It’s official: iOS 26 arrives instead of iOS 19 this year, with Apple revealing the next iPhone software update to WWDC 2025.
It’s not just the name that changes, however. With the new nickname, the operating system has a brand new look which is clearly different from iOS 18.
Below, we have gathered five of the largest new features to come on your iPhone in iOS 26 – Updates to iPhone basic applications to a major aesthetic overhaul.
1. A major visual overhaul
The title of iOS 26 is its liquid glass design. Apple has abandoned a large part of the design language of iOS 18 and replaced it with something similar to visionos on the Apple Vision Pro, with translucent glass widgets and rounder corners on icons and menus.
This new look is not limited to iOS – a version of it is also applied to MacOS and other Apple interfaces, guaranteeing a more unified experience between Apple product ecosystems and the easier switching between them.
Apple says that Liquid Glass “will bring greater concentration to content and offer a new level of vitality between checks, navigation, application icons, widgets, and even more” in iOS 26, so we hope that this is not simply a visual upgrade.
2. A new telephone application
In iOS 26, Apple revises the telephone application for the first time in years.
The new version of the application offers a unified provision that puts favorites, recents and voice messages in one view, while a new call screening tool can collect information from a caller, helping you decide if not to accept the call.
On the subject of communication, messages also get major upgrades. More specifically, you will soon be able to filter the messages from unknown shippers, create personalized backgrounds and add WhatsApp style surveys.
Finally, the cats of the Imessage group in iOS 26 will include striking indicators, and you can request, send and receive Apple cash in these cats.
3. MAPES, wallets and musical upgrades
In addition to these updates aforementioned at Imessage and the telephone application, Apple also updates various other iphone basic applications in iOS 26.
In Apple Maps, for example, you will be able to see a list of places visited to help you remember where you have been, and your iPhone can use AI to better understand your daily route, and advise you if your usual route is subject to delays.
In Apple Wallet, iOS 26 introduces the payment option in several payments when you make shopping in stores using Apple Pay, and the shipment of boarding will offer the possibility of seeing and sharing live activities for real-time flight updates.
For Apple Music users, iOS 26 also introduces the translation of words to help you better appreciate your favorite songs, while a new word pronunciation feature will teach you to pronounce these bad rabbit sentences on which you think you have a master’s degree, but certainly not.
4. Apple intelligence improvements
We patiently waited for Apple AI to catch up with competition, but the company has announced a multitude of upgrades related to Apple’s information at WWDC 2025 which should help fill the gap.
Live translation, for example, finally arrives at messages, FaceTime and the telephone application, helping you to communicate between languages by translating both text and audio on the fly. This is a feature that the best Samsung phones and the best pixel phones have for some time, so we are happy to see it coming soon on the best iPhones.
Visual Intelligence, Apple’s point of view on Google Lens, also gets an upgrade in iOS 26. You will soon be able to search and act on everything you consult in any application, with Chatgpt in hand to answer questions about this content.
Other minor upgrades arrive in Genmoji, Playground and shortcut image, and Apple has also launched a new framework of foundation models, which opens access to any application in order to press the AI model directly on the iPhone device. Hopefully this means that more applications will soon be able to enjoy Apple Intelligence.
5. A dedicated game center
There is not much new applications in iOS 26, but the one that is included is a new game hub, Apple Games, which replaces Game Center as an all-in-one zone in which to find games, play them and follow achievements and rankings.
This seems in line with Apple’s push to simplify iOS, because you no longer have to bounce between several services to perform all these tasks. The same application will also arrive on Mac – therefore, as with Apple unifying its interface conceptions, it also seems to be a push to unify the available software.
