iOS 26: Key New Features

[justseyi]

Here’s a rundown of the most important changes coming this fall:

Phone app redesign: See contacts, recent calls, and voicemail all on one screen. Plus, new Hold Assist alerts you when a rep picks up, sparing you endless hold music.

Live Translation: Works in Phone, FaceTime, and Messages. Conversations are translated in real time across languages, though with slight pauses.

Polls in group chats: Skip the 100-message debate. Friends can now vote directly on where to eat or what to do.

Spam filtering in Messages: Unknown senders get routed into a separate folder, keeping scams and spam out of your main inbox.

Visual Intelligence: Screenshot anything and search for it instantly (like shoes spotted on Instagram). Works like reverse image search, but built into iOS.

Photos tabs return: Library and Collections get their own sections again after last year’s controversial changes.

Camera app refresh: Buttons and menus are easier to reach, plus a new warning tells you if your lens is dirty.

FaceTime Communication Safety: Detects nudity, pausing communication automatically — part of Apple’s child safety measures, done on-device.

Lock screen upgrades: More widgets, 3D wallpaper effects, customizable clock, improved Focus modes.

Alarms reworked: Change snooze intervals from 1 to 15 minutes (no more forced 9-minute snooze).

Screenshots redesigned: Highlight-to-search, instant Google lookups, and ChatGPT integration to ask questions about your screenshot.

New animations: A bounce effect appears on the passcode screen and Control Center.

iPadOS 26: What’s New
Your iPad is getting major updates too:

Multitasking with real windowing: Run multiple resizable apps on screen simultaneously.
Liquid Glass: Same translucent redesign as iOS.
New menu bar: Swipe down to access File, Edit, Windows, and search tools.
(Read our iPadOS 26 first impressions here.)

AirPods Updates with iOS 26
AirPods will gain new tricks this fall:

Studio-quality recording: Clearer voice capture, even in noisy places.
Camera remote control: Press to snap photos or start video recording, with a 3-second countdown.
Live translation (rumored): A hidden beta asset suggests pressing both stems may trigger real-time translation.
Heart rate monitoring (rumored): Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports new AirPods Pro may track heart rate, syncing with Health.

Siri: Still Waiting
Don’t expect big Siri improvements yet. Apple delayed its AI-powered Siri overhaul (announced at WWDC 2024) to “sometime in the coming year.” Reports suggest it could integrate OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Anthropic’s Claude, making 2026 a breakthrough year. Apple is also said to be working on a lightweight chatbot competitor to ChatGPT.

Which iPhones Support iOS 26?
Not all devices are making the cut this year. iPhone XR, XS, and XS Max (all from 2018) are no longer eligible.

Here’s the official compatibility list:

iPhone SE (2nd gen or later)
iPhone 11 / 11 Pro / 11 Pro Max
iPhone 12 / 12 mini / 12 Pro / 12 Pro Max
iPhone 13 / 13 mini / 13 Pro / 13 Pro Max
iPhone 14 / 14 Plus / 14 Pro / 14 Pro Max
iPhone 15 / 15 Plus / 15 Pro / 15 Pro Max
iPhone 16 / 16 Plus / 16 Pro / 16 Pro Max / 16e
The upcoming iPhone 17 lineup will of course ship with iOS 26 preinstalled.

How to Install the iOS 26 Beta
The iOS 26 public beta is live via the Apple Beta Software Program.

Sign up with your Apple ID.
Go to Settings > General > Software Update.
Select iOS 26 Public Beta to install.
⚠️ Warning: Beta software isn’t final. Install on a secondary device if you don’t want to risk bugs or crashes.

iOS 26 Release Date
If history repeats, iOS 26 will launch on September 16, 2025 — exactly one week after the iPhone 17 reveal. Last year, iOS 18 dropped the Monday after the iPhone 16 event. Expect Apple to confirm the official rollout date during the September 9 keynote.

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