This year, millions of iPhones will get updated to iOS 26, which is expected to be Apple's largest and most transformative software update for the iPhone since iOS 7 more than a decade ago.
And yes, addressing the elephant in the room, numerous reports claim we should expect iOS 26, not iOS 19, to be announced at the upcoming WWDC'25.
Apple usually showcases its new software at the annual WWDC developer summit along other device-specific operating systems like watchOS, macOS, and iPadOS. However, iOS is typically the star of the show due to the widespread adoption of the iPhone.
Last year's iOS 18 was fully dedicated to Apple Intelligence, Cupertino's take on artificial intelligence, but the company has had some issues with the rollout. The most exciting part of Apple Intelligence, a smarter and more capable Siri, did not arrive this spring and was delayed to next year, which served as a major blow to the staggered Apple Intelligence rollout.
This is why we suspect that the iOS 26 announcement will be light on artificial intelligence announcements and will therefore focus on more conventional improvements and changes. Of those, Apple seems to have a lot in the bag and is reportedly preparing a major visual overhaul for iOS, which has enjoyed a fairly consistent design language ever since the iOS 7 days.
iOS 26 will seemingly adopt a visionOS-like restyling that will shift away from the current flat design language and introduce a modern glass-like appearance that will be consistent between iOS, iPadOS, and macOS.
We expect iOS 26 to be showcased at the WWDC'25 conference on June 9. We will most certainly be getting an early developer beta shortly after the WWDC opening keynote, which has been the case in previous years.
According to one of the most reputable sources out there, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple will be introducing a major change to the iOS naming convention. Instead of iOS 19, the company will reveal iOS 26 at the upcoming WWDC'25 developer summit.
With this name change, Apple will help users distinguish the year in which the respective iOS version will be mostly used. That's why iOS 26 is being announced in 2025, as iPhone users will be using it for just four months this year, but more than eight months in 2026.
It's not only iOS that's getting its name changed, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS are also getting up to speed with the name change, which will improve the synergy between the different operating systems that power Apple's wares. It fits perfectly with the theme of the upcoming major redesign across all platforms.
This name change comes out of the blue, as nobody expected such a change. Still, despite the initial confusion it might entail, the arrival of iOS 26 instead of iOS 19 would likely turn out to be beneficial in the long run.
iOS 26 release date
iOS 26 will be released this September, with a potential release date being September 16, 2025. The software will arrive alongside the iPhone 17 series, so we are fairly confident the official release of iOS 26 will take place in the same time frame.
Apple typically announces new iPhones on the second Tuesday of September and releases them ten days afterward, but new iOS versions typically get pushed to the public roughly a week after the respective iPhone event. As we expect that the new iPhone 17 series will get announced on September 9, iOS 26 is possibly coming a week later.
However, we will get to see iOS 26 much earlier than that. iOS 26 will be showcased on June 9 during the opening keynote of the Apple WWDC'25 developer conference, which will run through June 13.
Here's how iOS 26's potential release date might compare to previous iOS releases.
Year
iPhone release date
iOS release date
2025
September 9, 2025 (iPhone 17)*
September 16, 2025 (iOS 26)*
2024
September 9, 2024 (iPhone 16)
September 16, 2024 (iOS 18)
2023
September 12, 2023 (iPhone15)
September 18, 2023 (iOS 17)
*-anticipated dates
iOS 26 beta program
iOS beta releases mark that magical time between WWDC and September when most iOS users are actively pondering whether they should go ahead and install the typically buggy but fresh new iOS version on their device.
iOS 26 beta timeline
Typically, Apple releases the first iOS beta several hours after it concludes the opening keynote event at the respective WWDC event. Thus, we expect that the first iOS 26 developer beta will be made available no later than June 10. Roughly a month afterward, we should get a generally more ironed-out public iOS 26 beta, probably no later than mid-July.
While many years ago Apple only allowed users with active developer subscriptions to install developer iOS betas, lately the company has not enforced this self-imposed rule, allowing just about any willing iPhone owner to install the developer beta on their device. Public betas have always been freely accessible.
All betas are expected to be extremely buggy and riddled with issues and inconsistencies, so here goes the usual advice that you should probably not install any of the betas on your daily driver device. Public ones are typically more stable, and thus it's recommended to at least aim for that one.
Based on historical records, here's when we expect each iOS 26 beta to become available.
iOS version
iOS 18 rollout timeline
iOS 26 rollout timeline
Developer Beta 1
June 10, 2024
~June 10, 2024
Developer Beta 2
June 24, 2024
~June 24, 2024
Developer Beta 3
July 8, 2024
~July 8, 2024
Public Beta 1 (based on DB3)
July 15, 2024
~July 15, 2024
Developer Beta 4
July 23, 2024
~July 23, 2024
Public Beta 2 (based on DB4)
July 26, 2024
~July 26, 2024
Developer Beta 5/ Public Beta 3
August 5, 2024
~August 5, 2024
Developer Beta 6/ Public Beta 4
August 12, 2024
~August 12, 2024
Developer Beta 7/ Public Beta 5
August 20, 2024
~August 20, 2024
Developer Beta 8/ Public Beta 6
August 28, 2024
~August 28, 2024
Official release
September 16, 2024
~September 16, 2024
iOS 26 beta: How to enroll
Enrolling in the upcoming iOS beta will be pretty straightforward and mirror previous beta releases.
To enroll in the iOS 26 beta, you will need to follow these steps:
Backup your phone
Go to General
Go to Software update
Go to Beta Updates
Pick between developer and public betas
Go back and wait for the beta update to pop up
Download and install
iOS 26 Supported devices
According to the rumor mill, iOS 26 will arrive on every device that was eligible to get iOS 18, though other reports seem convinced that the iPhone Xs, Xs Max, and iPhone XR might get dropped from the support list.
This means that either no iPhone will be dropped from the support list in 2025, or three of the oldest supported devices right now could be axed. Granted, these are models released all the way back in 2017 and using a 7nm Apple A12 Bionic chip, so pretty much ancient as per today's standards.
Here's a list of all iPhones that will get iOS 26.
iPhone 13 Pro Max, iPhone 13 Pro, iPhone 13, iPhone 13 mini
September 24, 2021
Yes
iPhone 12 Pro Max, iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 mini
October 23, 2020
Yes
iPhone SE 2nd Gen
April 24, 2020
Yes
iPhone 11 Pro Max, iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 11
September 20, 2019
Yes
iPhone Xs Max, Xs, iPhone XR
September 21, 2018
Contested
iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone 8, iPhone X
September 22-November 3, 2017
No
*- Unreleased product
iOS 26 Top new features
New iOS features rarely leak out before the official announcement, which is the reason we are pretty light on potential new features for Apple's mobile OS. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman chimed in that Apple is slowly but surely moving away from yearly software releases and will instead release new software features and functionalities when they are ready.
Thus, don't expect most features to get lumped together in the flagship iOS 26 release, but will slowly trickle down with the subsequent minor updates in the coming months. This means that minor iOS releases, like iOS 26.1 and iOS 26.2, will be that much more important. This wasn't the case with how iOS new features and functions were handled years ago, though.
Apple Intelligence
Another round of recent rumors claims that iOS 26 will be all about expanding the "current" capabilities of Apple Intelligence rather than delivering brand-new ones, which sounds like a superb move considering the fairly limited versatility of the suite at the moment.
We'd probably get "more of the same" from those Apple Intelligence features that are currently available. These might include:
Expanded and more capable Writing Tools capabilities;
Richer Genmoji options and expanded capabilities;
More diverse Image Playground tools and creative options;
This also means that you shouldn't expect any major and revolutionary AI features to be announced at the upcoming WWDC'25 developer summit this June. But who knows, we might get teasers about future AI capabilities.
If anything, Apple still has a lot of ground to cover with its more capable Siri, which is currently expected sometime in 2026, but some sources and insiders go even further by claiming Apple might overshoot this timeline and push back the release to 2027.
Gemini on the iPhone?
As Apple Intelligence has been nothing short of a PR disaster for the company recently and is struggling to deliver on its promises from last year, collaborations with rival companies might be paramount for the iPhone's AI capabilities.
Aside from already being compatible with OpenAI's ChatGPT and allowing its users to send queries to ChatGPT straight from Siri, Apple might be very close to another partnership, this time with Google. It will reportedly allow iPhone users to benefit from a selection of Gemini-powered features on their iPhones.
That shouldn't be mistaken with the Gemini app, which is already available on the App Store, but built-in Gemini features straight into Siri, which would be possibly capable of sending the more complex queries straight to Gemini and then output the results, just as it does with its ChatGPT-powered responses right now.
Given that Google's AI suite is among the most powerful and complete ones out there right now, such a partnership will serve as a stopgap for Apple until its Apple Intelligence features live up to the hype.
Gemini, for example, is easily among the most capable AI assistants right now, and while it most certainly won't be able to control an iPhone as it can an Android device, the added benefit of its multimodal capabilities and natural-language comprehension put it in a different league of Apple's Siri, at least in its current state.
New accessibility features
Ahead of WWDC 2025, Apple has unveiled several accessibility features that will be making it into iOS 26 and will likely get previewed at the upcoming WWDC keynote. A new feature called Accessibility Nutritional Labels, which will provide users with clear information what accessibility features each app on the App Store supports ahead of downloading.
(Image Credit-Apple)
Another new feature called Braille Access allows users with low vision capabilities to take notes in braille, do math calculations in Nemeth Braille. Accessibility Reader will enable users to customize the font, color, and spacing of text with the Magnifier app.
iOS 26: Design changes
A major visual redesign is around the corner
iOS 26 will deliver a major visual redesign to Apple's mobile OS, substituting the flat design language we've known for over a decade for a modern, glass-like design that will draw cues from Apple's visionOS software for the Vision Pro headset.
Ever since iOS 7, Apple's mobile OS has relied on mostly the same flat and minimal interface design language, which superseded the skeuomorphic design of old. This change is also potentially coming to macOS and iPadOS in order to achieve a more coherent and synergetic look.
That redesign in particular inspired most other phone manufacturers to adopt the same style and visual aesthetics, and while we've grown accustomed to this overarching design style, it's time for change.
The squircle shape, which has become mostly synonymous with iOS icons over the years, is possibly getting sunset for slightly rounder icons, though not complete circles like you'd see on a Vision Pro headset. Jon Prosser suggests that the corner radius appears to be "thirty-or-so", matching other interface elements in iOS.
Reports claim that the navigation will be optimized as well, streamlining the interface navigation.
Another potential iOS 26 mockup, now with round icons (Image Credit-Front Page Tech)
Redesigned Control Center sliders
Another small change would be potentially found in the Control Center, which scored expanded customizability with iOS 18. According to FTP's Jon Prosser, we're getting slightly rounded brightness and volume sliders, which will fall better with the redesign's aesthetics. A minor change if we've ever seen one.
New slightly rounder sliders might be coming (Image Credit-Front Page Tech)
Redesigned stock apps
The new camera app will employ a translucent style, with photos and videos separated into different categories, with the available options changing based on the context.
Apparently, this redesign will also give us rounder interface elements and possibly round app icons as well, a major shift from the rounded squares that have become a signature feature of iOS.
(Image Credit-Front Page Tech)
Enhanced Lock screen shortcuts
iOS 26 might also introduce some small changes to the two shortcuts on the lock screen, which might adopt a glass-like shimmer that moves around as you move your phone. This would fit nicely with the glass-like aesthetics of iOS 26. As a reminder, iOS 18 introduced customizable lock screen shortcuts, enabling you to switch away from the default flashlight and camera ones.
According to reports, iOS 26 will feature an AI-powered battery optimization system, which will boost the overall endurance of your iPhone.
It seems AI will be used to determine the unique way each user uses their iPhone and optimize the background processes to squeeze out as much battery life as possible. Reportedly, this feature could be part of Apple Intelligence and therefore limited to the iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 16, and iPhone 17 ranges right now.
This is potentially one of the software features tailored specifically with the iPhone 17 Air in mind, which will come with a super-thin body and a tiny battery, so every little bit of extra efficiency will help.
Peter, an experienced tech enthusiast at PhoneArena, is captivated by all things mobile. His impartial reviews and proficiency in Android systems offer readers valuable insights. Off-duty, he delves into the latest cryptocurrency trends and enjoys sci-fi and video games.
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