iOS 26 is here: 5 new features to set up on your iPhone right away

iOS 26 is finally here and is already available to download on most Apple devices. The new update brings a host of new features that were first unveiled at the WWDC 2025 conference in June and are now making their way to all iPhones.

​Here’s a list of the top 5 features you should know about in iOS 26:

​Top 5 features in iOS 26:

​1) Spam filtering feature:

​iOS 26 comes with a new spam filtering feature that works for both text messages and phone calls. For messages, iOS 26 has automatic filters that put junk or spam messages in a spam folder. Meanwhile, an “Unknown Senders” folder automatically collects all the messages received from people not in the user’s contacts.

​As for calls, when the user gets a call from someone not in their contacts, Siri will automatically answer the call and ask the caller to state their name and reason for calling. The user can then decide whether to take the call, send it to voicemail, or block the number directly.

​2) Adaptive Power:

​The new iOS update comes with an AI-powered battery saver feature called Adaptive Power. The new feature is turned on by default on the iPhone 17 series, but older iPhones will have to enable it by going into Settings. Do note that since it’s an AI-powered feature, it only works on devices that support Apple Intelligence (iPhone 15 Pro and later models).

​The Adaptive Power feature kicks in when the system detects that battery usage on the iPhone is higher than usual. The iPhone then makes small performance adjustments to extend battery life.

​iPhone users already have the option to lower brightness, turn off Always-On Display, or, in worst-case scenarios, switch to Low Power Mode to cut background activity and conserve power.

​But the new Adaptive Power feature works more intelligently. It only kicks in during high power-consuming tasks such as recording videos, editing photos, or playing games.

​3) Visual Intelligence:

​After taking a screenshot on iOS 26, the window won’t just zoom out of the way. It would instead stay there for a while as the iPhone looks for useful information in the image.

​With Visual Intelligence on iOS 26, users will be able to interact with the screenshots. For instance, they can run a reverse image search from right there or start up a conversation with the built-in AI about the content on the screenshot. The iPhone will even provide options for taking action, like adding a date to a Calendar, if it finds relevant information in the image.

​4) Liquid Glass:

​The biggest visual change in iOS 26 is the introduction of the Liquid Glass design language, which gives the UI a softer, more dynamic, and semi-transparent look. The buttons, menus, and notification shade in iOS 26 have a translucent fluid look, which allows light and color from the wallpaper to shine through.

​Meanwhile, system controls and notifications use smoother and more responsive animations that react to the touch of users.

​5) Custom ringtones:

​While users have been able to set custom ringtones on their Android devices for years, the same wasn’t true for iPhones. Apple’s “walled garden” approach meant that setting a custom ringtone on an iPhone was a cumbersome process, which required using the iTunes app on a Mac or Windows, trimming a song to less than 30 seconds, and then converting it into the .m4r format.

​All that is changing with iOS 26, where users can finally set a custom ringtone right from the Files app by choosing a less-than-30-second audio clip in MP3 or M4A formats.