iOS 26 Delivers Stunning Call Screening and Design Upgrades

The wait is over. Apple released iOS 26 on Sept. 15, about three months after the company announced the free iPhone update at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June. You can download the free iPhone update now.

Since Apple first announced iOS 26, I’ve been living with the beta software on two iPhones: my iPhone 16 Pro and 14 Pro. I would have downloaded it on my iPhone XR, too, but that device doesn’t support the software (sorry to anyone who still has an XR).

After using the iOS 26 beta, I found a lot of the new features to be fun and useful. The Liquid Glass redesign looks clean and is visually impressive. Call screening, a true game-changer, manages to protect you from robocalls while still allowing other folks to reach you. iOS 26 brings other hidden upgrades to my iPhones that still manage to surprise me.

While most of these upgrades are positive, iOS 26 takes half-measures at times. Some features are moving in the right direction but need work. The new Games app feels like it hasn’t been fully built out yet, and Visual Intelligence’s capability to add information to your Calendar could use improvement.

Nonetheless, the Liquid Glass redesign helps usher in a more immersive visual experience for Apple users, with the update adding more functionality to your phone. While it isn’t a fundamental reworking of the iPhone’s operating system, it provides nice quality-of-life upgrades that help Apple stay apace with its competition.

Call screening and Liquid Glass are the biggest (but not only) improvements in iOS 26

Call screening is the one feature I didn’t know I needed

I’ve never heard anyone say, “Oh boy, a spam call! I love these!” So when Apple announced call screening at WWDC, I was intrigued to see how effective this feature was. And let me tell you, it’s awesome. It might be my single favorite feature in iOS 26.

There are two options for call screening: Ask Reason for Calling and Silence.

Apple describes the Silence option as follows: “Calls from unsaved numbers will be silenced, sent to voicemail, and displayed on the Recents list.” This means that only numbers saved in your Contacts will cause your iPhone to ring.

That’s a little extreme for me, so I opted for the Ask Reason for Calling option. When a number outside my Contacts tries to call me, the caller gets a prompt asking why they want to reach me. When they respond, my device pings me and transcribes the person’s answer so I can decide whether to accept the call or not. Most spam calls don’t leave a response and therefore don’t bother me, which I love. Thanks to call screening, these spam calls aren’t wasting my time—or the spam caller’s.

Liquid Glass looks good after tweaks during the beta process

The most dramatic change iOS 26 brings to your iPhone is the new redesigned Liquid Glass visual interface. This is the biggest visual update to your iPhone since the company released iOS 7 in 2013, back when Henry Cavill first donned Superman’s iconic suit.

Opinions were divided over the Liquid Glass design when Apple first announced it; some liked it, while others—including myself—thought the glass effects made things hard to read. However, after trial and error during the beta process, I think Apple found the right balance of glass and frosted effects to make this design work.

I’m impressed with Liquid Glass’s overall look. Everything appears to squish and wiggle when you interact with it, which is fun, and the way light refracts through the affected items looks excellent. These items blend into apps like Safari, Photos, and others, changing font colors depending on what’s behind them. This makes for clean graphics and animations that are more immersive and less visually disruptive.

Apple also builds on the tinted app icons feature introduced in iOS 18, now with clear icons. This removes all color, giving your icons a translucent, ghostly appearance. While I was initially hesitant, the feature has grown on me. Some busy icons still don’t play nicely with this option, but I think Apple has struck a nice level of frostedness.

Many of the Liquid Glass changes focus on aesthetics rather than function. While menus look different and controls in your Control Center have a polished look, everything should feel familiar when using them.

I just wish Apple would address the transition between the lock and home screens. When unlocking your iPhone and swiping up to get to your home screen, the Liquid Glass layer moves up the screen, but the wallpaper beneath it does not. If your home screen wallpaper differs from your lock screen’s, it might seem like your iPhone is glitching since the lock screen doesn’t move.

Otherwise, I like Liquid Glass in its current state. It appears Apple considered user feedback during the iOS 26 beta process. If you still don’t like it, you can reduce the transparency in the Accessibility section of Settings.

Lock screen updates and big clock

Apple continues to enhance the lock screen’s customizability and functionality with iOS 26. The most significant change is the big clock—while not the official name, it takes up almost half of your lock screen. As a visually impaired person, I appreciate the big clock. Now when I take my glasses off at night, I don’t have to bring my iPhone close to my face to check the time.

My only complaint about the big clock is that you can only use it with one clock font; I’d like to spread the love to other fonts. However, you can change its color to match your background and adjust its thickness or design between Glass (more transparent) and Solid (a standardized appearance).

I also appreciate being able to relocate my widget bar. You can position your widgets near the top of your screen, right beneath the clock, or move them to the bottom of the screen, just above your controls. This is partly due to enabling the big clock feature, as it automatically moves widgets to the bottom to accommodate the larger numbers, though you can still arrange them without it.

The freedom to move widgets around on your lock screen is a huge plus for me. I’ve wanted this ability for years, and iOS 26 brings my iPhone one step closer to that reality.

iOS 26 has more upgrades below the surface

Apple has introduced numerous upgrades in iOS 26, some of which didn’t get much airtime during the WWDC keynote. But that doesn’t make them any less important or helpful.

With iOS 26, you can adjust your alarm’s snooze length from 1 to 15 minutes. This change makes me happy, as the old snooze length was 9 minutes—a number that I find aesthetically displeasing. Being able to adjust this length is satisfying.

When charging your iPhone with iOS 26, the lock screen will display how long it will take to charge and whether your charger is functioning slowly. When I charged my phone alongside another device, my iPhone indicated that it was on a slow charger, and it would take at least an hour to charge fully.

Speaking of battery, iOS 26 also introduces a new adaptive power feature that’s genuinely helpful, especially during gaming. It can detect when your iPhone is using extra power—say, while playing Retro Bowl ’26—and will make performance adjustments to extend battery life. It saves power in small ways, like lowering screen brightness or decreasing processors’ workload.

The update is also close to making me an Apple Music subscriber. The biggest new feature in the streaming service is its lyric translation and pronunciation guides. These can be helpful when listening to popular artists or exploring lyrics in different languages, but they aren’t available for every song, leaving me curious about others.

iOS 26 also introduces new filters in Messages, such as those for spam and messages from unknown senders. My favorite filter is for drafts, allowing you to easily view messages you were working on but didn’t send or got distracted from.

While some changes are more functional, others focus on aesthetics. The new spatial scenes feature can transform almost any picture in your Photos app into a 3D image, shifting and changing perspective. You can also apply spatial scenes to your lock screen to add depth to your wallpaper.

Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhones also receive an upgraded Genmoji app, which now can combine standard emoji into new ones. Previously, you had to either describe an emoji or use Genmoji’s suggestions to create something new. By utilizing pre-existing emoji, the process of creating custom emojis has been simplified.

Games and Visual Intelligence have some catching up to do

While there’s a lot I appreciate about iOS 26, some aspects left me underwhelmed or needing further work. You might find these features appealing, but they don’t meet my expectations just yet.

Games app feels unfinished

The new Games app generated excitement when Apple announced it at WWDC. It’s supposed to track all your downloaded games, offer quick access to Apple Arcade, and help you stay in touch with friends. Think of it as a mobile gaming hub. Initially, I liked the idea, but the more I used the app, the more annoying aspects emerged.

My biggest issue is that you can’t delete games from the app’s library, even if those titles aren’t available for download anymore. Once you download a game, it becomes part of your library seemingly forever. An example: Sega removed support for Crazy Taxi a few months back. After I deleted it to free up space, it still mocks me in my library.

You can filter out uninstalled games, but I wish I could remove titles that are unplayable yet clutter my library. I also want a menu showing which of my contacts own certain games, enabling me to challenge them easily. Even though I can challenge friends to games, if they lack access, my invite feels more like peer pressure.

The Games app also doesn’t integrate with other gaming platforms. Right now, it works with games from Apple Arcade and the App Store but doesn’t show titles from iOS Steam or similar services. I also wish Apple made it easier to connect controllers through the app. You can still do it through Bluetooth settings, but a shortcut within the app would enhance convenience.

While the Games app is a promising start, it still has a long way to go.

Visual Intelligence can be improved

Apple introduced Visual Intelligence with iOS 18, enabling image searches and prompts with tools like ChatGPT. iOS 26 enhances this feature to support screenshots, which is a thoughtful addition. However, the Google Search menu would sometimes fail to disappear when I wanted it to.

Adding events to your Calendar from Visual Intelligence can also be frustrating. When you use a picture with multiple listings, the first entry is automatically selected for the event. While you can edit this later, it might feel redundant compared to manually inputting the details.

Final word on iOS 26

Overall, I like the changes Apple introduces with iOS 26. Call screening is super helpful, and the Liquid Glass design is aesthetically pleasing without being cumbersome. The update builds on aspects of iOS 18, particularly the ability to change app colors and customize your home and lock screens more. In that sense, iOS 26 is a natural evolution after iOS 18. Just remember that some new features feel incomplete, but there’s potential for improvement in future updates.

For more on iOS 26, here’s how to enable call screening, how to make your home screen’s app icons clear in the update and all the new ringtones on your iPhone. You can also check out our iOS 26 cheat sheet for other tips and tricks.