I’ve used iOS 26 for months: The 5 best updates | Tech News

Like different intrepid Apple followers and journalists on the market, I’ve downloaded and used the iOS 26 public beta software program for the previous couple of months on my iPhone 16. This is the official means to take a look at Apple’s upcoming iPhone software program earlier than it’s formally rolled out usually to thousands and thousands of iPhones internationally.

It’s all the time a bit dangerous to obtain iOS beta software program as there are bugs early on and issues can break – the entire purpose there may be a beta is to get people like me to make use of it so Apple and third get together app builders can see the place issues may go incorrect, and repair them.

And repair them they have to earlier than Monday, September 15, 2025, when iOS 26 will roll out to anybody with an iPhone 11 or newer. If that’s you, you is perhaps questioning what the fuss is about this supposedly large replace.

I’ve had iOS 26 downloaded and operating on my primary personal cellphone since July. Below I’ve picked out my 5 favorite new issues to watch out for which can be helpful or simply plain enjoyable.

In case you had been questioning, Apple is skipping from iOS 18, the eighteenth model, to iOS 26, the nineteenth model. The firm is altering the numbering of its software program to replicate the yr that the model can be longest in use globally – on this case iOS 26 in 2026.

Apple is making a large music and dance in regards to the look of iOS 26, which the firm has gone so far as to call ‘Liquid Glass’. You can presume this would be the look of your iPhone – and iPad and Mac – for the following few years as this design language can be carried via a number of variations.

It’s primarily based on the software program of Apple’s Vision Pro headset, and replaces the plainer icons and app components from iOS 18 with shiny, see-through, effectively, glassy seems.

It took some getting used to, and I didn’t prefer it at first. But after two months, now it’s simply what my iPhone seems like. Moaning about these types of adjustments is like when Facebook used to change what Facebook seemed like and everybody complained for a week or so. You’ll get used to it, and on an older iPhone it would go some method to making it really feel newer, which could prevent money by stopping you upgrading for one other yr.

As effectively because the glassy look of app icons and different UI components, you’ll be able to go all-out and make each app a serene see-through projection (see above) as half of app theming (mild, darkish and color tinted additionally accessible). I fairly prefer it, because it removes all the intense colors which can be there to get you to faucet on the apps and waste time on them. That mentioned, I now have no concept the place my apps are. Probably for the best.

And let’s not overlook, now you can make the clock large!

Apple Intelligence, Apple’s AI options are solely accessible on iPhone 15 Pro or later (and never the iPhone 15 or 15 Plus) they usually debuted on iOS 18, however in iOS 26 is the place you’ll discover the instruments more embedded.

If you don’t have one of these telephones, you’ll nonetheless get all of the visible adjustments that iOS 26 brings, however none of the AI.

I personally am not a fan of Apple Intelligence options equivalent to summarised notifications, the place a stack of texts from a contact on, say, WhatsApp seems in italics with the AI making an attempt to summarise every thing mentioned. It’s usually incorrect, and even when it’s not, you need to open the stack to determine what’s happening anyway.

I’ve been largely testing the addition of Visual Intelligence and ChatGPT. Hold down the Camera Control button on the facet of appropriate iPhones and it brings up the digital camera to scan what’s in entrance of you. You can faucet to ‘Ask’ or ‘Search’, and utilizing ChatGPT, which Apple has built-in into Siri right here, the cellphone will let you know about what’s in entrance of you.

It’s a little ropey, as are a lot of comparable AI instruments. It may higher inform me what kind of stoneware mug my espresso was in than the right model of varied Android telephones I needed to hand, for instance. It can even learn storefronts and use location information to find out what business you’re , and discover its web site.

It works effectively so as to add occasions to your calendar – stroll previous a poster or flyer and scan it (or grab a screenshot from Instagram) and the cellphone gathers all the information and pops up with ‘Add to Calendar’. In my testing this works effectively, and means you’ll by no means miss one other gig, car boot sale or subsequent knitting circle meetup.

If you utilize Apple’s own apps, you’ll see some visible and design adjustments. Messages now has a helpful filter that removes unknown senders out of your messages listing. This is great, as I obtain a lot of annoying however usually crucial texts from couriers and online providers, in addition to two issue authentication texts, they usually crowd up my messages. Now you don’t have that.

I nonetheless want you could possibly archive particular person message threads although, such as you on WhatsApp or in Google Messages. Sometimes I need to take away a thread from my listing with out deleting it solely, however you’ll be able to’t do this. But now you can add particular person message chats with customized backgrounds, both utilizing pictures or Image Playground, Apple’s AI era instrument.

Apple’s Mail app has a stable filter improve too, with Primary, Transactions, Updates and Promotions tabs. This has made me need to use the Mail app more, as I have a tendency to make use of Gmail however have gotten drained of the adverts. Mail is clearer and more usable now.

The Photos app has had a larger makeover, with easier Library and Collections tabs. It’s the identical within the digital camera app, which now has solely Video or Photo choices on the backside – however you’ll be able to scroll via to seek out all the opposite modes. It takes a whereas to seek out different choices in comparison with iOS 18, nevertheless it’s in all probability a signal that Apple is aware of hardly anybody adjustments something within the app, so it has been simplified for a higher point-and-shoot expertise.

Taking a leaf out of the Google Pixel’s guide are the new Call Screening and Hold Assist that do precisely what they are saying on the tin.

Call Screening is sort of palms on. It makes use of AI to guage whether or not you could be receiving a spam call, or not less than a call from somebody outdoors of your contacts, and the cellphone will decide up for you and ask who is asking. Your iPhone will buzz and show what’s being mentioned on the screen. It’s then up to you to choose up or cling up.

If you’re the one dialling up a call centre or a business the place you get put on maintain, Hold Assist will sit on the road for you so you may get on with one thing else, after which warn you when somebody picks up the call.

Another cool new instrument restricted to iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 16 and newer iPhones is Live Translation within the Phone, Messages and FaceTime apps. iOS 26 can translate a particular person talking in one other language and show the translated phrases as textual content on the screen of your cellphone. It can even translate the opposite means in some situations, nevertheless it’s a little unclear if the opposite particular person wants an iPhone, or iOS 26, or each.

Perhaps best of all, if in case you have a appropriate cellphone and AirPods 4 or AirPods Pro 2 (or the upcoming AirPods Pro 3), it is possible for you to to listen to the interpretation as audio in your earbuds.

I’ve been unable to check this specific function, however I’m eager to strive it when more people have iOS 26. Apple has proven videos of two people in an in-person assembly each sporting AirPods and talking to one another of their own language, with translations piped into each ears.

On one hand that feels a bit dystopian, however on the opposite, if these types of instruments can permit for communication the place in any other case it could be tough, it may show one of the best makes use of of AI up to now.

It definitely beats Genmoji.