Liquid Glass, Live Translation, and All the Other Important New iOS26 Features Coming to Your iPhone

Whereas we nonetheless do not know what new {hardware} the iPhone 17 models is perhaps packing, now we have seen the large modifications coming to iPhone software program with iOS26. Liquid Glass delivers a major design refresh, and that is simply the place Apple is beginning. The Pictures app is getting a practical redesign, whereas Messages and Cellphone apps are placing energy again in your arms by delivering options round maintain, and screening calls. Apple Intelligence continues to be contributing as nicely, even when Siri has been delayed.

The following model of the working system is because of ship in September or October (possible with new iPhone 17 models), however developer betas are available now, with a public beta anticipated this month.

Clear new Liquid glass design

After greater than a decade of a flat, clear person interface — an overhaul launched in iOS 7 when former Apple Chief Design Officer Jony Ive took over the design of software program in addition to {hardware} — the iPhone is getting a brand new look. The brand new design extends all through the Apple product lineup, from iOS to WatchOS, TVOS and iPadOS.

The Liquid Glass interface additionally now permits a 3rd technique to view app icons on the iPhone residence display. Not content material with Mild and Darkish modes, iOS 26 now options an All Clear look — each icon is evident glass with no shade. Lock screens can even have an enhanced 3D impact utilizing spatial scenes, which use machine studying to present depth to your background images.

Dynamic and adaptable lock display

Translucency is the defining attribute of Liquid Glass, behaving like glass in the true world in the way in which it offers with mild and shade of objects behind and close to controls. But it surely’s not only a glassy look: The “liquid” a part of Liquid Glass refers to how controls can merge and adapt — dynamically morphing, in Apple’s phrases. Within the instance Apple confirmed, the glassy time numerals on an iPhone lock display stretched to accommodate the picture of a canine and even shrunk because the picture shifted to accommodate incoming notifications. The dock and widgets at the moment are rounded, glassy panels that float above the background.

Digicam and Pictures apps go much more minimal

The Digicam app is getting a brand new, simplified interface. You might argue that the present Digicam app is fairly minimal, designed to make it fast to border a shot and hit the large shutter button. However the second you get into the periphery, it turns into a bizarre mixture of hidden controls and unintuitive icons.

Now, the Digicam app in iOS 26 includes a “new, extra intuitive design” that takes minimalism to the acute. The streamlined design reveals simply two modes: Video or Digicam. Swipe left or proper to decide on extra modes, akin to Pano or Cinematic. Swipe up for settings akin to facet ratio and timers, and faucet for extra preferences.

With the up to date Pictures app, viewing the photographs you seize ought to be a greater expertise — a welcome change that customers have clamored for since iOS 18’s cluttered try. As a substitute of a protracted, difficult-to-discover scrolling interface, Pictures regains a Liquid Glass menu on the backside of the display. 

The Cellphone app will get a revamp

The Cellphone app has saved extra intently to the look of its supply than others: a sparse interface with giant buttons as in the event you’re holding an old school headset or pre-smartphone mobile phone. iOS 26 lastly updates that look not simply with the brand new total interface however in a unified structure that takes benefit of the bigger display actual property on as we speak’s iPhone fashions.

It is not simply seems which are totally different, although. The Cellphone app is attempting to be extra helpful for coping with precise calls — those you wish to take. The Name Screening function mechanically solutions calls from unknown numbers, and your cellphone rings solely when the caller shares their identify and motive for calling.

Or what about on a regular basis wasted on maintain? Maintain Help mechanically detects maintain music and may mute the music however preserve the decision related. As soon as a dwell agent turns into obtainable, the cellphone rings and lets the agent know you may be obtainable shortly.

Messages updates

The Messages app might be probably the most used apps on the iPhone, and for iOS 26, Apple is making it a extra colourful expertise. You possibly can add backgrounds to the chat window, together with dynamic backgrounds that exhibit the brand new Liquid Glass interface.

Along with the brand new look, group texts in Messages can incorporate polls for everybody within the group to answer to — no extra scrolling again to search out out which restaurant Brett urged for lunch that you simply missed. Different members within the chat can even add their very own gadgets to a ballot.

A extra helpful function is a function to detect spam texts higher and display unknown numbers, so the messages you see within the app are those you wish to see and never those that distract you.

Safari will get out of its personal means

Within the Safari app, the Liquid Glass design floats the tab bar above the online web page (though that appears proper the place your thumb goes to be, so will probably be attention-grabbing to see in the event you can transfer the bar to the highest of the display). As you scroll, the tab bar shrinks.

FaceTime focuses on calls, not controls

FaceTime additionally will get the minimal look, with controls within the lower-right nook that disappear throughout the name to get out of the way in which. On the FaceTime touchdown web page, posters of your contacts, together with video clips of earlier calls, are designed to make the app extra interesting.

New Music app options

Do you just like the sound of that track your good friend is taking part in however do not perceive the language the lyrics are in? The Music app features a new lyrics translation function that shows together with the lyrics because the track performs. And for if you wish to sing together with one in all her favourite Ok-pop songs, for instance, however you do not communicate or learn Korean, a lyrics pronunciation function spells out the appropriate technique to kind the sounds.

AutoMix blends songs like a DJ, matching the beat and time-stretching for a seamless transition.

And if you end up obsessively listening to artists and albums repeatedly, you may pin them to the highest of your music library for fast entry.

New Video games app is a reminder that sure, folks sport on iPhone

The iPhone does not get the identical form of gaming affection as Nintendo’s Change or Valve’s Steam Deck, however the reality is that the iPhone and Android telephones are used extensively for gaming — Apple says half a billion folks play video games on iPhone.

Attempting to capitalize on that, a brand new Video games app acts as a particular portal to Apple Arcade and different video games. Sure, you will get to these from the App Retailer app, however the Video games app is designed to take away a layer of friction so you will get proper to the gaming motion.

Dwell translation enhances calls and texts

Though not particular to iOS, Apple’s new dwell translation function is good on the iPhone if you’re speaking with others. It makes use of Apple Intelligence to dynamically allow you to speak to somebody who speaks a unique language in near-real time. It is obtainable within the Messages, FaceTime and Cellphone apps and reveals dwell translated captions throughout a dialog.

Maps will get extra private

Updates to the Maps app typically contain including extra element to well-liked areas or restructuring the way in which you retailer places. Now, the app takes notice of routes you journey incessantly and may warn you of any delays earlier than you get on the highway.

It additionally features a welcome function for these of us who get our favourite eating places blended up: visited locations. The app notes what number of occasions you have been to a spot, be {that a} native enterprise, eatery or vacationer vacation spot. It organizes them in classes or different standards akin to by metropolis to make them simpler to search out the following time.

New CarPlay options

Liquid Glass additionally makes its technique to CarPlay in your car, with a extra compact design when a name is available in that does not obscure different gadgets, akin to a directional map. In Messages, you may apply tapbacks and pin conversations for simple entry.

Widgets at the moment are a part of the CarPlay expertise, so you may deal with simply the info you need, like the present climate circumstances. And Dwell Actions seem on the CarPlay display, so you may know when that espresso you ordered will likely be achieved or when a good friend’s flight is about to reach.

Pockets enhancements

The Pockets app is already residence for utilizing Apple Card, Apple Pay, digital automotive keys and for storing tickets and passes. In iOS 26, you may create a brand new Digital ID that acts like a passport for age and identification verification (although it doesn’t exchange a bodily passport) for home journey for TSA screening at airports.

The app can even allow you to use rewards and arrange installment funds if you buy gadgets in a retailer, not only for on-line orders. And with the assistance of Apple Intelligence, the Pockets app may help you monitor product orders, even in the event you didn’t use Apple Pay to buy them. It will possibly pull particulars akin to delivery numbers from emails and texts in order that data is multi functional place.

New options powered by Apple Intelligence

Though final 12 months’s WWDC featured Apple Intelligence options closely, enhancements to the AI tech have been much less distinguished this 12 months, folded into the bulletins throughout the WWDC keynote.

As a substitute for creating Genmoji from scratch, you may mix present emojis — “like a sloth and a light-weight bulb if you’re the final one within the group chat to get the joke,” to make use of Apple’s instance. You may also change expressions in Genmoji of individuals you understand that you’ve got used to create the picture.

Image Playground provides the flexibility to faucet into ChatGPT’s picture era instruments to transcend the app’s animation or sketch kinds.

Visible Intelligence can already use the digicam to attempt to decipher what’s in entrance of the lens. Now the know-how works on the content material on the iPhone’s display, too. It does this by taking a screenshot (press the sleep and quantity up buttons) after which together with a brand new Picture Search choice in that interface to search out outcomes throughout the online or in different apps akin to Etsy.

That is additionally a means so as to add occasion particulars from pictures you come throughout, like posters for live shows or giant gatherings. (Maybe this might work for QR codes as nicely?) Within the screenshot interface, Visible Intelligence can parse the textual content and create an occasion within the Calendar app.

Some iOS 26 updates Apple did not point out

Not the whole lot suits right into a keynote presentation — even, or perhaps particularly, when it is all pre-recorded — however a number of the extra attention-grabbing new features in iOS 26 went unremarked throughout the huge reveal. For example:

• In case you have AirPods or AirPods Professional with the H2 chip, you should use AirPods Digicam Distant to begin recording video in your iPhone by urgent and holding one of many AirPods.
• You possibly can select your personal snooze length of between 1 and quarter-hour for alarms.
• Audio recording choices have expanded, enabling high-quality recording throughout convention calls and high-definition recording within the Digicam app with AirPods and AirPods Professional that include the H2 chip.
• Accessibility options embrace an “all-new expertise designed with Braille customers in thoughts,” extra choices for the Automobile Movement Cues function to keep away from movement illness and “a extra customizable studying expertise.”
• Reminders makes use of Apple Intelligence to “counsel duties, grocery gadgets and follow-ups primarily based on emails or different textual content in your machine.”
• The Journal app helps a number of journals, inline pictures and a map view that tracks the place journal entries have been made.
• Parental controls have been up to date in unspecified methods, together with “enhancements throughout Communication Limits, Communication Security and the App Retailer.”

iOS 26 availability

The completed model of iOS 26 will likely be launched in September or October with new iPhone 17 models. Within the meantime, builders can set up the primary developer betas now, with an preliminary public beta arriving this month. (Remember to enter any beta software program with open eyes and clear expectations.)

Comply with the WWDC 2025 live blog for particulars about Apple’s different bulletins.

iPhone fashions suitable with iOS 26

iOS 26 will run on the iPhone 11 and later fashions, together with the iPhone SE (2nd era and later). That features:

• iPhone 16e
• iPhone 16
• iPhone 16 Plus
• iPhone 16 Pro
• iPhone 16 Pro Max
• iPhone 15
• iPhone 15 Plus
• iPhone 15 Professional
• iPhone 15 Professional Max
• iPhone 14
• iPhone 14 Plus
• iPhone 14 Professional
• iPhone 14 Professional Max
• iPhone 13
• iPhone 13 mini
• iPhone 13 Professional
• iPhone 13 Professional Max
• iPhone 12
• iPhone 12 mini
• iPhone 12 Professional
• iPhone 12 Professional Max
• iPhone 11
• iPhone 11 Professional
• iPhone 11 Professional Max
• iPhone SE (2nd era and later)