🍏 iOS 26: A Fresh New Era for iPhone
Announced on June 9, 2025 at WWDC 25, iOS 26 marks Apple’s bold shift to year-based version names—it replaces iOS 18 and brings sweeping changes in design, intelligence, and communication 🌐 .
1. 🏞️ Liquid Glass Design
A brand‑new translucent interface across system elements—toolbars, buttons, home/incoming‑call UIs now shimmer with liquid‑glass aesthetics . Described by Apple as their “biggest visual refresh since iOS 7” .
2. 🤖 Apple Intelligence Enhancements
On‑device AI features like Visual Intelligence, allowing you to convert screenshots into actionable tasks—identifying items and creating calendar events or image searches . Genmoji support for AI‑generated stickers via Messaging . Smarter battery life with AI‑driven power optimizations to boost efficiency .
3. 💬 Smarter Communication Apps
Live Translation across Phone, FaceTime, and Messages—real‑time captions and translations during calls . Enhanced call screening including robot answering, transcripts, and spam protection . Messages now support polls, personalized chat wallpapers, symbol-rich tapbacks, and group typing indicators .
4. 🚗 CarPlay, Music, Maps & Wallet
CarPlay receives a visual facelift along with support for “compact incoming call” UI and integrated Message tapbacks . Apple Music adds lyric translations and pronunciation features—great for karaoke lovers . Maps and Wallet gain refreshed interfaces and smarter features, enhancing navigation and digital ID usage .
5. 🎮 Games Hub
A brand‑new Games app consolidates Apple Arcade and App Store games into a unified hub, with personalized recommendations and live events .
📱 Device Support: iPhone 11 and Beyond
iOS 26 requires devices with at least an A13 Bionic chip, such as:
iPhone 11 / 11 Pro / 11 Pro Max iPhone SE 2 & 3 All iPhone 12, 13, 14, 15, and latest 16 series . It drops support for older models like iPhone XR, XS/XS Max (A12 chip) .
That means iPhone 11 and all newer models are compatible—so if you own an iPhone 11 or later, you’ll be getting this major update this fall (with public beta in mid-July and general release expected mid‑September) .