iOS 26: MAKES MASSIVE CHANGES TO YOUR IPHONE'S HOME SCREEN AND MAJOR APPS

WITH A DRAMATIC NEW DESIGN AND BIG UPDATES TO THE MOST USED APPS, THIS WILL FEEL LIKE A BIGGER CHANGE THAN PREVIOUS iOS UPDATES.

- JASON CROSS

When you update to iOS 26 this fall, your iPhone is going to feel dramatically different. There are always lots of new features in each major yearly release, but few are as in-your-face as those this year. There's an all-new design and dramatic changes to some of the apps you use most, including Phone, Camera, Messages, and Safari. Here are the biggest changes coming to iOS this year.

JUMPING UP TO 26

Apple is changing its naming scheme from sequential version numbers (which were all over the place, with different devices having different version numbers) to a year-based system. The OS versions that will carry Apple through 2026 will all be version 26. So you'll have iOS 26 (fave.co/44uVU9u), macOS 26 (fave.co/40tNQ7w), iPadOS 26 (fave.co/4lppRP4), watchOS 26 (fave.co/4lwe5Co), visionOS 26, tvOS 26, and so on.

So don't be confused—on your iPhone, 26 comes right after 18!

Liquid Glass does a lot more than change the look of your icons.

LIQUID GLASS

Apple's bringing an all-new design to iOS and all its other operating systems. The featured element is something it calls Liquid Glass (fave.co/3TV56ih), which means interface elements look almost like glass—transparent, 3D, reacting to light and your touch.

This affects icons and widgets, which now have a new transparent option in addition to light, dark, and tinted modes. But it's also a big change to how interfaces work. Groups of controls no longer occupy a rectangular bar at the bottom of the screen, but are stuffed into floating elements that pop out additional controls, change as you move between views, and tuck away when you scroll.

This new look will be found in Apple's major apps and across devices from the Apple TV to the Mac and the Apple Watch.