Apple confirms iOS 26 with huge updates and major new features

Apple has confirmed what weeks of rumours had been indicating – its next wave of iOS is getting a big shift in its name, dubbed iOS 26 to match the calendar year during which the software will predominantly be active.

That'll skip us from the current iOS 18 straight to 26, but from then onwards it should be a more logical annual change to the number. Alongside that big news, Apple also used today's WWDC to actually show off the new OS, featuring its all-new Liquid Glass design language.

After talking up the fact that it hadn't enacted a major design change for pretty much a decade, Apple showed off how Liquid Glass will change the look and feel of your iPhone pretty comprehensively. The new "material" is basically a way of layering elements on your display naturally, with fun transparent effects that behave a lot like glass really would.

The presentation showed off a range of glimpses of Liquid Glass in different settings, some of them very similar to the old design, and others more distinct. App icons have been refreshed, for example, but look extremely recognisable, as do many menu items and options.

However, the Control Centre is now way glassier and eye-catching (whether you like it or not), while overlaid video controls also showed up much more obviously when demonstrated.

Various key apps got big tweaks besides their design, too. The Photos app is going back to a tabbed approach, and the Camera app got a new lick of paint, too – much, well, glassier.

The Phone app has a new one-page unified layout for all your favourite contacts, recent calls and voicemails in one place. It's also getting a call screening feature that will be familiar to any Google users, since it has boasted the feature for a while on Pixel hardware.

Similar screening options will also come to the Messages app, along with the ability to add backgrounds to your group chats. It'll also get polls, all of which might make it even more of a competitor to the likes of WhatsApp, which has had some of these features for a while.

There will be weeks of dissection of all the new tweaks and features that Apple showed off today, but the key knowledge that the software will be called iOS 26 is worth restating – hopefully this doesn't result in any confusion when upgrade time comes this autumn.