Find out what new features are coming to your iPhone with the iOS 26 update, and if your iPhone is compatible.
iOS 26: Summary
Apple has confirmed it is switching its iOS naming convention to match the year of release. This means the new version of iOS will be known as iOS 26, despite its September 15, 2025 release date.
iOS 26 is available in both Developer and Public Betas. The beta program will continue after the final release as Apple develops even more new features for iOS 26.
All iPhones released since 2019 will be able to install iOS 26, including iPhone 11, iPhone SE (2nd gen) and later.
With its new ‘Liquid Glass’ interface, iOS 26 will see the biggest design change since iOS 7 in 2013.
iOS 26 puts the ‘Phone‘ back in iPhone, with Voice Mail summaries, Call Screening, Hold Assist, and Live Translations.
During its WWDC keynote on June 9, 2025, Apple confirmed that it was working on the next version of the iPhone operating system: iOS 26, and revealed some of the upcoming features. Since then, we’ve seen both Developer and Public Betas of the upcoming software made available for testing, giving us greater insight into what to expect from the next iPhone operating system.
We found out at Apple’s big September event, at which it announced the iPhone 17, Apple Watch Series 11, and new AirPods Pro, that iOS 26 is due on Monday September 15. The software usually becomes available to download at 10am PT, 1pm ET and 6pm BST (U.K.).
For those of you who were expecting iOS 19, know that there’s lots more than a new naming convention to get excited about in iOS 26: not only does it bring the biggest design change we’ve seen since 2013, when iOS 7 dropped the skeuomorphic design in favor of flat icons, it also puts the phone back in iPhone, with several call enhancements–from Voice Mail Summaries and Hold Assist to Live Translations–that will make it feel almost like you have a personal receptionist at your service.
Digital security is top of mind for most of us these days–or should be. A focus for Apple is on-device spam filtering. iPhone will be able to screen calls before connecting you, while Messages will also filter out all types of scams and spam.
There are dozens of tweaks and improvements throughout iOS. Efforts have been made to clean up and simplify menus, including in the Camera app and brand-new Games app, while Visual Intelligence, Genmoji and Image Playground that were all introduced in iOS 18 have new functionality that makes them simpler to use and smarter than ever. Small but significant, one of our favorite tweaks is quite simply the ability to copy just part of a message rather than the whole thing.
In this article we will cover everything you need to know about iOS 26–when to download it, which iPhones are supported, how you can get iOS 26 now, what changes can be expected, and more. Read on to see what’s in store for iPhone (11 and later) users.
Wondering whether to install iOS 26? Read: iOS 26 vs iOS 18: What’s different, what’s new, and should you update?At a glance: What is new in iOS 26
Here are just some of the new features you will find in iOS 26, with more detailed further down this article:
Liquid Glass graphical user interface: A new translucent effect that mimics glass, with elements reflecting background content, and resizing to fit around onscreen items. Apple says Liquid Glass will blur the lines between hardware and software, and feel more like interactions in the physical world, with elements dynamically reacting to your touch.
Updated Phone app: New to this core iPhone app are Apple Intelligence-generated Voice Mail text summaries, Call Screening for spam calls, Hold Assist for connecting you only when you are #1 in the queue, and Live Translations for real-time audible translations in English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish (also available for FaceTime with translated live captions, Messages with auto-translated texts, and Apple Music with lyrics converted to your native language).
Apple Intelligence updates: Spanning Visual Intelligence, which now supports screenshots, and lets you ask ChatGPT for more information about the information and products shown in the picture, Genmoji, in which you can edit existing emoji, combine emojis and Stickers, and even change emoji expressions, and Image Playground, with support for ChatGPT styles and prompts.
Camera app overhaul: As with many iOS apps, the currently cramped Camera interface is getting simplified, with many of the less frequently used shooting modes and options tucked away. Plus, you can now add 3D effects to photos.
New Games app: A Home tab puts games Apple thinks you’ll like at your fingertips; a Library tab shows all games you’ve ever downloaded; and a Play Together tab shows you what your friends are playing, compare scores, and even challenge them. iOS 26 brings a standard set of touch controls for buttons, thumbsticks, dpads, throttles, and touchpads, too.
Some of the more overlooked new features in iOS 26 that are set to make a big difference include the ability to (finally!) create your own ringtone, an intelligent Adaptive Power mode that makes performance adjustments based on how you actually use your phone, and the ability to use AirPods as a high-definition microphone when shooting video. Newsflash: It’s iOS 26, not iOS 19!
The upcoming iOS version will be known as iOS 26, not iOS 19 as previously anticipated. In 2025, Apple is breaking with tradition and switching to a simpler naming convention that relates to the year, rather than a sequential number. It has chosen 26 rather than 25 because iOS 26 will not launch until late 2025, and will be the current iPhone operating system until late in 2026. Apple is using this new numbering system for all its 2025 operating system releases, including the next iPadOS update, macOS Tahoe, and the new watchOS.
iOS 26 makes the iPhone a better…phone? #wwdc #iphone #fypiOS 26 design and interface changes
New Liquid Glass design language.
General decluttering and simplifying of the interface and app menus.
The biggest change in iOS 26 is a visual one: a bold new redesign known as Liquid Glass.What is Liquid Glass?
The new design features a graphical user interface that Apple is calling Liquid Glass, which creates a translucent effect that mimics the qualities of glass.
The new Liquid Glass design language represents the biggest change to iOS since iOS 7 was introduced in 2013. Back then, Apple dropped the skeuomorphic design in favor of flat symbolic icons. This time everything is more curved, less flat, with translucent elements reflecting or refracting the content in the background, and resizing to fit around what is onscreen. The Liquid Glass elements will also change color to reflect the content beneath as you scroll, and it will be possible to see blurred and refracted elements of the background through the top layer.
Apple says that it will feel more like interacting with the physical world, with elements dynamically reacting to your touch. The company also says the changes “blur the lines between hardware and software”.
This new Liquid Glass design extends to all Apple products and apps. You’ll see the translucent effect on the Dock, widgets and icons. Panes, windows, buttons and menus will be presented as translucent layers with specular highlights.
Initial feedback to the new Liquid Glass design was negative with some beta testers complaining that content wasn’t visible due to the overlaying of menus over background images, later versions of the beta have dialled this back to make the menus more visible. iOS 26 interface changes
Apple says iOS 26 will also see design changes that simplify app interfaces to make the controls more visible. Apple is making it easier to find the tools you usually use, without the clutter of all the other features you don’t need.
Apple is adapting the interface to focus more on what is on the screen rather than cover things with tools and menu bars. Menus will shrink as you scroll to reveal the content below. Apple is also removing some of the clutter from menus to simplify things and emphasise the more frequently used options. For example, rather than occupying a rectangular bar at the bottom of the screen, groups of controls will appear on floating elements that pop out additional controls, change as you move between views, and are tucked away when you scroll.
These changes to the menus are designed to make it easier to access the features you use most often, and discover others. Apple is trying to make iOS and its apps more intuitive.
A good example of how these design changes will be applied is the Lock Screen, which will be more adaptive. The image you choose as your wallpaper will be scaled to fit the height and width of the Lock Screen and positioned to fill the available space around elements like the time. Additionally, the wallpaper image will slide up as notifications come in.Apple Intelligence in iOS 26
New Siri AI features not expected until later in 2026.
Improvements still expected for Visual Intelligence, Genmoji, and Image Playground at release.
Apple has been having trouble with some of its AI efforts, especially the Siri features that were touted at WWDC 2024. Apple had promised that iOS 18.4 would bring a major update to Siri, where it would be better at natural conversations with the user, using personal context, awareness of what is onscreen, and the ability to perform in-app actions.
Apple has since confirmed that these Siri-related features have been pushed back until 2026, which means they should come as an update to iOS 26, perhaps in March, but we could be waiting even longer.
Apple still had a number of impressive Apple Intelligence powered features to show off at WWDC though. In fact, some of the new features coming to Spotlight on the Mac look like some of the features promised for Siri.
Some of these new Apple Intelligence features will make a big impact in apps, especially the Phone app, which we will discuss below. Another beneficiary of Apple Intelligence is Visual Intelligence, which was introduced in iOS 18 and gains a very useful ability in iOS 26. Visual Intelligence
Visual Intelligence in iOS 26.
In iOS 18 you can use Visual Intelligence by holding up the iPhone to view something you are curious about, triggering Visual Intelligence (via the Camera Control button if you have one, or via the Control Centre if not) and viewing information about what you were pointing the camera at. It could identify a building, or offer to add the date from a poster to your calendar, for example. That’s all very well when you are out and about, but what about when you are just browsing the web and want to know where something someone is wearing is from or where a video is being filmed?
In iOS 26 it will be possible to take a screenshot and look up information about that image and products in it using Visual Intelligence. You can also ask ChatGPT for information about the screenshot. Genmoji
Also benefitting from Apple Intelligence is Genmoji, another feature that arrived with iOS 18. Genmoji lets you create custom emoji using AI. To create a Genmoji you type a description in the Describe an Emoji field and tap on Create New Emoji. You can use photos of people you know as a basis and refine the emoji until it represents what you are looking for. The emoji will then be available in your emoji keyboard to use.
In iOS 26 the Genmoji interface is getting a redesign. Users will be able to mix two emoji together, or alter an existing emoji to create something new, or even combine an emoji and a Sticker (which can be created from a photo). Users will be able to further customise emoji inside Image Playground, changing expressions. Image Playground
Image Playground, which is Apple’s app for making AI-generated images, arrived in iOS 18 and is getting an update in iOS 26.
