Apple’s iOS 26 for iPhone is now out there to obtain.
The star of the working system is the all-new design language referred to as Liquid Glass, which introduces a translucent layer to varied interface components that mimics the bodily properties of actual glass—together with the way in which mild shines and refracts by means of the fabric.
However iOS 26 is about greater than only a fairly new digital face. The brand new working system additionally provides some compelling new productiveness options that make Apple’s smartphone a extra useful software for work than ever earlier than. These are the highest 5 new productiveness options Apple has simply added to the iPhone.
5. Solely take the cellphone calls you need
[Photo: Apple]
Some of the frequent interruptions to our workflow is cellphone calls. And provided that U.S. customers acquired over 4.1 billion robocalls in August alone, the probabilities are good it is perhaps spam. But this isn’t all the time the case. One strategy to distinguish between a name you have to take and one you don’t is by glancing on the iPhone’s caller ID. However this solely works in case you acknowledge the quantity calling. If the quantity is unknown, you have to decide as much as see who’s on the opposite line—and what they’re calling for.
Now, with the brand new working system, your iPhone good points a characteristic known as Name Screening, which permits your iPhone to reply the unknown name for you by taking part in a message for the caller, which asks them to establish themselves and state a cause for his or her name. As soon as they do that, your iPhone will warn you to their response so that you could determine whether or not to take the decision. If you happen to decline, the unknown caller will likely be despatched to voicemail.
To allow Name Screening in iOS 26:
- Open the Settings app.
- Faucet Apps.
- Faucet Telephone.
- Below the Display Unknown Callers heading, select the extent of Name Screening you need. The three ranges are “By no means” (disable Name Screening), “Ask Cause for Calling” (your iPhone will acquire the caller’s title and their cause for the decision earlier than alerting you), or “Silence” (all calls from unknown numbers will go proper to voicemail).
4. Create calendar occasions with a screenshot
[Photo: Apple]
For a lot of conferences or retreats, occasion organizers will e mail poster invitations for the occasion, which embody a photograph of the venue, date, time, and placement. Or generally they’ll submit the invite to their social media feed or webpage. Previous to iOS 26, you needed to enter this occasion info into your calendar manually.
Nevertheless, with the brand new OS, now you can take a screenshot of the invite, and your iPhone will extract the related info from it and add it to your calendar with only a few faucets. This drastically simplifies the tedious technique of manually including invitations to your calendar. Right here’s how:
- With the occasion invitation in your display (whether or not it’s a picture connected to an e mail, a webpage, or a social media submit), take a screenshot in your iPhone by urgent the amount up and energy buttons concurrently.
- iOS 26 will detect the occasion info within the screenshot and show a “Add to Calendar” button beneath it. Faucet this button.
- A pop-up will seem displaying the occasion info that has been extracted from the screenshot. Faucet the “Create Occasion” button so as to add the occasion to your calendar.
You’ll now see a list for the occasion in your Calendar app.
3. Make your iPhone wait on maintain for you
[Photo: Apple]
With iOS 26, ready on maintain is a factor of the previous, because of a brand new characteristic known as Maintain Help.
With Maintain Help, your iPhone can wait on maintain for you whilst you proceed together with your work. Once you lastly get related to somebody, your iPhone will ring you once more to let you realize they’re on the road.
To make use of Maintain Help in iOS 26:
- Open the Settings app.
- Faucet Apps.
- Faucet Telephone.
- Make sure the “Maintain Help Detection” toggle is turned on (inexperienced).
- Now, dial a cellphone quantity as you usually would. If you end up positioned on maintain, faucet the “Maintain” button in your iPhone’s dialer display.
Your iPhone will notify you when it’s time to select up the cellphone once more to speak to an actual individual.
2. Put AI to work as your international language interpreter
[Photo: Apple]
Enterprise is world, and that implies that we might usually discover ourselves needing to speak with individuals who don’t converse the identical language as we do. Now, in iOS 26, your iPhone can act as your private digital interpreter because of a brand new characteristic known as Reside Translation.
The characteristic makes use of Apple’s AI platform, Apple Intelligence, and works throughout all main iPhone communication apps, together with Messages, FaceTime, and Telephone. In Messages, textual content conversations will likely be cross-translated in real-time. In FaceTime, real-time caption translations will seem in your display. And within the Telephone app, the iPhone will really converse the translated dialog for you.
Reside Translation is enabled by default and can kick in every time your iPhone detects you’re speaking with somebody who’s utilizing a distinct language from yours. Nevertheless, this characteristic solely works on iPhones that assist Apple Intelligence, which incorporates the iPhone 15 Professional and later fashions.
1. Customise folders for higher file administration
[Photo: Apple]
Apple’s Recordsdata app is a sturdy file administration system in your iPhone, enabling you to retailer and entry paperwork and different important recordsdata on your work. Earlier than iOS 26, the folders wherein these paperwork have been saved and sorted all seemed the identical—plain and pale blue. Nevertheless, in iOS 26, Apple has added the power to customise the look of every folder, permitting you to create customized designs that make it simple to pinpoint the folder containing the recordsdata you want at that second.
In iOS 26, you’ll be able to customise the folders within the Recordsdata app in quite a few methods, together with by colour and by including an emblem and even an emoji to the entrance of the folder. Right here’s how:
- Open the Recordsdata app in your iPhone.
- Lengthy-press on a folder you wish to customise and faucet “Customise Folder & Tags . . .” from the pop-up menu.
- Choose the Tags button, then select a colour to present the folder a brand new hue, and faucet the checkmark button.
- Now, select an emblem you wish to add to the entrance of the folder (Apple supplies lots of of choices).
- Alternatively, faucet the Emoji button and choose an emoji you wish to add to the entrance of the folder.
- Faucet the blue checkmark button when finished.
Better of all, after customizing your folder to your liking, the brand new fashion will sync throughout all of your gadgets utilizing iCloud Drive, so it’ll look the identical in your iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
iOS 26 is now out there as a free obtain. It requires an iPhone 11 or later to run.

