Apple has announced the latest iOS update at WWDC 2025. The company most notably unveiled a new design language called “Liquid Glass,” and changed the version number to 26 to integrate all operating systems.
Other changes include a new gaming and new preview app, AI-driven translation for messaging, and a virtual health coach.
Apart from that, there are a few small changes that make your iPhone easier to use. Below is a (not exhaustive) list based on the early developer beta for iOS 26:
Utilities
iOS 26 brings you a customized alarm snooze. This may seem like a small thing, but it’s game-changing that allows you to define the time you want to snooze an alarm. To change the snooze timing, tap any alarm and tap the Snooze Period option and select from 1 to 15 minutes.
Shortcut AI. When building shortcuts, you can choose a local or cloud-based model to power AI features such as summaries. New gestures for bookmarks on safari. With the new Safari update, you can double-tap the 3-dot menu to bookmark the on page. The screenshot menu has a new layout. Thanks to visual intelligence, you can ask questions about screenshots. If there is content on the screen, the menu will automatically summarise it or suggest reading it aloud.
New volume slider. You can now adjust the volume directly from the output source picker.
phone
Call List Filter: Call lists can now be filtered by calls, mistakes, voicemail, unknown callers, and spam. Focus Mode with SIM: Various focus modes can be used to silence certain SIMs. Call Interface Update: The Call Interface has a new overflow menu that provides easy access to call assist, recording and live translation.
Call History: You can view the full call history of a contact by tapping the name of that contact and tapping the Call History option.
battery
The battery menu has a new performance view. Previously, they performed via toggle over the last 24 hours and 10 days. Now you’ll have a day and week view on one screen. Additionally, there is a comparison metric that shows whether you use more or less batteries per day based on time.
Additionally, battery menu overhauls provide insight into per-app consumption along with indicators to indicate whether an app has been running in the background for an unusually long time.
The battery section has an adaptive power mode. When you turn it on, your iPhone may reduce brightness to store the battery when it is high, or slow down some apps.
Reminder
Automatically classify different types of reminders in the Reminders app. You can share your items with the Reminders app and have them create to-do items. For example, when I shared a recipe from the site, the reminder app suggested ingredients. Additionally, you can create new reminders using the Action Button or shortcuts from the Control Center. You can create a callback reminder by swiping through the phone entry from the Phone app. The Messages app allows you to select Partial App text from a specific message.
Apple Music
Apple Music on iOS 26 allows you to create folders for your playlists. Here you can select either CrossFade or Automix (automatic song transition based on Song Tempo) as the song transition effect in your settings. There is also a new album animation style for the lock screen.
camera
If the camera lens is dirty, iOS 26 will fine tune you to clean it. This can be turned off in the settings. You can now display or hide indicators for your camera flash, live photos, video formats, and action modes via the new indicator settings.
You can adjust or turn off the camera controls via the new camera adjustment menu.
language
The iPhone now displays language suggestions when consuming and sending content in languages other than the main language. For example, if you send and consume text in Arabic while the main language is English, the system suggests adding an Arabic keyboard to get content recommendations in Arabic.
The company has also added a native Arabic transliteration keyboard and a 24-key tie keyboard. iOS 26 supports bilingual proposals for 10 languages. This means that while typing in English, the keyboard suggests both Latin and local scripted versions of that word.
Podcasts
The new podcast app has a playback speed option ranging from 0.5x to 3x. The podcast app has expanded dialogue functionality to enhance your voice. This can be enabled for each episode.
I will continue to update this list to find more features with the new iOS 26 update.