Apple today released iOS 26 and iPadOS 26, the latest operating system updates designed for the iPhone and iPad. ‌iOS 26‌ and ‌iPadOS 26‌ are available for free on all compatible devices. You can download Apple's new software over-the-air by going to Settings > General > Software Update. It can take a few minutes for the updates to propagate to all users due to high demand on launch day.


‌iOS 26‌ is compatible with the ‌iPhone‌ 11 series and later, as well as the second-generation ‌iPhone‌ SE. If you have an ‌iPhone‌ XR, XS, or XS Max, iOS 18 is your last iOS update. As for the ‌iPad‌, ‌iPadOS 26‌ runs on all iPads that support iPadOS 18, with the exception of the 7th-generation ‌iPad‌. Apple has also released iOS 18.7 for those unable to upgrade to ‌iOS 26‌.

Apple's new updates introduce Liquid Glass, the new design language that features a translucent, glass-like look for icons, buttons, menus, and other interface elements across iOS and iPadOS. Liquid Glass is designed to behave like glass does in the real world, dynamically reflecting light and allowing bits of the background to show through.

Safari, Photos, and the Camera app have simplified navigation, and many apps feature new Apple Intelligence options. Messages, FaceTime, and Phone all support Live Translation, for example. Messages includes backgrounds and new group chat features, the Phone app can screen calls for you and take over holding when you need to wait for someone.

Visual Intelligence can now understand what's on your screen and answer questions about what you're looking at, and Apple has improved Genmoji and Image Playground with new features. The Wallet app is smarter than before and can track all of your orders, and Apple Music includes a useful new AutoMix feature for song transitions.

On the ‌iPad‌, Apple overhauled multitasking and windowing for a more Mac-like experience. ‌iPad‌ apps can be placed anywhere and they have menu bars. The Phone app is now available on the ‌iPad‌, as is a new Games app. The ‌iPad‌ also has almost all of the ‌iOS 26‌ features. Apple's full release notes for ‌iOS 26‌ are below.

Design

• Liquid Glass makes interactions across iOS more delightful, refracts and reflects content in real time, and brings even more focus to what you're viewing on your screen


• Adaptive time on the Lock Screen fluidly resizes to the available space on your Lock Screen, complementing the subjects of your photos and adapting as notifications and Live Activities appear


• Spatial scenes let you add a new 3D effect to your photo wallpapers, bringing them to life when you move your iPhone


• App icons get a fresh new look with Liquid Glass, and there are more ways to customize them with updated light or dark appearances, new color-tinted icons, and a new clear look


• Animated album art makes music playback more immersive, with full screen artist-designed animations on supported albums

Visual Intelligence

• Learn more about the content in any app by pressing the same buttons you use to take a screenshot


• Highlight to search for something specific on your screen


• Jump into Google search results based on the content on your screen, find related items from your most-used third-party apps, or ask ChatGPT about what you're looking at

Live Translation

• In Messages, automatically translate incoming texts, including group messages, and send a response in your preferred language - it'll be translated when it's delivered


• In FaceTime, live translated captions appear on screen during the call


• In Phone, audio is translated and spoken out loud in real time, and you can follow along with a transcription when the call is on speaker


• With AirPods, hear a translation hands-free when someone nearby speaks to you in a different language

Shortcuts

• Intelligent actions let you take advantage of Writing Tools, Image Playground, and other Apple Intelligence features within your shortcut


• "Use model" is a new action that lets you tap directly into Apple Intelligence models to get responses that feed into the rest of your shortcut, or use ChatGPT if you want to tap into its broad world knowledge and expertise

Genmoji & Image Playground

• Make Genmoji by mixing two emoji together, or by combining an emoji with a description to create what you have in mind


• Choose expressions for your Genmoji of people, making characters look happy, shocked, and more


• Personal attributes like hairstyle and facial hair can be modified for the Genmoji that are inspired by people from your Photos library


• More styles with ChatGPT lets you explore additional styles like Oil Painting and Anime, or you can tap Any Style to describe the image and style you want

Camera

• Streamlined design makes it even easier to access the Photo and Video capture modes, with other modes still just a swipe away


• Lens cleaning hints alert you when your lens is smudged so you can capture the clearest possible photo (iPhone 15 and later)


• New AirPods gesture lets you take a photo or start recording video just by pressing the stem on AirPods 4 and AirPods Pro 2 and later

Photos

• Separate tabs for Library and Collections offers easier navigation, and you can access Search in every view


• Collections view can be customized with three different layout options, and it's easy to collapse and reorder the collections


• Recognition for events like concerts and sports lets you see the details of an event and access related content

Phone

• New unified layout option brings together your Favorites, Recents, and Voicemails


• Call Screening lets you screen incoming calls from unknown numbers, getting you the caller's name and reason for the call before the phone rings


• Screened calls from unknown numbers can be placed in a new area of your call list so they're out of your way


• Hold Assist keeps your spot in line while you wait to speak to a live agent, and rings you to return to the call when the live agent is there

Messages

• Screening for unknown senders helps you to stay in control of who can reach you, and puts screened messages in a new area of your conversation list so they're out of your way


• Backgrounds can be added to conversations to make them more personal, with the option to use built-in backgrounds, your own photos, or images made with Image Playground


• Polls can help you find out everyone's availability for an upcoming dinner plan or decide on a group gift


• Typing indicators in groups make it easy to know exactly who is about to chime in

CarPlay

• A new design with Liquid Glass helps make each interaction area of the Dashboard distinct, and provides a new tab bar design for easy navigation in apps


• Compact design for incoming calls makes it easy to keep your eyes on the upcoming turn in your favorite navigation app


• Tapbacks in Messages gives you a simple way to react to messages while driving, like with a thumbs up or a heart


• Pinned conversations appear at the top of Messages, making it easy to get to your most frequent conversations


• Widgets stacks can be found to the left of the Dashboard, so you can stay on top of your favorite apps at a glance


• Live Activities appear automatically on the Dashboard, making it easy to keep track of real time events on the go

Maps

• Visited Places gives you the option to allow your iPhone to detect the places you visit, like a restaurant or shop, so you can easily find them again in the Maps library and share them easily


• Preferred routes improve your frequent drives by learning the routes you take between places you regularly visit, like your commute from home to work

Music

• Lyrics Translation and Pronunciation help you understand the meaning behind your favorite songs and makes it easy to sing along, even if you don't know the language


• AutoMix transitions one song into the next like a DJ does, time stretching and beatmatching to deliver a continuous playback experience


• Pin songs, albums, playlists, and more at the top of Library for quick, easy playback

Wallet

• Updated boarding passes give you more access to timely and relevant information about your flights and airports, as well as quick access to airline app features


• Order tracking (beta) uses Apple Intelligence to find emails sent by either merchants or delivery carriers and brings your full order details, progress notifications, and more into one place in the Wallet app


• Installment financing options from your bank or card provider for your credit and debit card purchases are accessible when you pay with Apple Pay in-store on iPhone

Apple Games

• New app is the all-in-one destination for gaming on your iPhone, helping you jump back into the games you love, discover new favorites, and play with friends in new ways


• Challenge friends, track scores in real time, and see what else your friends are playing


• Access your entire game library, including new and past downloads from the App Store and Apple Arcade, and launch when you are ready to play


• Recommendations for new games are based on the games you love to play

Protecting Kids Online

• Communication Requests give kids the ability to send requests to their parents when there are new phone numbers they want to be able to communicate with


• Convert existing accounts to Child Accounts easily to take full advantage of all available child safety protections


• Age-appropriate experiences in apps gives parents the option to enable kids to share their age range with third-party apps, so they can access content and features suited to their age group


• Communication Safety expands to intervene when nudity is detected on live FaceTime calls, and to blur out nudity in Shared Albums in Photos

Accessibility

• Accessibility Nutrition Labels in App Store product pages tell you if accessibility features like VoiceOver, Voice Control, and Captions are available within apps and games before you download them


• Accessibility Reader makes text in any app easier to read by giving you new ways to customize text with extensive options for font, color, and spacing, as well as support for Spoken Content


• Braille Access helps you take notes, read documents, access Live Captions, launch apps, and perform various other tasks effortlessly with your connected braille display

Other

• Preview is a new app on iPhone dedicated to viewing and editing PDFs, with powerful features like AutoFill, a document scanner, and export options


• FaceTime has a reimagined landing page that features personalized Contact Posters for your recent callers and video messages that play as you scroll


• Reminder Suggestions use Apple Intelligence to identify relevant tasks when you share an email, website, note, or other text to the Reminders app


• Local capture records the high-quality audio and video from your iPhone while on any video conferencing call, letting you produce an interview or podcast with the clearest recordings


• Audio input picker in Control Center makes it easy to choose the right microphone for each app, including on the web


• Estimated time to charge lets you know how long it will take for your iPhone to charge


• Adaptive power learns your typical battery usage and, on higher usage days, makes automatic adjustments to help you extend your battery life throughout the day (iPhone 15 Pro and later)


• Blood pressure logging experience in the Health app can send you reminders to measure your blood pressure using a third-party cuff and create a PDF report for your healthcare provider


• New Workout tab in the Fitness app brings workout tracking, so you can track metrics like pace and distance, and even more if you have a compatible heart rate monitor like AirPods Pro 3. If you have an Apple Watch, you can take advantage of the larger screen while using features like building a Custom Workout


• Adaptive Temperature automatically adjusts your thermostat to your preferred temperature when you're on your way home, and adjusts to save energy when you leave for the day or go on vacation


• Custom snooze options let you adjust how long you can snooze when your alarm goes off, with options between 1 and 15 minutes


• Password History provides a timeline of changes you've made to an account in Passwords, including a history of past passwords and generated strong passwords


• Notes lets you import and export Markdown formatted files

And Apple's iPad-specific notes:

Windowing

• Powerful new windowing system allows you to fluidly resize apps and place windows exactly where you want


• Window controls makes it easier to close, minimize, and make apps full screen


• Window tiling lets you arrange apps side by side, in thirds, or in quarters so you can work across more apps at once


• Exposé lets you see all your open windows at a glance


• Menu bar offers easy access to all of an app's commands, or you can use search to quickly find a specific command

Files

• Updated list view with resizable columns and collapsible folders displays even more of your files and their details


• Open with allows you to choose the app you open a file in and you can set the default app for a file or file type


• Folders in the Dock let you access your files and folders from anywhere

Audio & Video Recording

• Audio input picker in Control Center makes it easy to choose the right microphone for each app, including on the web


• Local capture records the high-quality audio and video from your iPad while on any video conferencing call, letting you produce an interview or podcast


• Background tasks allow for long running tasks to continue when you switch apps and are displayed as Live Activities so you always know what's running

New Apps on iPadOS

• Preview is a dedicated app to view and edit PDFs that offers full support for Apple Pencil and powerful features like AutoFill, a document scanner, image editing, and various options for export


• Journal is an app where you can jot down your thoughts, illustrate, and capture moments using photos, videos, audio recordings, places, and more. Journal with your keyboard, or create entries in your own handwriting using Apple Pencil. Multiple journals let you keep entries for different aspects of your life separate, flexible layouts make entries feel beautiful and personal, and a beautiful map view makes it easy to find entries based on their location


• Apple Games is the all-in-one destination for gaming on your iPad. Access your entire game library, including new and past downloads from the App Store and Apple Arcade, and find recommendations for new games based on ones you love. Plus, challenge friends, track scores in real time, and see what else your friends are playing


• Phone app lets you make and take calls from your iPhone and use new features like Call Screening, Hold Assist, and Live Translation

More Information and Discussion

You can find a full list of what's new in iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 in our comprehensive feature roundups. You can also chat about all of the new features in our iOS 26 forum and our iPadOS 26 forum.
This article, "Apple Releases iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 With New Liquid Glass Design" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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