Your iPhone is set for a major feature upgrade next week – here's what's coming

It’s been a couple of months since Apple announced its new iPhones, and almost two months exactly since the release of iOS 26, with all the new features that it brought to compatible devices.

Since then, we’ve seen the release of iOS 26.1 too, but with December now here and Apple having already confirmed iOS 26.2 would be arriving this month, it’s time to prepare for the next major feature upgrade.

Based on a report by 9to5 Mac, iOS 26.2 could arrive as soon as next week, with the software release expected to land at some point before 10 December. It packs in plenty of new features too, with everything from offline lyrics on Apple Music to a new alarm feature on Reminders.

What’s coming in iOS 26.2?

If you’re running iOS 26, you’ll already be fully aware of some of the new tricks your iPhone can now do compared to iOS 18. The software introduced a new design in Liquid Glass with more transparent menus and settings, and it also saw features like the ability to change your snooze time on alarms.

The first major update to that software – iOS 26.1 – was then released at the beginning of November and that introduced some extra features like a tinted option for Liquid Glass to make it easier to read, and Live Translation in more languages.

With iOS 26.2, there are even more features coming. We mentioned offline lyrics in Apple Music and alarms in Reminders, but the Live Translation feature for AirPods is also launching in the EU and there are some design changes coming to Apple News.

Elsewhere, Apple Podcasts is getting a few new features including AI-generated chapters, according to 9to5Mac, while the iPhone Lock Screen will offer more drastic Liquid Glass effects. There are also some updates to CarPlay coming with the new software, tables in Freeform and a new scoring system for Sleep Score on Apple Watch.

All in all, it’s a pretty substantial update in terms of features, and hopefully right in time for Christmas.