At WWDC 2025, Apple unveiled its biggest iOS update yet—iOS 18 has now jumped to iOS 26. The reason? Apple wants a more unified naming scheme across all its operating systems.
The standout feature of iOS 26 is Liquid Glass, Apple’s fresh design language that takes clear inspiration from visionOS. According to Apple, it’s meant to make digital interactions feel more natural and alive. The UI now has crystal-like elements and a more dynamic touch response, though some might debate how readable the new design actually is.
The Lock Screen gets a Liquid Glass makeover, making it more responsive. The time widget can now adapt to your photo’s subject and the number of notifications you have. There are also new spatial scenes that add a 3D effect to wallpapers.
The Camera app gets the Liquid Glass treatment too, with a rounded UI and a swipe-up gesture that reveals all settings. Finally, all photo and video quality options are in one place.
Photos gets a visual refresh with new Library and Collections tabs. Plus, any 2D photo can now be turned into a 3D spatial scene.
Safari introduces a smaller, adaptive tab bar that blends into the page as you scroll and shrinks dynamically to give you more screen space.
FaceTime now has a landing page with personalised contact posters and video messages from your contacts.
The Phone app adds a favorites tab, with recents and voicemail listed below. Voicemail summaries are new, helping you save time. Contacts and the keypad are still accessible at the bottom.
Call Screening now fights spam calls by only ringing your phone after the caller states their name and reason for calling. Hold Assist helps keep your spot in line when calling businesses and notifies you when a real person picks up.
Messages gets new chat backgrounds, including AI-generated ones. Group chats now have polls, Apple Cash integration, and typing indicators. Spam detection tools from the Phone app also make an appearance here.
Live Translation, powered by Apple Intelligence, is built into Messages, Phone, and FaceTime. It provides real-time translations during calls and captions for FaceTime.
CarPlay gets the Liquid Glass redesign too, with light and dark modes, compact alerts for calls and messages, and new widgets. The same widgets from your iPhone will now work in CarPlay.
Apple Music gets lyrics translation, pronunciation help, and 3D album artwork animations on the Lock Screen. AutoMix improves song transitions, and Music Pins lets you save favorite songs, artists, and genres.
A new Games app serves as a hub for discovering, playing, and connecting with friends over games. It includes tabs for Home, Arcade, Play Together, and Library, along with updates and events.
Visual Intelligence introduces new tools like on-screen search (similar to Google’s Circle to Search, but with a few extra steps—take a screenshot, then use the Ask or Image Search tool). It can also pull text from event invites and integrates ChatGPT.
Apple Maps now learns your preferred routes and adjusts to your commute. A new Visited Places feature helps you revisit recent restaurants and locations.
Apple says the iOS 26’s developer beta is out today, with a public beta next month. The final version will launch this fall.