{"id":50417,"date":"2025-12-12T15:27:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T20:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=50417"},"modified":"2025-12-29T15:56:44","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T20:56:44","slug":"ios-26-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/12\/12\/ios-26-2\/","title":{"rendered":"iOS 26.2"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.macrumors.com\/2025\/12\/12\/apple-releases-ios-26-2\/\">Juli Clover<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/support.apple.com\/en-us\/123075\">release notes<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/support.apple.com\/en-us\/125884\">security<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/support.apple.com\/en-us\/125073\">enterprise<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/developer.apple.com\/documentation\/ios-ipados-release-notes\/ios-ipados-26_2-release-notes\">developer<\/a>):<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/www.macrumors.com\/2025\/12\/12\/apple-releases-ios-26-2\/\">\n<p>iOS 26.2 adds an option to activate an alarm when a reminder is due, an option to change the opacity of the time on the Lock Screen, updated AirDrop functionality, and new features for the Podcasts app.<\/p>\n<p>It also brings Live Translation for the AirPods to the EU, and adds support for alternative app stores and other voice assistants in Japan.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>See also this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.macrumors.com\/2025\/12\/11\/ios-26-2-features-coming-soon\/\">previous article<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ClassicII_MrMac\/status\/1996261479578796327\">Mr. Macintosh<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ClassicII_MrMac\/status\/1996261479578796327\">\n<p>To be clear, I think it&rsquo;s absurd that Apple doesn&rsquo;t allow iOS users to downgrade. This year, Apple unsigned iOS 18 just a week after iOS 26 launched, meaning it could never be downgraded to again.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>Previously:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/11\/25\/ios-26-2-to-open-up-iphoneapple-watch-wi-fi-sync-in-eu\/\">iOS 26.2 to Open Up iPhone&#x2013;Apple Watch Wi-Fi Sync in EU<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/11\/18\/ios-26-2-third-party-voice-assistants-in-japan\/\">iOS 26.2: Third-Party Voice Assistants in Japan<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/11\/07\/ios-26-2-app-marketplaces-and-browser-choice-in-japan\/\">iOS 26.2: App Marketplaces and Browser Choice in Japan<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/11\/06\/ios-26-2-to-remove-iphone-apple-watch-wi-fi-sync-in-eu\/\">iOS 26.2 to Remove iPhone&#x2013;Apple Watch Wi-Fi Sync in EU<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/11\/04\/ios-26-1\/\">iOS 26.1<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p id=\"ios-26-2-update-2025-12-15\">Update (<a href=\"#ios-26-2-update-2025-12-15\">2025-12-15<\/a>): <a href=\"https:\/\/www.macrumors.com\/2025\/12\/12\/ios-26-2-automatic-software-update\/\">Juli Clover<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/www.macrumors.com\/2025\/12\/12\/ios-26-2-automatic-software-update\/\">\n<p>After installing iOS 26.2, if you&rsquo;re just tapping through screens, you could miss the update turning on automatic software updates.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>My father got tricked into updating to iOS 26, and the new Safari toolbar design broke one of his essential Web sites. (One of the site&rsquo;s buttons near the bottom of the screen became inoperative, though it wasn&rsquo;t actually under the liquid glass.) Fortunately, this can be worked around by changing the Safari tab bar setting.<\/p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.macrumors.com\/2025\/12\/12\/ios-26-2-security-vulnerabilities\/\">Juli Clover<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/news.ycombinator.com\/item?id=46264101\">Hacker News<\/a>):<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/www.macrumors.com\/2025\/12\/12\/ios-26-2-security-vulnerabilities\/\">\n<p>Apple says that the updates address over 20 vulnerabilities, including two bugs that are known to have been actively exploited.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@renef\/115713784477921085\">Ren&eacute; Fouquet<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@renef\/115713784477921085\">\n<p>My wife is now giving me a daily briefing about which new part of iOS 26 she found annoying.<\/p>\n<p>Today: playing podcasts via a USB connection in the car no longer works and the skip button doesn&rsquo;t skip anymore.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mas.to\/@meekgeek\/115724609821256830\">Meek Geek<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/mas.to\/@meekgeek\/115724609821256830\">\n<p>An Apple Tech Support did an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/applesucks\/comments\/1pmt5e5\/hey_i_work_for_apple_tech_support_ask_me_anything\/\">AMA<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The 26 has made work a living hell. I tell people not to even upgrade to that bullshit.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/jvepng\/status\/2000541475340460528\">jvepng<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/x.com\/jvepng\/status\/2000541475340460528\">\n<p>let&rsquo;s start a thread of iOS 26 UI glitches<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>Previously:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/03\/31\/macos-15-4\/\">macOS 15.4<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p id=\"ios-26-2-update-2025-12-16\">Update (<a href=\"#ios-26-2-update-2025-12-16\">2025-12-16<\/a>): <a href=\"https:\/\/www.macrumors.com\/2025\/12\/15\/iphone-12-australia-users-should-install-ios-26-2\/\">Joe Rossignol<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/www.macrumors.com\/2025\/12\/15\/iphone-12-australia-users-should-install-ios-26-2\/\">\n<p>In a <a href=\"https:\/\/support.apple.com\/en-us\/125851\">support document<\/a> published on Friday, Apple said that a &ldquo;technical failure&rdquo; in Australia prevented some older mobile phones from being able to make emergency calls by dialing 000, and it said there is a low chance that it could happen again.<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>For iPhone 12 users specifically, Apple vaguely stated that the iOS 26.2 update <a href=\"https:\/\/www.macrumors.com\/2025\/12\/12\/apple-releases-ios-26-2\/\">released last week<\/a> &ldquo;provides support for this scenario.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@ctietze\/115727908377837675\">Christian Tietze<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@ctietze\/115727908377837675\">\n<p>Oh god, this checkmark button is the actual new default? I thought that was just bad taste in some demo apps :)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p id=\"ios-26-2-update-2025-12-18\">Update (<a href=\"#ios-26-2-update-2025-12-18\">2025-12-18<\/a>): <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/phone-updates-used-to-be-annoying-the-latest-ios-is-awful\/\">Sloane Crosley<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/phone-updates-used-to-be-annoying-the-latest-ios-is-awful\/\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/your-iphone-already-has-iphone-fold-software-but-apple-wont-let-you-use-it\/\">Tech companies<\/a> are accustomed to a certain amount of kicking and screaming after foisting new interfaces on the public. You can&rsquo;t please all of the people all of the time, especially when &ldquo;all of the people&rdquo; is in the billions. But ask your friends&mdash;or Google or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/ios\/comments\/1potia5\/ios_26_gets_worse_with_every_update\/\">Reddit<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/search?q=ios+update\">Bluesky<\/a> or ChatGPT&mdash;about the operating system update, and you will be swept away in a river of anger. &ldquo;This is like foundationally bad,&rdquo; author and musician John Darnielle <a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/themountaingoats.bsky.social\/post\/3m7vbtyumek2k\">replied on Bluesky<\/a> to someone who agreed with his original tweet (about the poor photo-cropping function). One <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/AutismInWomen\/comments\/1pkmxrc\/new_iphone_update_made_me_so_overwhelmed_i_ended\/\">Reddit thread<\/a> was posted under the headline &ldquo;New iPhone update made me so overwhelmed, I ended up throwing my phone.&rdquo; The subsequent post does not specify where the phone was thrown or at whom, but I have some suggestions. One wonders at what point a company&rsquo;s petrification of obsolescence risks becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. Ask yourself: Is this good for the phones? Normally, I&rsquo;d be curious about the hissy-fit metrics inside Silicon Valley, about when public upset gets severe enough to become private data. But right now, I have my own problems.<\/p>\n<p>I downloaded Apple&rsquo;s new iOS 26.2 last week because I am a trained circus seal who will press any button presented to me. I came home late from a holiday party, agreed to the latest iOS almost by accident, and woke up to a new world. There&rsquo;s something very <em>A Thief in the Night<\/em> about any new operating system, but in this case, the complaints, some witnessed, some personally experienced, are intense. Here is a partial list: the slow speed (every action takes twice as long), the animation of text bubbles, the incongruous mix of sensitivity and imperviousness to touch, the swipes to nowhere, the difficulty posting downloaded photos, the fact that almost nothing is where you left it (search fields, files), the unsolicited status sharing regarding dwindling battery life (&ldquo;24m to 80%&rdquo;), the lack of visual contrast, the screenshot fussiness, the requirement that users drive up to a mansion on Long Island and whisper &ldquo;Fidelio&rdquo; in order to toggle off the &ldquo;Liquid Glass&rdquo; function. You have to admit: It&rsquo;s a little funny to get a transparency feature from a tech company.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p id=\"ios-26-2-update-2025-12-19\">Update (<a href=\"#ios-26-2-update-2025-12-19\">2025-12-19<\/a>): <a href=\"https:\/\/daringfireball.net\/linked\/2025\/12\/19\/apples-262-os-updates\">John Gruber<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/daringfireball.net\/linked\/2025\/12\/19\/apples-262-os-updates\">\n<p>Lastly, iOS 26.2 seems to be the release that Apple is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/phone-updates-used-to-be-annoying-the-latest-ios-is-awful\/\">starting to suggest as an upgrade<\/a> for users who hadn&rsquo;t already installed it by choice. Be prepared for questions and complaints from non-nerd friends and family who&rsquo;ve never even heard of &ldquo;Liquid Glass&rdquo;.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sixcolors.com\/post\/2025\/12\/apple-is-forcing-iphones-to-update-to-ios-26-to-patch-security-holes\/\">Jason Snell<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/sixcolors.com\/post\/2025\/12\/apple-is-forcing-iphones-to-update-to-ios-26-to-patch-security-holes\/\">\n<p>Apple generally tries not to leave behind users who haven&rsquo;t updated or can&rsquo;t update to the latest OS version. Apple also usually offers security updates for past OS versions, and indeed, the company also released iOS 18.7.3 to address the same issues.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, there&rsquo;s an ugly catch: Numerous iPhone users have reported that if your iPhone is capable of running iOS 26 but you&rsquo;re still back on iOS 18, you won&rsquo;t be offered iOS 18.7.3. Instead, the only update option you&rsquo;ll be given is iOS 26.2.<\/p>\n<p>There are a lot of reasons to avoid updating to iOS 26, from a dislike of Liquid Glass to software compatibility to a general wariness to install major updates for a while. This move effectively forces users to take the iOS 26 upgrade if they want the security updates.<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>Apple shouldn&rsquo;t be withholding a security update from people not willing to upgrade to the next OS version.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p id=\"ios-26-2-update-2025-12-22\">Update (<a href=\"#ios-26-2-update-2025-12-22\">2025-12-22<\/a>): <a href=\"https:\/\/9to5mac.com\/2025\/12\/12\/ios-26-2-adds-new-airdrop-codes-feature-heres-how-it-works\/\">Ryan Christoffel<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/9to5mac.com\/2025\/12\/12\/ios-26-2-adds-new-airdrop-codes-feature-heres-how-it-works\/\">\n<p>But in iOS 26.2, there&rsquo;s a new AirDrop enhancement available: &ldquo;codes.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>Now, if there&rsquo;s someone you want to use AirDrop with who isn&rsquo;t in your contacts, you can temporarily &ldquo;authorize&rdquo; each other via this new one-time code.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>Previously:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/12\/16\/airdropping-with-android\/\">AirDropping With Android<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p id=\"ios-26-2-update-2025-12-23\">Update (<a href=\"#ios-26-2-update-2025-12-23\">2025-12-23<\/a>): <a href=\"https:\/\/sixcolors.com\/post\/2025\/12\/airdrop-codes-allow-temporary-persistent-contact\/\">Glenn Fleishman<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/sixcolors.com\/post\/2025\/12\/airdrop-codes-allow-temporary-persistent-contact\/\">\n<p>The new AirDrop code provides more privacy (and security), and even creates a temporary contact entry for a party agreeing to receive material.<\/p>\n<p>However, it makes it even harder to use AirDrop in an ad hoc fashion&mdash;sending or receiving items quickly with another person a single time or a few times when permission is granted.<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>Because this code method allows 30 days of sending after using a code, it offers some balance between unwanted contact and persistent availability in the vast majority of cases in which AirDrop is used.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p id=\"ios-26-2-update-2025-12-26\">Update (<a href=\"#ios-26-2-update-2025-12-26\">2025-12-26<\/a>): <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ffaebi\/status\/2003548130936332519\">Fabian<\/a> reports that the clock on the lockscreen keeps moving left (via <a href=\"https:\/\/news.ycombinator.com\/item?id=46368813\">Hacker News<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n<p id=\"ios-26-2-update-2025-12-29\">Update (<a href=\"#ios-26-2-update-2025-12-29\">2025-12-29<\/a>): <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/immasiddx\/status\/2004236654153015362\">sid<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/x.com\/immasiddx\/status\/2004236654153015362\">\n<p>Drag and drop an app into a folder on iPhone.<\/p>\n<p>Difficulty level: IMPOSSIBLE<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>I&rsquo;ve had problems like this with both iOS 18 and iOS 26. I miss being able to rearrange app icons with iTunes.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Juli Clover (release notes, security, enterprise, developer): iOS 26.2 adds an option to activate an alarm when a reminder is due, an option to change the opacity of the time on the Lock Screen, updated AirDrop functionality, and new features for the Podcasts app. It also brings Live Translation for the AirPods to the EU, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"2025-12-12T20:27:14Z","apple_news_api_id":"7016e850-4a5d-437a-8cf3-021b715e7105","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2025-12-29T20:56:51Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACA==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AcBboUEpdQ3qM8wIbcV5xBQ","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1003,1979,31,2741,2304,1999,2785,2087],"class_list":["post-50417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-airdrop","tag-australia","tag-ios","tag-ios-26","tag-ios-release","tag-iphone-12","tag-liquid-glass","tag-software-update"],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50417"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50584,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50417\/revisions\/50584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}