Unveiling iOS 26: All the New Features You Need to Know

iOS 26, bringing a new design and a host of new features to its operating system. This article will walk you through the most important and exciting updates you’ll find in the new version.

A New “Liquid Glass” Design

One of the biggest changes in iOS 26 is the new Liquid Glass design. This design combines the visual qualities of glass with a sense of fluidity to form the foundation of the new look.

Home Screen: Your app icons and widgets now have a fresh look, crafted from multiple layers of Liquid Glass. You can even customize them with a new all-clear glass look.

Dynamic Tools and Navigation: Apps like Mail, Notes, and Messages use Liquid Glass toolbars and navigation that dynamically transform to bring greater focus to your content.

Lock Screen and Controls: This new design makes interacting with your iPhone more delightful, from the Lock Screen and Control Center to app icons, controls, and navigation. Buttons, sliders, and switches come alive with the Liquid Glass effect as you interact with them.

New Camera and Photos Features

iOS 26 introduces several new features for the Camera and Photos apps, enhancing how you capture and manage your memories.

Refreshed Mode Wheel: The mode wheel has been refreshed to elevate the two most-used capture modes: Photo and Video. You can easily swipe to access other modes.

AirPods as a Remote: With AirPods or AirPods Pro that have an H2 chip, you can snap a photo or start recording a video by simply pressing the stem.

Lens Cleaning Hint: The Camera app will detect if your lens is smudged and display a message recommending you clean it for the clearest possible photo.

Spatial Scenes: Your photos can now come to life with a new 3D effect as you move your iPhone, thanks to a spatial scene generated from your 2D photos.

Other iOS 26 New Features

iOS 26 includes many other notable features that enhance daily use and productivity.

Messages:

Polls: You can now send polls to friends and family over iMessage to find out everyone’s availability or preference for dinner. Apple Intelligence can even suggest when a poll might be useful.

Backgrounds: You can make your conversations more personal with custom backgrounds. You can even create one using Image Playground.

Voicemail Summaries: Apple Intelligence powers new voicemail summaries that appear inline with your missed calls, so you can instantly see who reached out and what they said.

Safari:

New Tab Design: The new rounded tab design floats at the bottom of the screen. Safari now offers three options for this new design: Compact, Bottom, and Top.

Advanced Fingerprinting Protection: This privacy feature, previously limited to Private Browsing, now protects all browsing in Safari. It obscures browser and device data that can be used to create a digital fingerprint of users.

Maps:

Preferred Routes: Your iPhone learns and understands the routes you take between places you frequently visit, such as your commute from home to work. Maps will also alert you to significant delays and offer an alternate route.

Natural Language Search: You can search the way you talk with support for questions like “find cafes with free Wi-Fi”.

After the recent release of the iPhone 17, the talk about Apple has increased again with the introduction of these iOS 26 new features. Also, although Apple’s stock price has fallen, it will now recover with the arrival of iOS 26.