Apple today announced the preview of iOS 26 and iPadOS 26, massive updates that promise to redefine the user experience on iPhone and iPad with a stunning new design, powerful Apple Intelligence capabilities, and significant enhancements to core applications. The releases showcase a commitment to intuitive interaction, advanced personalisation, and seamless connectivity. The new naming scheme basically confirms what was previously rumoured a couple of weeks ago.
A Beautiful New Look with Liquid Glass
Both iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 introduce a revolutionary new design language crafted with “Liquid Glass.” This translucent material reflects and refracts surroundings, bringing content into sharper focus and adding a new level of vitality to controls, navigation, app icons, and widgets. This aesthetic overhaul extends to the Home Screen and Lock Screen, offering unprecedented personalisation options, including a stunning clear look for app icons and widgets.
The Lock Screen now features time that fluidly adapts to image space, while spatial scenes bring wallpapers to life with a 3D effect. Core apps like Camera, Photos, Safari, Apple Music, News, and Podcasts have also received refreshed layouts and design elements, prioritising content and streamlining user interactions.
Apple Intelligence: Elevating Every Interaction
Apple has enhanced its Intelligence capabilities to make devices more helpful and intuitive. Live Translation now powers real-time text and audio translation in Messages, FaceTime, and Phone, enabling seamless cross-language communication with the privacy of on-device models.
Visual intelligence extends to the iPhone screen, allowing users to search and act on anything they’re viewing across apps, from asking ChatGPT questions to finding similar products on Etsy. Genmoji and Image Playground offer creative new ways to express oneself, enabling users to mix emoji, Genmoji, and descriptions to generate unique visuals. Shortcuts are also more powerful, with intelligent actions powered by Apple Intelligence, including Writing Tools and Image Playground. Furthermore, Apple Intelligence can now automatically identify and summarize order tracking details from emails, centralising purchase information.
Staying Connected and Eliminating Distractions
The Phone app in iOS 26 receives a unified layout, combining Favorites, Recents, and Voicemails. New features like Call Screening build on Live Voicemail, providing details to decide on incoming calls, while Hold Assist notifies users when a live agent is available.
In Messages, users gain more control with the ability to screen messages from unknown senders into a dedicated folder. Enhancements to conversations include custom backgrounds, the ability to create polls (with intelligent suggestions), typing indicators in group chats, and the ability to request, send, and receive Apple Cash.
CarPlay, Apple Music, Maps, and Wallet Get Smarter
CarPlay receives a beautiful new design, including a compact view for incoming calls and the integration of Tapbacks, pinned conversations, widgets, and Live Activities. These updates also extend to “CarPlay Ultra,” promising a deeply integrated, unified experience across every screen in compatible vehicles.
Apple Music introduces Lyrics Translation and Lyrics Pronunciation, along with AutoMix for seamless DJ-like transitions between songs. Apple Maps gains “Visited Places,” allowing users to remember and view past locations, and leverages on-device intelligence to offer preferred routes and notify users of delays. Wallet updates enhance in-store purchases with instalment and reward options, and refreshed boarding passes offer Live Activities and convenient access to travel information.
Beyond the Core: New Apps and Enhanced Accessibility
iOS 26 introduces Apple Games, a brand-new app serving as a central hub for all gaming activities, helping players discover and manage their favourite titles. AirPods receive new features, including studio-quality audio recording and camera remote functionality. Parental controls are streamlined with easier Child Account creation and enhanced features across Communication Limits, Communication Safety, and the App Store. Safari Browse is more private with advanced fingerprinting protection by default.
Accessibility features are significantly expanded with Accessibility Reader, Braille Access, Share Accessibility Settings, and updates to Live Listen, Background Sounds, and Personal Voice.
iPadOS 26: Unleashing iPad’s Full Potential
iPadOS 26 takes a “huge leap forward,” with a new design, an entirely new, powerful, and intuitive windowing system, and deeper Apple Intelligence integration. The new windowing system allows users to fluidly resize, place, and open multiple app windows, with familiar controls and Exposé for quick switching. A new menu bar provides quick access to app commands and searches.
The Files app is supercharged with an updated List view, resizable columns, collapsible folders, and customisable folder options that sync across devices. Users can also drag folders to the Dock for quick access and set default apps for file types. The Preview App comes to iPad, offering a dedicated space for viewing, editing, and marking up PDFs and images with Apple Pencil.
iPadOS 26 also unlocks the ability to perform computationally intensive Background Tasks with Live Activities integration, providing users with complete control. New audio features offer flexible input selection and streamlined recording, including Voice Isolation and studio-quality audio recording with AirPods. Local capture allows for high-quality video conferencing recordings directly from the iPad.
The Journal app is now available on iPad, allowing users to capture and write about everyday moments with support for drawings, handwriting, photos, videos, audio, and location-based organisation. Game Overlay in the new Apple Games app provides quick access to events, settings, and friend invites. The Phone app is now also available on iPad, bringing features like Hold Assist and Call Screening.
Additional iPadOS 26 updates include a new reed pen option for Apple Pencil, 3D graphing capabilities in Calculator’s Math Notes, and enhancements to Notes for markdown import/export and audio recording transcriptions.
Availability
Developers can access these features for testing today through the Apple Developer Program. A public beta will be available next month through the Apple Beta Software Program. The new software features will be available this fall as a free software update for iPhone 11 and later and supported iPad models including iPad Pro (M4), iPad Air (M2 and later), and iPad (8th generation and later). Apple Intelligence features require supported devices including all iPhone 16 models, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, iPad mini (A17 Pro), and iPad and Mac models with M1 and later, with Siri and device language set to a supported language. More languages will be added later this year. Features are subject to change and may vary by region or language.
