Apple has officially previewed iOS 26, a major for iPhone with new design, advanced AI features, and useful enhancements across its core apps.
Highlighted during the announcement were five iPhone 16 models showcasing the fresh look and features that iOS 26 brings.
One of the biggest visual changes is the introduction of Liquid Glass, a dynamic, translucent interface that reflects and refracts surroundings to create a more immersive experience.
This design spans the Home Screen, Lock Screen, and across system elements, making everything from app icons to widgets look livelier and more customizable.
The Lock Screen time now adjusts fluidly based on background images, and Safari, Music, and other apps get modernized interfaces that highlight content more clearly.
Under the hood, Apple Intelligence plays a central role in iOS 26. New features like Live Translation (in Messages, FaceTime, and Phone) allow real-time multilingual conversations.
Visual Intelligence enables your iPhone to understand what’s on your screen and take action, whether it’s adding calendar events from an image or searching for similar products online.
Apple also adds creative tools like Genmoji and Image Playground, allowing users to generate their own emoji-like images using AI.
The Phone and Messages apps also see major improvements. A redesigned Phone app now merges Favorites, Recents, and Voicemails in one view, with Call Screening and Hold Assist making calls more manageable.
In Messages, iOS 26 introduces polls, custom chat backgrounds, Apple Cash integration, and smarter message filtering from unknown senders.
CarPlay also gets a boost with CarPlay Ultra, bringing richer layouts, widgets, and messaging features like pinned chats and Tapbacks.
Apple Music now includes Lyrics Translation and Lyrics Pronunciation, helping users enjoy and sing along with music across languages.
Maps adds Visited Places with privacy-focused tracking of user destinations, and Wallet becomes even more organized and helpful.
Apple is also opening up new APIs and developer tools, allowing apps to take advantage of Liquid Glass effects and the power of Apple’s on-device AI models, all while prioritizing user privacy.
All of the new features from iOS 26 are now available for testing through the Apple Developer Program.
If you’re not a developer but still curious, you can try them out next month when Apple releases the public beta via beta.apple.com.
The official release of iOS 26 is set for this fall, and it will be a free update for users with an iPhone 11 or newer.
As for the Apple Intelligence features (like the new AI-powered Siri, Genmoji, and advanced writing tools), they’ll only be available on select devices:
Are you excited to update your iPhone?
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