Like any iOS update, iOS 26 promises exciting additions to your current iPhone. But before you get carried away by the new capacities that are only an upgrade, be sure to consult the small characters – because all the additions do not work on each supported iPhone.
Even if you have an iPhone capable of running iOS 26, all these features will not work on your device. Some require specific equipment, either because of processor requests or their dependence on artificial intelligence on devices.
To be fair, the most important changes by iOS 26 will work very well, no matter how much your iPhone is. The liquid glass interface introduced with this update will be visible on each iPhone that goes to iOS 26, and changes such as the new game application, messages improvements and card improvements work on all compatible phones.
But there are notable iOS 26 additions which have a more limited scope. And in most cases, it is because they rely on Apple Intelligence, Apple taking on AI, which means that you will need an iPhone 15 Pro, an iPhone 15 Pro Max or an iPhone 16 model to draw all the advantages. (You can also buy an iPhone 17 model in the fall, as they will also support Apple Intelligence.)
This does not mean that you have to rush and upgrade your iPhone now – there will be enough time to do it once the new models are coming this fall and you assess the advantages of obtaining a new device.
But if you plan to try iOS 26 – either as part of the public beta version that arrives in July, or the full version of the fall – you must be aware of the features that your phone may and cannot take advantage of. These are the iOS 26 additions that attracted my attention, which will only work on selected devices.
Adaptive power mode
Each iPhone will continue to offer a low power mode, which reduces refreshments for applications carried out in the background and the brightness of the DIMS display, all in the name of the preservation of power. But if you have an Apple Intelligence compatible iPhone, iOS 26 has an adaptive supply mode functionality which is supposed to improve the battery life.
Apple said that the adaptive power supply mode will make performance adjustments to your phone – adjust the screen brightness, slow down more background activities and generally allow your iPhone to last longer between the charges. This is a parameter that you allow, and it apparently starts when you use your phone for advanced tasks.
On devices, AI is responsible for making these energy consumption adjustments – hence the need for an Apple Intelligence compatible iPhone to take advantage of the advantages of the adaptive power mode.
Visual intelligence improvements
It should not be a shock that any new addition to Visual Intelligence requires an iPhone 15 pro or later. After all, Visual Intelligence has already only worked on selected devices – first with the iPhone 16 models exclusively and later with the iPhone 15 Pro and the iPhone 15 Pro Max after the iOS 18.4 update.
However, it is worth calling for improvements in the visual intelligence of iOS 26 because they are rather significant.
Previously, Visual Intelligence relied on the camera of your iPhone to search for information or create calendar entries when you have photographed posters and leaflets with dates and hours.
In iOS 26, these same tools will be available for screenshots, essentially allowing you to search for visually interesting elements that you meet with just a tap. You can also automatically create calendar events for emails, websites and SMS via Visual Intelligence in iOS 26 – but again, only if you have a more recent iPhone.
Live translation
Apart from the liquid glass, the management of real -time translations resembles the most radical addition to iOS 26. This is because it addresses a certain number of applications and activities on the phone, from telephone calls to video messages to text messages.
Live translations are also based on the AI on the device, so you will once again need an iPhone 15 pro or later to make it work.
Telephones are not the only restriction on this iOS 26 functionality. Live translations will only offer the support for certain languages initially. The messages will work with simplified Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish. French, Portuguese and Spanish support will reflect the languages spoken in France, Brazil and Spain, respectively.
As for telephone applications and FaceTime, they will support live translation for English, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish.
3D photo effects
Finally – an iOS 26 application which is not limited to devices that support Apple Intelligence. However, you will need at least one iPhone 12 if you want to take advantage of the function of space scenes to give your lock screen a 3D effect.
This does not leave too many iphones in the cold. The iPhone 11, the iPhone 11 Pro and the iPhone 11 Pro Max cannot include this 3D effect. I suppose that the iPhone SE (2020) will not be able to do it either, because it has the same bionic chip A13 as these phones.
Spatial scenes are built on the same technology used to create 3D effects in Apple Visionos, and you can also apply it to the images of the Photos Application. Presumably, the same device restrictions are also applied to it.
Remember suggestions
I use the task of reminders every day to stay informed of tasks and buzz with notifications when I have to take care of a task at a specific time. So, of course, any new functionality from this application will sting my interest.
Reminders do not get a great youthful cure with iOS 26, but that will gain a significant capacity – at least if you have a phone that can execute Apple Intelligence. Apple AIA will be able to use emails, texts and other things stored on your device to suggest tasks, follow-ups and grocery list.
Say my wife sent me a message to take bread from the store. IOS 26 reminders will be able to recognize this request and suggest adding it to the grocery list that I keep in the application – provided that I use an iPhone 15 pro or later by then.
Other features restrictions
Some iOS 26 features are not limited to more recent devices, but they have other restrictions that can affect your ability to use them. The most common restriction involves sustained languages.
Screening tools are a big addition of a marquee in iOS 26 which aims to reduce the number of robocals to which you answer and to spam which find their way in the messages. In the telephone application, calls for calls will answer the phone for you and discover why this person calls, while messages filter SMS from unknown shippers in their own separate tab.
But these two characteristics support only English, Cantonese, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Chinese Mandarin, Portuguese and the Spanish initially.
Hold Assist, another addition of the phone that pings you when he detects that you are about to be withdrawn, also has linguistic restrictions. It will work with English, French, German, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Portes and Spanish.
The musical application obtains a word translation function for certain songs. It will work with English to Chinese, English in Japanese, Korean in Chinese, Korean in English, Korean in Japanese and Spanish in English. Meanwhile, an accessibility tool for live legends works with the Cantonese, English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Chinese Mandarin and Spanish. In particular, French and Spanish support in live legends includes the spoken versions in Canada and Mexico, respectively.
Other iOS 26 characteristics are limited to specific countries. It is probably not surprising that the possibility of creating a digital identity document with your American passport in the portfolio will only be offered in the United States, for example, but the places visited in cards that record where you are going to start in Australia, Canada, Malaysia, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States, at the start.
