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Apple’s iOS 26 software update for iPhones is available Monday to people who have an iPhone 11, iPhone SE 2, and later. The marquee feature of iOS 26 is Apple’s Liquid Glass design, which includes elements on-screen that resembled a “glassy” look. Other features include a call screening assistant, a new gaming and preview app, in-app translation across the system, and updates to Genmoji and Image Playground apps.
The operating system update also went through a big numerical change as Apple jumped from iOS 18 to iOS 26 for two key reasons. First, it wanted to bring all operating systems — iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, and VisionOS — in sync. And it also wanted to reflect the year number in which the majority of the people will use this update.
Liquid Glass design has been the most significant visual overhaul for iOS in years. Apple’s intention with this redesign was to take inspiration from the Vision Pro interface and apply it to all of its operating systems. The elements are meant to look like they are made of translucent glass. This resulted in challenges in terms of readability and how elements in the background look.
Image Credits:Apple
Since June, Apple has made several changes to how “glassy” the interface looks through beta releases. While the company is releasing the stable version of iOS 26 today, we might expect visual tweaks for improved readability and usability in the coming months. This visual change might take a bit of time for users to adjust, and they might not like certain elements right away.
The Phone app has a new unified look where your favorites are up top in a card format with recents and voicemails on the same screen. You can tap the filter button on the top right and look at these sections individually as well. (If you don’t like the new interface, Apple also gives you an option to switch to the classic look.)
In addition, iOS 26 brings a call-screening feature to iPhones, which is a personal favorite. When an unknown number calls you, the system asks for their name and the purpose of the call. Once they give this information, the system invokes the ringer and notifies you of the call. You can look at the conversation and interject at any time. Transcription of voicemail doesn’t work well for all languages, but call screening has reduced the number of calls I’ve had to pick up.
Image Credits:Apple
There’s also a holding assist for when a restaurant or a helpline places you on hold; you can use call assist to notify when an agent starts talking again.
The Messages app is getting to feature party with other chat apps like WhatsApp and Telegram with backgrounds, new conversation flow, polls, text selection, photo previews, and typing indicators in groups. Apple has been working on SMS filtering for a few years now. The company said it updated its spam filtering with this release. Plus, it places messages from unknown senders in a new folder. One thing I didn’t like about this update is that it takes me a couple of taps to go to the transactions tab.
Image Credits:Apple
The games app overhaul means that you can look at the games you are playing (or have played), arcade games, challenges, and achievements in one place, along with suggestions for new titles. The app also shows you what your friends are playing.
Apple finally added Mac’s Preview app to iOS 26, which means you can edit, annotate, and sign PDFs more easily.
Meanwhile, Apple Music now has automixing for dynamic song switching, along with lyrics translation and pronunciation. What’s more, you can pin your favorite songs and playlists.
Image Credits:Apple
With iOS 26, Apple Maps lets you define preferred routes while commuting. In case your choice of route has more traffic or any incidents, Maps sends you a notification along with suggesting alternative routes. The app also lets you easily view visited places through a new places library.
The Camera app in iOS 26 adopts the Liquid Glass design with only Video and Photo options visible by default. You can scroll to the left or right to switch between different modes. Apple has placed some controls like Flash and Night mode on the top right, and you can switch them on/off with one touch. For more options like filters, styles, exposure controls, and timer, you can swipe up from the bottom of the screen.
Image Credits:Apple
If you didn’t like the previous Photos app design, the tabs are back in this version.
Unlike last year’s grand launch of Apple Intelligence, this year’s operating system is light on AI features, especially given delays in launching and rolling out features. The company is making AI-powered translation easily available in apps like Messages, FaceTime, and Phone. Currently, this feature supports English (U.K., U.S.), French (France), German, Portuguese (Brazil), and Spanish (Spain).
Image Credits:Apple
Through iOS 26, the company is also launching live translation on AirPods, including the newly launched AirPods Pro 3, AirPods Pro 2, and AirPods 4.
Also, iOS 26 updates visual intelligence to understand the content on the screen. You have to press Power + the volume down button to bring up this menu. Apple Intelligence can then suggest events to add to your calendar. You can also ask questions about the content on the screen, using Google Visual Search or ChatGPT. Apple is also releasing its own “Circle to search” called Highlight.
The most confusing part about this update is that the buttons used to bring up on-screen visual intelligence are the same as the screenshot button. Because of this, it takes an extra step to save a screenshot, and I have forgotten to save some important screenshots.
Image Credits:Apple
Apple is updating Genmoji with iOS 26 to let you merge two emojis with a text prompt and make something new. You can now add expression to people in both Genmoji and Image Playground. Update to Image Playground now allows you to modify attributes like hair and facial hair, along with new styles from ChatGPT.
