At the opening keynote of the WWDC 2025 held early on June 10 (Vietnam time), Apple unveiled iOS 26 for iPhone. Starting this year, Apple is aligning operating system version numbers with calendar years, hence the leap from iOS 18 to iOS 26.

The most striking update across iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 26, watchOS 26, and tvOS 26 is the new "Liquid Glass" design language. Inspired by visionOS, this semi-transparent interface mimics the properties of real glass, adapting and transforming colors in real time according to environmental changes.

The refreshed design is applied system-wide to elements like buttons, toggles, sliders, text, app navigation, lock screen, and home screen, offering a more dynamic and immersive user experience.

A notable new feature in iOS 26 is enhanced privacy and customization within group chats, including the ability to personalize chat background themes, create polls in conversations, and view real-time “typing” indicators in group messages.

The Phone app has also been redesigned to unify favorites, recents, and voicemail into a single view. Meanwhile, the Messages app now filters texts from unknown senders into a separate folder, allowing users to identify, label, or delete unfamiliar numbers. These messages remain muted until approved by the user.

iOS 26 also introduces several powerful Apple Intelligence features. One highlight is Live Translation, now integrated directly into Messages, FaceTime, and the Phone app, enabling real-time multilingual conversations. Notably, this function runs entirely on-device to safeguard user privacy.

With the new update, iPhone users can ask questions about content they're viewing in any app, receiving answers from ChatGPT, Google, Etsy, or other platforms.

Apple Intelligence also automatically detects and summarizes order tracking details from emails, helping users monitor shipments and view delivery statuses without switching apps.

Finally, the new Games app consolidates all games into one central hub, improving the overall experience, especially for Apple Arcade subscribers.

All of these features are available to developers starting June 10 via the Apple Developer Program, with a public beta expected next month. The full public release of iOS 26 is set for fall 2025.

Apple confirmed iOS 26 will be compatible with iPhone 11 and newer models.

Du Lam (The Verge, Apple)