iOS 26

Apple unveiled iOS 26 last week at WWDC 2025. While Liquid Glass and iPadOS certainly stole the show, there’s a number of smaller features for iPhone users that I think a lot of people will still enjoy, and I’ll be diving into them here.

CarPlay’s evolution has in several ways been a disappointment since the “next generation” of CarPlay was first previewed in 2022. But all of a sudden, in the span of a mere month, CarPlay’s future looks brighter than it has in years—in part because of a redefinition of what that future will be.

iOS 26 introduces a lot of big changes to how the iPhone software looks and feels, but there are plenty of updates for system apps too, including Notes, Maps, Photos, and more. Apple’s Reminders app gets a variety of new features too, here’s everything coming to Reminders in iOS 26.

Apple Intelligence doesn’t (yet) offer an official chatbot mode, but in iOS 26 Apple will let power users get a chatbot-style experience via the Shortcuts app. Here’s how it works.

iOS 26 is full of new features for the Music app, including more expansive animated album art, in-app support for Apple Music Replay, and new pinning options.

Perhaps the most impressive new Apple Music feature of all, however, is a new AutoMix. Here’s how it works.

One major theme of Apple’s software this year is unification, as seen in the new Liquid Glass design and more cross-platform feature parity. In the realm of improving app feature parity across platforms, there’s a great new capability in iOS 26’s Music app that had previously been exclusive to the Mac: playlist folder creation.

Apple is always adding new features to its software, but every now and then a change arrives that it’s hard to live without. One such killer feature lets you autofill two-factor authentication codes, and it’s getting even better in iOS 26 and macOS Tahoe this fall.

One of the stylish visual changes to the iPhone on iOS 26 is a new layout for the lock screen when music is playing. Artwork can now be animated and shown full-screen on the iPhone display, with playback controls resting on a platter of a liquid glass.

You can try this out right now with Apple Music. Play a song that has animated album art, and lock the phone. But users of third-party music streaming apps like Spotify will also be pleased to know that Apple is opening up this capability as an API, so third-party developers can also adopt it.

So, Apple just held its annual WWDC conference where it announces all the new software for the next year. And the company proudly announced the next version of iOS for the iPhone, iOS 26. If you have an iPhone model newer than the XS, you will be able to update to iOS 26 for free later this year.

But the current version number of iOS is iOS 18. So what happened to iOS 19? Why did Apple jump to 26?

After months of rumors, Apple has officially unveiled its big iOS 26 ‘Liquid Glass’ redesign, and already the new design has made me want the forthcoming iPhone 17 Air more than ever. Here’s why.

It’s finally here. Earlier this week, Apple fully unveiled iOS 26, the next major iPhone software update that will arrive this fall. Here are six new features coming with iOS 26.

Apple unveiled iOS 26 earlier this week alongside the first developer beta, but now it has released a revised build to beta testers for select iPhone models.

iOS 26 is crammed full of upgrades for CarPlay users, including a refreshed Liquid Glass design, support for widgets, and more. There’s even support for a new “AirPlay video in the car” feature that developers and automakers can adopt if they so choose.

WWDC 2025 ends today, and we’ve seen all the new features on offer from Apple’s shiny glassy new iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 26, watchOS 26, and visionOS 26.

The first developer betas are available now, and anyone can sign up to try them – but you probably shouldn’t. If you’re not a developer with sacrificial test devices, exactly how long should you wait in the beta cycle before risking them on your daily drivers … ?

Millions of people wake up to their iPhone’s alarm every day, and have learned to live with the built-in 9-minute snooze duration. But in iOS 26, you’ll finally be able to choose exactly how long you want to snooze alarms for.

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Earlier this week, during its annual WWDC keynote, Apple unveiled a slew of headline features like Liquid Glass, a new Games app, and Visual Intelligence, as well as two major spam protection tools coming to iOS 26 this fall. While I was a little disappointed in the lack of new security or even privacy features, these new tools will change the game for users who receive annoying spam calls and messages on the daily. Here’s how they work.

Apple Music benefits from a variety of big and small updates in iOS 26, including one that wasn’t included in the WWDC keynote or press materials: Apple Music Replay is now a fully native in-app experience.

Apple’s Passwords app launched last year in iOS 18 as a new pre-installed password solution across iPhone, iPad, Mac, and more. iOS 26 changes for Passwords are pretty minimal, except there is one key fix that addresses my most common issue after a year of use.

In a new interview, Apple executives have narrowed the timeline of when to expect Siri’s delayed AI upgrades, confirming they will release in 2026 and no sooner. Here are the details.

Apple Notes has become one of Apple’s most consistently updated apps, and iOS 26 includes a few solid new additions. Here’s everything new for Apple Notes in iOS 26.

Apple is making a major U-turn with CarPlay after a decade of not allowing video playback. Starting with iOS 26, Apple will allow apps to display video through the CarPlay screen while parked.