iOS 26 Announced
On the Lock Screen, the time fluidly adapts to the available space in an image, and spatial scenes bring wallpapers to life with a 3D effect when users move iPhone. Updated design elements also deliver fresh experiences in apps. A simplified, streamlined Camera layout helps users keep their attention on the moment they’re capturing, and the Photos app is updated to feature separate tabs for Library and Collections views. In Safari, web pages flow from the top edge to the bottom of the screen, enabling users to see more of the page while maintaining access to frequently used actions like refresh and search. In Apple Music, News, and Podcasts, the tab bar is redesigned to float above users’ content, dynamically shrink when users are browsing to put content front and center, and then expand when they scroll back up.
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Live Translation is integrated into Messages, FaceTime, and Phone to help users communicate across languages, translating text and audio on the fly.
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Fundamental to the iPhone experience, the Phone app now offers a unified layout that combines Favorites, Recents, and Voicemails all in one place. Call Screening builds on Live Voicemail and helps eliminate interruptions by gathering information from the caller and giving users the details they need to decide if they want to pick up or ignore the call. And for the times when a user is stuck on hold, Hold Assist notifies the user when a live agent is available.
In Messages, users can now screen messages from unknown senders, giving them more control over who appears in their conversation list. Messages from unknown senders will appear in a dedicated folder where users can then mark the number as known, ask for more information, or delete. These messages will remain silenced until a user accepts them.
I’m not crazy about Liquid Glass—especially the transparency and floating toolbar—but I’m intrigued by the new Camera and CarPlay stuff, and it looks like there’s a solid list of new Phone and Messages features that will actually be useful.
That iMessage interface looks horrible, I can barely read the messages.
So the purpose of Messages backgrounds is… to make the messages hard to read, I have to assume.
I’d like to… opt out of iMessage backgrounds please
Oh god you can just unilaterally change chat backgrounds? If you do this to my chats I will block you
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Oh my at the Home Screen with glass icons. Why not just make everything fully transparent, so you can’t read anything at all.
I can only assume someone set fire to the HIG.
They just made the HIG transparent so that nobody can read it anymore.
Am I the only one who thinks this new iOS design looks horrible.
That concept post from a week or two ago was actually quite pretty and useable.
This looks like a poorly thought through concept from a sci-fi film that didn’t have enough time.
The truly astounding part of WWDC is that they made my nostalgic for iOS 7.0’s readability.
iOS 7: I DON’T KNOW IF THIS IS A BUTTON
iOS 26: I CAN’T READ THE TEXT
Liquid Glass seems nice and cool -- but it really seems like the transparency will make everything difficult to read.
Is there enough contrast? I can’t tell…
But honestly, I’m happy that buttons seem to look like buttons again. That’s really great.
Genuinely curious why anyone on Apple’s design team thinks this looks like good UX
JFC Apple. This is outrageous. Does no-one at Apple care about legibility anymore?
iOS 26 is going to be an absolute nightmare for anyone with a vestibular disorder or who has issues with legibility/contrast. There is no way in hell Apple will have tested most of this with Reduce Motion. (There are still major problems with last year’s stuff, let alone this.)
Happy with the new iOS redesign. Although not as crazy as the 2000s era design, finally we have something that is actually kind of fun and not some usability-focused sterile and boring slop
The Phone app’s tab bar is an unreadable mess in the Keynote where they’ve tried to make everything unrealistically beautiful. 🤦🏻♂️
The reason actions were at the bottom was because phones are tall and you can use the sheet one handed. Now not so much. =(
It’s the news that alerts will no longer take over the whole screen.
15 GB holy hell
Previously:
Update (2025-06-11): Tim Hardwick:
To make things easier in iOS 26, you no longer have to start the rightward swipe at the very edge of the screen. Now you can start the gesture from anywhere, like the middle of the display. Providing you’re not thumbing an interactive UI element, the swipe-to-go-back gesture will still be triggered.
Apple’s first iOS 26 beta includes a new “Keep Audio in Headphones” setting that addresses a common frustration for iPhone users juggling multiple audio devices.
In iOS 26, Apple updated the Battery section of the Settings app to provide a much more in-depth look at how your iPhone usage impacts battery life and how much battery apps are draining, plus there are new battery management tools.
Apple in iOS 26 has introduced a third display appearance option called “Clear Look,” expanding beyond the traditional Light and Dark Mode choices that have defined the iPhone experience in recent iOS versions.
iOS 26 allows users to set custom backgrounds in conversations, and it introduces the ability to create polls for voting.
In the Messages app, users can now screen messages from unknown senders. Apple says messages from unknown senders will appear in a dedicated folder, where users can mark the phone number as known, ask for more information, or delete it. These messages will remain silenced until a user accepts them.
We’ve rounded up some of the smaller changes but still useful changes that have been introduced in the update.
the thicker List items are going to take a little getting used to (admittedly I haven’t tried this on a real device yet)
Interesting to see the search bar moved to the bottom
They say the new UI is supposed to allow you to see more content, but at the same time it feels like all the UI has gotten bigger so... I don’t know if that claim is gonna hold up. 😛
A hallmark of iOS 26 design seems to be the consolidation of what was previously multiple toolbar buttons into a “…” button that shows a menu.
Update (2025-06-13): Craig Grannell:
Often, though, it’s smaller changes that can make or break an operating system. And one change has me doing a happy dance: the Home indicator no longer scythes across the bottom of the screen, above the app you’re using. I’ve grumbled about the Home indicator for years. I wanted an off switch – the means to get rid of it for good. Because the last thing I need when playing a game, using a music app, or reading, is a distracting line lurking at the bottom of the screen.
In the ’26’ dev betas, Apple hasn’t provided an off switch in Settings, but it has introduced the next best thing. Actually, it’s arguably created something better. When you switch to an app, the Home indicator now elegantly fades. Further interaction with the app doesn’t make it reappear. Instead, you have to make a deliberate upwards swipe from the bottom of the screen to bring it back.
Fun fact… Liquid Glass seems to always pull from List contents for the background, not whats actually below it?
8 Comments RSS · Twitter · Mastodon
All these old(er) men whining and whining. Ughhh. Maybe one of these whiining “greats” comes up with an app to reskin or provide a more pleasing level of opacity …
Criticism with reasoning isn’t whining, rajs. It’s certainly more valuable than the ad hominem insult you’re tossing out.
Please do explain how a third party developer can sell an app in the App Store that completely reskins iOS. You seem to know something all these actually accomplished developers don’t.
"Maybe one of these whiining “greats” comes up with an app to reskin or provide a more pleasing level of opacity …"
We would if Apple didn't prevent it.
@rajs I think it's social media that has made people this way - everything has to be a triumph or a disaster these day
Nah, everything doesn't have to be a triumph or a disaster. This simply happens to be a disaster for those of us who actually do any kind of work on these devices. If all you do is stare at Instagram, I'm sure this is fine.
No idea if thats the case I’ve never had a Facebook or Instagram account.
I’m not a developer but I do work on these devices - as a professional photographer and sports club administrator - and these changes are not a disaster for me.
There are certainly things about the new UI that aren't perfect but I think it’s another evolutionary step that may take some revisions to get just right.
Clam down people - there is a reason for betas.
"there is a reason for betas."
The reason for the betas is for people to provide feedback, which is what they're doing.
Having said that, apart from the unintelligible transparency effects, if you had installed this on my Mac without telling me, I probably wouldn't have noticed that anything had changed.
Would love to know what the evolutionary step is. More hidden controls while also taking up more space for UI than 5 years ago? Text that's harder to read?
