iOS 26 Is Now Available, Here’s What’s New for iPhone

Apple on Monday finally released iOS 26 for iPhone. The latest operating system from the Cupertino-based tech giant was first previewed at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2025 in June. Since then, subsequent developer and public beta updates have been released, giving select users a chance to experiment with the new features. Like with every iteration, there are several quality-of-life changes in iOS 26. However, the biggest noticeable change is the new Liquid Glass UI, which brings an entirely new look to the iPhone. There's much more to uncover.

Here are the seven biggest iOS 26 features worth upgrading to:

1. Liquid Glass

Apple calls the Liquid Glass UI a translucent material that reflects and refracts its surrounding visual elements, and it appears to do so, indeed. Since its first preview, it has attracted polarising opinions. The new design language is implemented across app icons, control toggles, navigation bars, and widgets in iOS 26.

This also opens up new avenues for more customisation, such as a new Clear appearance for app icons on the home screen and a new transparent design of the clock on the lock screen.

2. Apple Games

For gamers, Apple has released a new dedicated gaming app called Apple Games. It is tied to your Apple account and serves as a replacement for the Game Centre. With the app, players can connect with their favourite games and also the players they play with. They can see live events and updates from the games they're currently playing, and discover new and upcoming ones.

Further, the new Apple Games app also serves as a one-stop shop where you can access your entire game library, including past downloads from the App Store.

3. Revamped Photos App

With iOS 18 last year, Apple introduced a revamped Photos app that was meant to provide a more comprehensive view of the stored photos and videos. It turned out to be a cluttered mess instead, leaving users to question why this change was made in the first place. If you're one of them, iOS 26 is for you. Apple has reworked the Photos app once again, and the updated design makes it easier to switch between your Library and Collections.

The app also allows users to customise how their Collections appear. They can reorder them, select which media to pin, and choose from three different display sizes.

4. New Camera App

After years of iterative changes, the Camera app has been reworked as well. With iOS 26, you'll experience a simplified design that highlights the Photo and Video modes for quick access. Meanwhile, other modes are buried a swipe away. Further, the camera controls are grouped, making it easier to change aspect ratio, toggle night mode, or switch on flash, without having to fidget around the various settings.

5. Call Screening and Hold Assist

Apple has taken inspiration from Google to introduce Call Screening on iPhone. It leverages Live Voicemail to gather information from the caller, such as their intent behind calling. The recipient can then decide whether to take the call or not. This feature joins Hold Assist, which can potentially prove useful when the user is stuck on hold. It notifies them when the person on the other end of the line, such as an agent, is available to speak.

6. New Phone App

Continuing its trend of revamping existing apps, iOS 26 also brings a makeover for the Phone app. It now has a unified layout which combines the Favourites, Recents, and Voicemails tabs into a new Calls tab. However, it is a reversible change, and you can go back to the Classic view any time you'd like.

7. Live Translation and Other Apple Intelligence Changes

Apple has expanded its Apple Intelligence suite of AI features with Live Translation on iPhone. It is integrated into apps such as FaceTime, Messages, and the Phone app. The feature leverages proprietary on-device AI models to automatically translate audio and text in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, and other languages.

Visual Intelligence, introduced with the iPhone 16 Pro models last year, now has on-screen content awareness. This means it can analyse what's on your screen across apps and search for it, take action, or answer questions about it.

Apart from this, iPhone users running iOS 26 can mix emojis to combine them with descriptive prompts and create a new Genmoji. They can also tweak the expressions or modify attributes such as hairstyle when creating Image Playground images based on someone in their photo library.

ChatGPT also brings new styles in Image Playground, giving users more options to choose from, including Oil Painting and Water Colour.

So, if any of these new features seem promising to you, then you can experience them with iOS 26 on your iPhone. You can read more about the supported models and how to download the update on your iPhone here.