Apple unveiled iOS 26 last week at WWDC 2025.While Liquid Glass and iPadOS certainly stole the show, there’s a number of smaller features for iPhone users that I think a lot of people will still enjoy, and I’ll be diving into them here.Custom Ringtones get much easier This is certainly a “finally” feature – but for the first time in the 18 year history of the iPhone, you can now set a custom ringtone simply within iOS.
No need for GarageBand or iTunes.Once you have an audio file downloaded, you’ll now have the option to set it as a ringtone from the share sheet.Calling features There’s a new pair of features to help you manage calls on your iPhone.
First and foremost, there’s Call Screening.With Call Screening, your iPhone will automatically answer unknown callers and ask them why they’re calling – all in the background.If it’s a legitimate call, your iPhone will begin ringing.
On top of that, there’s Hold Assist – allowing your phone to handle calls while you’re on hold.No more needing to listen to hold music – the process will exist entirely in the background.Once there’s a live agent, you’ll get notified to return to the call.
Polls in Messages Previously, if you wanted to run a poll in an iMessage group chat, you’d either need to rely on a third party iMessage app, or just rely on trusty old tapbacks.Now, with iOS 26, you can natively create a poll and have people vote on it.AutoMix in Apple Music There’s a neat new feature in Apple Music called AutoMix.
Think Crossfade, but better.It transitions from one song to the next, but matches beats and stretches certain aspects to create a really great sounding transition between two songs in playlist.You can read more about AutoMix here.
Apple Music also now has Lyrics Translation to help you out if you’re listening to a song that isn’t in your language.Adaptive Power Mode There were a number of rumors about an “Apple Intelligence powered” battery management mode leading up to WWDC25.That feature is now here, though it isn’t under the Apple Intelligence umbrella.
Now, with iOS 26 – you’ll be able to help preserve your iPhone’s battery life with Adaptive Power Mode.The feature works by making “small performance adjustments” to extend your battery life.Your display may dim slightly more regularly, and your phone might run a little slower when you don’t need full performance.
Additionally, Low Power Mode will pretty consistently turn on at 20% rather than just being a prompt.In theory, Adaptive Power Mode learns from your habits and should make choices that align with what you’d do, that way you don’t even feel what’s happening.On top of Adaptive Power Mode, your iPhone is now able to tell you how long it’ll take for your battery to charge.
Wrap up Overall, iOS 26 is a pretty big release.The redesigned interface with Liquid Glass is certainly going to grab most peoples attention – but that doesn’t take away from the fact that this year’s release is still packed with great features.One last honorable mention: The camera app now has a new popup telling you to clean your camera lens whenever it’s smudged.
This’ll certainly reduce the number of bad photos taken on iPhones and make users more aware of how important a clean lens is – so that’s a big plus.What do you think of iOS 26 so far? Let us know in the comments.You can read more of our iOS 26 coverage here.
My favorite Apple accessory recommendations:
Anker MagSafe 2-in-1 Wireless Charging Stand with Qi2
MOFT Magnetic Wallet Stand, fits up to 3 cards
Logitech Brio 100 1080p Webcam for Mac
AirTag 4-pack (on sale for 20% off!)
SanDisk Extreme 2TB USB-C SSD, up to 1050MB/s
Aulumu Vegan Leather Case for iPhone 16 Pro
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