Ranked: The 10 Most Useful iOS 26 Features

iOS 26 has determination astir 200 caller features and changes, immoderate of which are much utile than others. We've highlighted immoderate of the updates that we deliberation supply the champion prime of beingness improvements to the iPhone.

Spam Filtering

‌iOS 26‌, iPadOS 26, and macOS 26 filter retired spam substance messages, truthful you'll nary longer get alerts for fake toll payments, suspicious occupation offers, missed deliveries, taxation refunds, and different communal scams.


Spam telephone calls and FaceTime calls besides won't travel through, and that includes spam voicemails. Everything spam oregon scam related that your Apple devices drawback is filtered into a spam filter that you ne'er person to look at.

Call Screening

When you get a telephone from an chartless number, Call Screening volition inquire the idiosyncratic for their sanction and crushed for calling. That accusation is relayed to you truthful you tin determine whether to prime up oregon not.


You tin besides inquire for much accusation from a caller earlier you ever prime up. There's inactive an enactment to soundlessness calls from chartless numbers wholly if you prefer.

Adjustable Lock Screen Widgets

Widgets connected the Lock Screen tin beryllium placed astatine the bottommost of the display, and are nary longer constricted to placement conscionable beneath the clock. It's a tiny change, but it's utile if you privation to spot much of your wallpaper.


It plays into the adjustable clip size too, due to the fact that if you person your wallpaper acceptable to alteration regularly, the clip and widget presumption tin alteration dynamically to accommodate the artwork oregon image.

Disappearing Navigation Bars

When you scroll successful Safari, Apple Music, Apple News, Podcasts, and more, the tab barroom volition shrink down to beryllium smaller, truthful you tin spot much of the contented that you're looking at.


It's particularly utile successful Safari, wherever you'll conscionable spot a tiny barroom with the tract URL oregon hunt term, with nary other controls successful the way. Tapping the tab barroom oregon scrolling backmost up returns the controls. Navigation bars that illness down are 1 of the champion Liquid Glass changes, and it's the benignant of intuitive happening that feels similar it should person ever existed.

On-Screen Visual Intelligence

You tin usage Visual Intelligence with contented connected your display, which is much utile than ‌Visual Intelligence‌ activated done the Camera. Just instrumentality a screenshot and pat it to get to the on-device ‌Visual Intelligence‌ controls.


You tin summarize what's successful your screenshot, construe it, oregon person it work aloud. You tin besides inquire ChatGPT questions astir it oregon hunt for an point connected Google, Etsy, and different sites.

What ‌Visual Intelligence‌ does tin beryllium accomplished successful different ways since there's web-based summary and construe features and the enactment to simply hunt for items with Google Images oregon unfastened ChatGPT, but it saves clip erstwhile you get utilized to grabbing a screenshot and tapping into ‌Visual Intelligence‌.

Voicemail Summaries

Apple Intelligence tin summarize your voicemails and supply transcripts truthful you tin spot what idiosyncratic had to accidental without having to perceive to a voicemail.

Copying Messages Text

There is FINALLY an enactment to transcript conscionable portion of a substance successful the Messages app alternatively than the full thing. If you've ever needed to transcript a telephone number, address, URL, oregon thing akin from a connection but couldn't azygous retired precisely what you wanted, you'll admit this tiny but utile feature.


Long property connected a substance and pat "Select" to get resistance and driblet controls, past pat connected copy. It's not the astir intuitive flow, but astatine slightest the enactment exists.

Customize Snooze Duration

You tin present take a snooze duration betwixt 1 infinitesimal and 15 minutes erstwhile mounting an alarm successful the Clock app, truthful you're nary longer constricted to a 9 infinitesimal snooze period.


Unfortunately, this alteration was accompanied by a plan alteration that makes the snooze fastener enormous, truthful you mightiness beryllium much prone to sleepily snoozing longer than expected.

Messages Live Translation

Live Translation is simply a small niche if you're not regularly chatting with radical who talk different language, but it comes successful handy. You tin crook connected Live Translation for immoderate speech and get real-time translations for texts that aren't successful your language.


It works well, but it is constricted to English (U.S., UK), French (France), German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish (Spain), and Chinese (simplified), truthful determination isn't enactment for each connection you mightiness encounter.

There are besides Live Translation features for Phone and ‌FaceTime‌. ‌FaceTime‌ uses translated unrecorded captions, and the Phone app uses an AI voice, which is simply a small spot weirder than text-based translation.

Message Backgrounds

Technically not the astir utile feature, but it's connected the database due to the fact that Apple is yet embracing much customization. You tin take a customized inheritance for immoderate azygous idiosyncratic oregon radical conversation, but support successful caput that the inheritance is displayed for everyone.


More utile Messages features see filtering options, enactment for polls, typing indicators for radical chats, and Apple Cash enactment for sending wealth successful a radical chat.

Image Playground and Genmoji

This is astatine the bottommost of the database and is technically an honorable mention, but Apple did instrumentality changes that marque Image Playground and Genmoji much useful. Two oregon much emoji tin beryllium combined to make a caller emoji, which makes for a amended jumping disconnected constituent than a blank slate if you privation to make a caller character.


More importantly, emotion-themed emoji tin beryllium utilized for ‌Genmoji‌ and ‌Image Playground‌ creations to really adhd emotion. Apple's representation procreation tools person a precise hard clip portraying adjacent basal emotion similar happy, sad, and mad, limiting their usefulness. It's a small amended successful ‌iOS 26‌.

If you haven't checked retired ‌Image Playground‌ successful ‌iOS 26‌, it could beryllium worthy a look. Apple did a bully occupation improving the images that are generated based connected images of your household and friends, positive it supports the afloat ChatGPT representation procreation capabilities if you person a paid ChatGPT plan.

Other Useful Additions

There are different useful changes that didn't marque the list, but merit a mention.

• Passwords - The Passwords app shows your password history, truthful you tin spot the erstwhile passwords that you utilized for a fixed login.


• Battery UI - Apple present monitors artillery beingness successful averages, comparing your regular usage to your mean usage. You tin spot astatine a glimpse if you're utilizing much artillery than normal, and which apps are causing artillery drain. It's much adjuvant than conscionable consecutive artillery usage statistics.


• Time to Charge - You tin spot however agelong it'll beryllium until your ‌iPhone‌ charges to afloat if you pat connected the show portion it's plugged into a charger oregon connected a MagSafe charger.


• Photos - If you hated that unified iOS 18 Photos app, you'll similar the ‌iOS 26‌ mentation better. It has 1 tab for the Photo Library and 1 tab for Collections.


• AutoMix - ‌Apple Music‌'s AutoMix diagnostic for opus transitions works well, and the bushed matching is neat. It isn't disposable for each genres and determination are immoderate songs wherever it could beryllium better, but it's a large caller option.


• SharePlay for the Phone app - You don't request to beryllium connected a ‌FaceTime‌ telephone to chat portion doing things similar watching tv, playing a game, oregon listening to euphony with someone.


• Maps Visited Places - If you question a lot, Visited Places tin support way of wherever you've been. It's bully for remembering a favourite store oregon restaurant. It doesn't ever log each sojourn and sometimes it isn't spot connected for locations, but it's inactive a beta diagnostic and adjacent erstwhile imperfect, it's useful.


• DualSense Controller Pairing - This takes a firmware update, but you tin link a DualSense controller to an ‌iPhone‌ oregon iPad conscionable by plugging it successful with a USB-C cable.

Potentially Useful, But Disappointing

There are immoderate features successful ‌iOS 26‌ that person a batch of potential, but that request improvement.

• Wallet bid tracking - The Wallet app tin successful mentation way immoderate bid you spot adjacent if it's not an Apple Pay purchase, but it's not large close now. It pulls bid and shipment emails from the Mail app, truthful if you don't get an email with each measurement of the bid process, the point conscionable sits successful a database successful the Wallet app until you wide it out. Apple does accidental this diagnostic is successful beta, and for bully reason.


• Preview app - The Preview app is conscionable benignant of confusing. The interface is unusual due to the fact that it pops up the Files app and buttons for creating a caller document, and it doesn't unfastened automatically erstwhile you bash thing similar pat a PDF successful the Files app. The interface is excessively akin to Files, and there's overlap with Markup, which inactive exists.


• Games - Apple has tried respective times to marque Game Center features much popular, and the Games app seems similar the latest attempt. It has multiplayer crippled enactment and options to situation friends to bushed your people successful azygous subordinate games, but it's truly conscionable a transcript of the Games conception of the App Store.


• Reminders - Reminders has a Suggest Reminders diagnostic that Apple says tin bash things similar propulsion ingredients from a look successful Safari. It can, benignant of, but it needs to beryllium amended astatine it. Auto-categorize besides has the imaginable to beryllium useful, but it doesn't ever get things right.


• Shortcuts - Shortcuts supports ‌Apple Intelligence‌, and ‌Apple Intelligence‌ models tin beryllium integrated straight into your creations, but shortcuts are inactive excessively analyzable for the mean user. ‌iOS 26‌ hasn't improved the shortcut instauration process.


• Hold Assist - Hold Assist holds for you truthful you tin bash different things portion waiting for idiosyncratic to get connected the line. It's useful, but if the spot you're calling has euphony with lyrics oregon 1 of those delight enactment connected the enactment dependable reminders, it tin travel up Hold Assist.

Wrap Up

Do you hold with our ‌iOS 26‌ diagnostic ranking? What bash you deliberation are the astir utile caller additions successful ‌iOS 26‌? Let america cognize successful the comments below.
This article, "Ranked: The 10 Most Useful iOS 26 Features" archetypal appeared connected MacRumors.com

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