All the New Features Coming to Apple's iOS Apps with iOS 26

At WWDC 2025, Apple announced a range of enhancements set to arrive with iOS 26 this fall, aiming to improve user experience across its native apps. Key updates include enhanced call handling, richer Wallet features for travelers, and new group chat tools in Messages.

Among the highlights are innovations powered by Apple Intelligence, such as Live Translation, and the return of user-favored design elements like tabs in the Photos app. This overview captures the main changes users can expect when iOS 26 launches.

Enhanced Phone Experiences

The new Call Screening feature automatically answers unknown calls silently in the background, asking callers to state their name and reason for calling. You'll receive a notification with the caller's response before deciding to answer or ignore the call. Additionally, "Hold Assist" can detect hold music and keep the line active until a live agent connects.

Live Translation will facilitate real-time multilingual conversations, translating your spoken words aloud to the recipient in their language and vice versa.

New Messaging Features

Messages now support polls in group chats, helping users coordinate and make decisions more easily. The system can even suggest starting a poll when relevant using Apple Intelligence. Group threads can also customize chat backgrounds, view typing indicators, and manage Apple Cash transactions within the conversation.

Filtering messages from unknown senders is improved with a dedicated folder, where messages remain silent until reviewed and accepted. The introduction of Live Translation in Messages will automatically translate texts as they are typed and received, streamlining communication across different languages.

Innovations in Apple Music

Apple Music users gain a Lyrics Translation feature to better understand songs in foreign languages, as well as a Lyrics Pronunciation tool to assist in singing along with phonetic guidance.

The new AudioMix feature enables seamless transitions between songs using time stretching and beat matching, mimicking a DJ’s continuous mix. This positions Apple Music competitively against Spotify's AI DJ functionality.

A karaoke mode will transform iPhones into microphones paired with Apple TV to amplify voices and display real-time lyrics and visuals, enhancing home entertainment.

Users can also now pin favorite tracks for quick access atop their music library.

Apple Maps Enhancements

Apple Maps gains on-device intelligence to recognize daily commutes and suggest preferred routes with alerts for delays and alternative options.

The new Visited Places feature automatically notes locations like restaurants and shops, allowing users to review their visited spots, with all data protected by end-to-end encryption that Apple cannot access.

Travel-Friendly Updates in Apple Wallet

Wallet can now hold a Digital ID such as a digital passport, usable for identity verification in apps and at supported TSA checkpoints during domestic travel, complementing physical passports.

Users will be able to present driver’s licenses or state IDs via Wallet to participating websites and agencies for identity and age checks.

Flight boarding passes receive a refresh with real-time Live Activities updates that users can share to keep others informed. From Wallet, users can launch Maps for airport navigation, track lost baggage via Find My, and manage airline services.

Additionally, Apple Intelligence in Wallet summarizes order tracking details from merchant and carrier emails, streamlining package monitoring.

FaceTime with Live Translation

FaceTime incorporates Live Translation to provide translated captions during calls with people speaking different languages, enabling clearer cross-language conversations.

Photos App Returns with Tabs and 3D Photos

Responding to user feedback, Apple reinstates the tabbed layout in the Photos app, featuring sections like Favorites, Albums, and easy search functionality. The Library tab focuses on recent photos for simple browsing.

Moreover, the app can now convert traditional 2D images into immersive 3D spatial photos.

Camera App Optimization

The Camera interface highlights your two most commonly used shooting modes, Photo and Video, on the main screen for quick access. Other modes, like Portrait and Cinematic, are accessible via horizontal swipes.

Additional controls such as flash, timer, and aperture settings can now be reached by swiping up from the bottom, allowing easy format changes between HD, 4K, and frame rates.

Personalized Playback in Apple Podcasts

Apple Podcasts introduces customizable playback speeds ranging from 0.5x to 3x, matching features found in competing platforms like Spotify.

An "Enhance Dialogue" option uses audio processing and machine learning to clarify speech over background noise, improving listening quality.

Improved Image Playground with ChatGPT Integration

Apple enhances Image Playground with ChatGPT, enabling users to generate images in diverse artistic styles like vector art or oil painting by describing their vision or submitting photos. This integration offers a creative boost for image editing and generation.

DeepFounder AI Analysis

Why it matters

This wave of iOS updates indicates Apple's strategic emphasis on enhancing user convenience, multilingual communication, and AI-powered functionalities, reflecting the broader tech trend toward intelligent, context-aware applications. For startups and founders, these developments highlight shifting user expectations for integrated AI and seamless cross-border digital experiences, creating a fertile ground for innovation around communication, travel, and multimedia.

Risks & opportunities

On the opportunity side, integration of AI for live translations and intelligent content summarization opens new markets for developing supplementary apps or services that leverage these capabilities, potentially creating enhanced user experiences or niche tools. The risks include increased platform dependency for startups building atop Apple's ecosystem and challenges in differentiating offerings when AI features become standard in base operating system apps.

Startup idea or application

An innovative startup could create a privacy-focused multilingual conferencing tool specialized for business scenarios, leveraging Apple’s Live Translation APIs and enhanced Wallet-based identity verification for secure access. Additionally, an AI-driven travel assistant app that automatically syncs with Wallet’s Digital ID, manages boarding passes, recommends local Visited Places, and delivers real-time travel alerts could uniquely serve global travelers looking for convenience and security.

AppleiOS 26Apple IntelligenceLive TranslationDigital IDApple Wallet

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