All the key updates for Apple iOS 26, as seen at WWDC 2025

Note: This article was first published on 10 June 2025.

As announced at WWDC 2025, Apple’s software rebrand has come to fruition. The iPhone’s 2026 operating system is now called iOS 26 (goodbye, iOS 19).

Apple iOS 26 and Liquid Glass

A significant design change to iOS 26 is the use of Apple’s new, cross-platform design language, Liquid Glass. This UI is reminiscent of the bright and translucent Frutiger Aero that was prevalent on consumer devices in the 2000s. 

The Liquid Glass design encompasses all core user elements. The Home Screen now features a glass pane animation when swiping up to unlock, and sub-menus now come in oblong-shaped glass-like “lenses” that allow app content to fill the phone edge-to-edge. Even the Camera app now gets a streamlined layout thanks to Liquid Glass.

This updated experience is extended to FaceTime call menus, Safari web browsing, and even Apple CarPlay, Apple’s in-car operating and navigation system.

Apps developed for iPhone are now also directly compatible with CarPlay and CarPlay Ultra.

Call Screening, Hold Assist, Live Translate in calls and texts

Apple iOS 26 also updated its communication features. 

The default Phone app now comes with an option to display your calls in a unified layout. The user’s favourite contacts populate the top of the app, followed by recent calls and voicemails in one list below. The Contacts sub-menu is located at the bottom. 

Call Screening is now built-in to iOS 26 and available for incoming calls. It uses voicemail to filter out the purpose of a caller before the phone rings you. Separately, Hold Assist helps users stay connected to a customer service hotline and notifies them when a call agent finally takes their call.

For Messages, it gets customisable Backgrounds where users can choose a chat wallpaper from their photos or generate one via Image Playground. Messages can also suggest Polls among group chats, in addition to sending and receiving money (Apple Cash) directly in the chat.

Messages also receive screening tools that check for unknown senders and direct them to a hidden inbox. Unknown senders can be whitelisted later, so they appear in your primary Messages inbox and menu view.

With Apple Intelligence comes Live Translation in Messages, FaceTime, and phone calls. Both calls and texts are translated in real-time. Calls will have a spoken translation of both voices in both directions. 

AI-powered translation also extends to Apple Music. Called Lyrics Translation, the AI enables song lyrics to receive translations and romanisation for easier pronunciation, along with interpretations of the song’s lyrics.

Apple’s Maps app is now more Google-fied with suggestions for route changes, routine detection, and even a history of locations you’ve visited, on top of user-level control over the data it tracks.

More digital car keys, drivers licenses, and even passports

Apple Wallet’s car keys feature is expanding to include even more automobile brands, and more U.S. states will have digital versions of their driver’s licenses. U.S. citizens can also have digital versions of their passports, although Apple cautions that it’s not a replacement for actual passports.

Boarding passes inside Apple Wallet now also feature real-time updates, extending existing Live Activities notifications. It can now access the traveller's information and integrate with Apple's Maps app to find its way to an aiport, on top of Find My integration for tagged luggage that are lost in transit.

Apple Pay now also comes with tracking of online orders, so there’s no need to head beyond Apple Wallet to keep track of deliveries if it's paid via Apple Pay. The company said that this information is pulled from the emails about your online orders.

Additionally, Apple Wallet now supports payments using reward points when purchases are made in-store. This requires the app developers to enable such a feature in their apps.

Games finally have a home

For gamers, Apple has now shifted all the games into its own “app store” called the Apple Games app. It consists of a Home tab that contains key updates to the games you currently play, next to game recommendations. Apple Games app also includes Apple Arcade, and it supports controllers. The social aspect of Apple Games is located in its Play Together tab, where you can connect with other iPhone-using friends for score-based leaderboards in both multiplayer and single-player game titles.

Screenshot to Search with Visual Intelligence

Visual Intelligence’s search prowess in iOS 26 is now extended beyond the camera, and it works in apps on the phone. For example, it can take a screenshot of a social media app to do an image search for clothes, furniture, food, and places. Visual Intelligence also works with the Calendar app when it detects a date, time, and location in its screenshot. This feature is also tied to ChatGPT via a separate "Ask" button, located opposite the "Image Search" button.

Shortcuts, the Settings feature to target phone gestures to app or phone functionalities, is now extended to cover Apple Intelligence features like Writing Tools and Image Playground.

Third-party apps can get some of these features, too

App developers for iOS 26 can utilise several new APIs introduced by Apple for their iPhone apps, such as the App Intent API and the Live Translate API, to achieve similar (if not identical) functionality and seamless app integration with the new tools.

Similarly, app developers can now utilise a new Foundation Models framework that leverages on-device Apple Intelligence to enhance their apps with a bit of AI and improve iOS 26 integration.

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