iOS 26 is a huge update for iPhone, with a Liquid Glass design and many new features for built-in apps like Wallet, Messages, and Music. One popular app, Apple Calendar, was largely overlooked this year, but it gained a key new advantage: creating events via screenshots.
Adding events to Calendar is now as easy as taking a screenshot
If you’ve used iOS 26 a lot, you may have noticed that it changes the default behavior of screenshots.
Rather than screenshots appearing as a floating thumbnail in the bottom left corner, they now open a full-screen UI by default.
You can always revert to the old behavior if you want.
But the main reason for this change is that Apple has upgraded screenshots with new “visual intelligence” powers on all AI-enabled iPhones.
One of these new screenshot features is in Apple’s Calendar app.
Take a screenshot of anything that contains a calendar event, and iOS 26 offers a handy new button at the bottom of the screen: “Add to Calendar.”
Note: This button only appears in the default full-screen UI. So if you’ve returned to the thumbnail view, you’ll need to tap the thumbnail first to see it.
How “Add to Calendar” works in iOS 26
“Add to Calendar” does exactly what it sounds like. Using Apple Intelligence, the event details shown in your screenshot will be transformed into an actionable calendar event.
After clicking “Add to calendar”, you will have an exact overview of what is happening on your calendar. If everything looks correct, you can click “Create Event” and you’re done.
If you need to change a detail, there is an “Edit” button that loads the Calendar app’s standard event creation panel. For me, a common use of “Edit” is to edit the calendar I’m adding to.
Once you get used to adding calendar events this way, it becomes an interesting differentiator for Apple’s default Calendar app.
And if you still prefer to use a third-party app, try adding your calendar account credentials in Settings ⇾ Apps ⇾ Calendar ⇾ Calendar Accounts of iOS 26. Depending on your calendar service and app, this could potentially create data sync issues. But if these turn out to be no issues, you can benefit from Apple Calendar’s screenshot feature even if most of your calendar happens in a separate app.
Have you used the new “Add to Calendar” screenshot feature in iOS 26? How did it work for you? Let us know in the comments.
