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Apple has released iOS 26 to the public, with the new operating system arriving with its new Liquid Glass appearance.
Apple's next version of iOS was introduced in June, with a new appearance and an unexpected new name. While iOS 19 was expected to follow iOS 18, instead, everyone's iPhone will be moving on to iOS 26.
The name change is partly a unification strategy, as all of Apple's operating systems now use the year-based scheme. It's also going to make identifying versions easier as it's a number that matches 2026, the year that it will be mostly used within, albeit launched in late 2025.
The release is build number 23A341.
The version number is the first big change, but there are many more that iPhone users will discover as they install the update.
Liquid Glass is the most obvious change, and one users will visually experience first after the update.
A new user interface aesthetic, Liquid Glass tries to use transparency and glass-like elements throughout iOS 26, and Apple's other operating systems. It's also spread into many of Apple's first-party apps as well.
A close-up view of Liquid Glass in iOS 26
The concept is that all of the UI elements could be feasibly made from pieces of glass, as the name implies. Icons on the home screen now look like layered glass images, with container elements throughout using transparency as well.
While some glass looks like it is frosted, like a matte semi-transparent panel, many elements take the glass concept to heart. Clear, rounded-off pieces of glass litter the interface, with the edges having a refractive effect similar to the real thing.
It has also led to updates to the way apps function, with some of those glass elements stretching and resizing to accommodate more icons when required.
Apple again includes more customization options as part of Liquid Glass, such as turning the app icons clear. The Lock Screen also gets its own Liquid Glass clock element.
It's a big change, and one that should stick around for a few generations.
A pair of apps connected at the hip, Camera and Photos have both received changes that hinge on a lot of Liquid Glass principles. One of those is getting the UI out of the way.
For the Camera app, this has translated into a streamlined UI that hides a lot of the elements from view until you need them. Many options are hidden away, such as swiping beyond "Video and Photo" at the base of the screen to see Portraits and Cinematic Video, for example.
The iOS 26 Camera app
Apple also made it a lot easier for content creators to take control of image and video formatting. It's a lot easier to select the frame rate, format, and resolution if you need such levels of control.
The viewing side of things, Photos, has also been overhauled. The single-page aesthetic of iOS 18 has been kicked out after a year, in favor of sections for Library and Collections.
The Photos app also gains a feature for generating Spatial Photos, converting 2D images into 3D versions. This is equally useful to create images for the Apple Vision Pro, but also for using the 3D effect with the Lock Screen, in the form of Spatial Wallpapers.
Another app affected by Liquid Glass, the new Safari uses the transparency to open the screen up more. That is, you get a bit more of the web page to look at than you did before.
The change means there are floating address bars, fewer immediate buttons, and a generally sleeker content-first approach.
Safari in iOS 26 with Liquid Glass
While you could convert websites into Home Screen icons before, the iOS 26 version of Safari will now open websites saved in this way as a web app by default. Yes, you can disable this way of working.
There's also proper HDR support for viewing photographs on websites, SVG icon support, a new SwiftUI API for adding web content to apps, and even CSS anchor positioning support for better text wrapping situations.
While the basic appearance of Messages is largely unchanged aside from Liquid Glass changes, the usability of the app has still been improved. That starts with the more prominent search bar at the bottom of the screen.
Filtering has been moved from an entire screen to a pop-up, so you can more quickly see the changes to the list.
Messages for iOS 26 gains wallpapers for conversations.
Within actual conversations, there are many updates, including setting wallpaper backgrounds. You can also use polls to make quick decisions in group chats.
For international users, there's automatic translation, which can explain to you what someone else typed quickly and painlessly.
An essential and well-used part of the iPhone experience, the Phone app is where you manage your vocal communications.
For 2025, there is a new unified experience, which combines contacts, recent calls, and voicemails into a single window.
The new Call Screening will automatically answer calls from unknown numbers for you to capture the caller's name and reason for calling. It's done silently, only ringing to alert you once it has some information about the nature of the call.
If you're calling someone, Hold Assist can detect when you're on hold and offer to monitor the call. It then alerts you when you're at the front of the queue.
Like Messages, there's also live translation support, in case you're speaking to someone who doesn't share a common language. You can get it spoken when in a call, or if you're in FaceTime, live translation captions.
While the initial rollout of Apple Intelligence wasn't great in iOS 18, Apple is slowly grinding out more changes in iOS 26. We have already mentioned the translation features, but there are more to come.
Apple has pledged to give developers access to its on-device processing capabilities, which could make big changes in the way apps are used in the future.
Visual Intelligence now works with screenshots in iOS 26
Changes are made to Image Playground and Genmoji, which are natural extensions to the existing functionality under iOS 18.
More impressive is Visual Intelligence, which now does a lot more with screenshots thanks to a new button. It's one thing to ask Visual Intelligence queries based on what's in the camera, but it's immensely more useful to be able to read an image of your screen.
When it comes to other apps, there are signs of Apple Intelligence bringing some small but smart refinements.
For example, in Reminders, you can use auto-categorize to break a list into subdivisions. Think of a shopping list, but Apple Intelligence can group all the protein or dairy products together.
Notification summaries had a bad rap under iOS 18, especially when it came to making up headlines. Following complaints and a rethink, they have returned for news apps, but only if you trust it not to get things wrong.
Aside from Liquid Glass, Apple Music gets a few more tweaks, without overhauling the design too much.
The Library now has the ability to pin your go-to music at the top for easy reference.
Now you can get guidance when singing 'Gangnam Style' in iOS 26's Apple Music
When actually playing music, there are options to view automatic translations of songs in select languages. You don't just get the meaning of the words, though.
For script-based non-Western alphabets, you can also get pronunciation guides for that language. It's now a lot easier to sing along with BlackPink.
Music also gets a new AutoMix option, which attempts to use beat matching and time stretching to connect songs together, similar to a human DJ. During the betas, this was a feature that had blind spots, but has potential.
Navigating using Apple Maps should get easier for frequent users, especially those who habitually prefer specific roads or routes. Maps now remembers and incorporates preferred routes, and will warn you of delays in case you were about to use them.
There's also Visited Places in Maps, so you can look up where you've been in the past. This is very handy if you went to a restaurant but can't remember what it was called.
To try and get you playing more games, there's now a Games app. A one-stop shop for your gaming apps, it helps you quickly get playing on your iPhone.
As well as accessing your games library, it also has hooks into Apple Arcade, so you can take advantage of your subscription. It's also able to take you to Game Center, to see leaderboards, achievements, and profiles.
A Play Together tab invites users to game with others, and to make new gaming friends if you don't have anyone to play with.
The Clock app can have customized snooze durations between 1 and 15 minutes.
The Journal app now lets users set up multiple journals to help compartmentalize their thoughts. They can also add in-line images, and can see entries based on location, thanks to a map view.
The Wallet app gains new boarding passes with shareable elements like flight status, and access to airport maps and luggage tracking. A digital ID can also be added using a U.S. passport, which can then be used at TSA checkpoints.
AirPods and AirPods Pro models with the H2 chip can be used as a camera remote, to start and stop recordings in the Camera app.
The Family accounts now allow parents to move kids to Child Accounts more easily. Parents also have more control via enhancements to Communication Limits and Communication Safety.
Apple states that iOS 26 will support a large number of iPhone models, from the newest iPhone 17 range to the iPhone 11 family, and also the iPhone SE Gen 2.
However, the list does lose three models compared to the iOS 18 release. The iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR are not listed as compatible with it.
The full list of compatible models that can be updated follows:
To install iOS 26 onto an iPhone, open the Settings app, tap General, then Software Update. Tap the iOS 26 update and follow the instructions.
For participants in the developer and public beta programs, the update may appear automatically with the final version. In some cases, you may have to tap Beta Updates and set it to Off.
New owners of the iPhone 17 range of smartphones will not need to install the update, as it will be preinstalled on their hardware.
Source: Appleinsider
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