhone platform is called iOS 26 and not iOS 19. Other Apple platforms also follow the same naming convention, making it easier to recall the latest iteration of the software.
While Apple's new design, powered by material Liquid Glass, streamlines how Apple devices look and feel, the individual elements and features of each platform make them unique. Apple has introduced a bunch of new capabilities to iPhone with the iOS 26 update. Let's take a detailed look.
Apple iOS 26: New features and improvements
Liquid Glass UI: iOS 26 introduces a refreshed design using Liquid Glass, a translucent, dynamic material that enhances app icons, widgets, and system visuals. The Home and Lock Screens are more expressive, with adaptive time display and 3D spatial wallpapers. Apps like Camera, Photos, Safari, Music, News, and Podcasts feature cleaner layouts and floating tab bars. Developers can also use new APIs to bring Liquid Glass effects to their apps.
Apple Intelligence: iOS 26 brings on-device AI features to enhance productivity, communication, and personalisation, powered by Apple Intelligence, which include:
- Live Translation: Real-time text and audio translation in Messages, FaceTime, and Phone—fully private and processed on-device.
- Visual Intelligence: Lets users interact with what’s on screen—search, take actions, or get explanations via ChatGPT, Google, Etsy, and more.
- Contextual Suggestions: Recognises events on screen and suggests calendar entries with details like time and location.
- Genmoji & Image Playground: Users can create custom emojis and images using descriptions and existing emojis.
- Smarter Shortcuts: Apple Intelligence powers new, intelligent shortcuts, including actions for Writing Tools and Image Playground.
- Order Tracking: Automatically identifies and summarises delivery info from merchant emails—even without Apple Pay.
- Foundation Models Framework: Developers can integrate Apple’s private, fast, on-device AI into their apps for free, with offline support.
Phone: The Phone app now features a unified layout combining Favourites, Recents, and Voicemails. New tools include Call Screening, which shows caller info before answering, and Hold Assist, which alerts users when a live agent is available.
Messages: The Messages app now lets users screen unknown senders, placing their messages in a separate folder where they stay silenced until approved, deleted, or marked as known. It also gets custom backgrounds, poll creation, typing indicator in Group chats, and Apple Cash support.
CarPlay: iOS 26 enhances CarPlay with a sleek new design, including a compact call view that preserves navigation visibility. Messages now supports Tapbacks and pinned chats, while widgets and Live Activities keep users informed without distraction. These upgrades also extend to CarPlay Ultra for a fully integrated, seamless in-car experience.
Apple Music: Apple Music in iOS 26 adds Lyrics Translation and Lyrics Pronunciation for better understanding and sing-alongs across languages, plus AutoMix for smooth, DJ-style song transitions.
Apple Maps: Apple Maps now features Visited Places to track locations like restaurants and shops, with full end-to-end encryption. On-device intelligence also improves daily route suggestions and provides delay alerts with alternate routes.
Apple Wallet: Apple Wallet now supports in-store payments with instalments or rewards via Apple Pay. Updated boarding passes include Live Activities for flight updates and quick access to Maps, Find My, and other travel tools.
Other features: Additionally, iOS 26 brings several other features for iPhones, which span across browser, accessibility, parental controls, and more:
- iOS 26 introduces Apple Games, a hub for all games and Apple Arcade content with updates, events, and social features.
- AirPods gain studio-quality audio recording and camera remote control via the stem.
- Parental controls are expanded with easier Child Account setup, app download approvals, and content blurring.
- Safari offers enhanced privacy with default fingerprinting protection.
- New accessibility features include Accessibility Reader, Braille Access, and updates to Live Listen, Background Sounds, and Personal Voice.
