Apple on Monday officially unveiled iOS 26 at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC 2025), marking one of the biggest overhauls to the iPhone experience in more than a decade.
In a move to eliminate version confusion, Apple has skipped iOS 19 and jumped straight to iOS 26 to bring version numbers in sync across all its operating systems — including macOS, watchOS, visionOS, and tvOS — for the 2025–2026 cycle.
Let’s have a quick look at the major features:
A Visual Revolution: Liquid Glass Design
The standout change? A dramatic new user interface (UI) called Liquid Glass, the first new major design update since iOS 7. Inspired by real-world glass, this sleek, translucent style reflects and refracts its surroundings, making navigation, app icons, sliders, and menus feel more alive and responsive.
One will see Liquid Glass throughout iOS — from app icons and widgets to the Home Screen and Lock Screen, making them more personal and expressive than ever.
For instance, on the Lock Screen, the time fluidly adapts to the available space in an image, and spatial scenes bring wallpapers to life with a 3D effect when the user moves the iPhone.
Liquid Glass is also available for iPadOS 26, macOS Tahoe, visionOS 26, tvOS 26, and watchOS 26.
Smarter Apps With Apple Intelligence
iOS 26 deepens Apple’s push into AI-powered features under the “Apple Intelligence” banner:
- Live Translation is now integrated into Messages, FaceTime, and Phone, translating text and audio in real time.
- Visual Intelligence can understand what’s on the user’s screen and take action on anything they’re viewing across apps, powered by ChatGPT integration.
- Image Playground lets users create AI-generated images, while Genmoji allows custom emojis by mixing characters and adding descriptions.
In the Photos app, a new Spatial Scene feature creates a 3D-like effect from regular images, while the app splits into separate Library and Collections tabs for easy navigation. Similarly, Camera and Safari benefit from simplified, cleaner layouts using the new design.
Everyday Improvements For Real-Life Convenience
Apple has packed iOS 26 with quality-of-life upgrades across the board:
- Messages now supports typing indicators in group chats, customizable chat backgrounds, and Apple Cash transfers. Users can also now screen messages from unknown senders, giving them more control over who appears in their conversation list.
- Call Screening and Hold Assist can intercept unknown calls or stay on the line for the user until a human answers.
- Apple Music gets AutoMix for seamless song transitions and Lyrics Translation for helping users understand the words to their favorite songs.
- Apple Maps now remembers Visited Places and predicts a user’s daily route based on habits.
- A new Apple Games app offers a hub for game discovery, leaderboards, and competitions.
- Car Play now includes a new compact view for incoming calls, which allows users to see who’s calling without missing important information like upcoming directions.
- Wallet supports instalment payments in-store and consolidates order tracking from emails, even if you didn’t pay with Apple Pay.
- AirPods users are in for a treat too: studio-quality audio recording and a new gesture on the camera remote to take a photo or start and stop a video recording on iPhone or iPad.
iOS 26 Availability
All these iOS 26 features are now available for testing for developers through the Apple Developer Program at developer.apple.com, with a public beta launching in July and a full release expected in September 2025, alongside the upcoming iPhone 16 line-up.
However, the iOS 26 update won’t support older models like the iPhone XR, XS, and XS Max, but it will run on all other iPhones that support iOS 18. However, features like Apple Intelligence require newer models with A17 chips or later (iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 series).
For more detailed information, you can check out Apple’s news release here.
