iOS 26 vs iOS 18: What’s different, what’s new, and should you update?

Macworld

Apple pulled back the covers on the latest iteration of iOS at WWDC 2025. This will initially confuse some people, as the successor to 2024’s iOS 18 is… iOS 26! Moreover, the software will release at the end of 2025. We guess naming is hard. So, does the rejiggering of the numbers look like clumsy PR, or is the new iOS one that marks a bold new direction for the iPhone?

In this comparison of the two iOS versions, we’ll run though what the main differences are and how the two compare, so you can be sure that you want to update to the new iOS when it arrives in September 2025.

What was new in iOS 18?

When iOS 18 launched in September 2024, it came with some cool updates to the interface and feature set of the Apple apps. Here are some of the highlights:

Apple Intelligence

One of the main selling points of iOS 18 was the introduction of Apple Intelligence, although many of the touted features took quite a while to arrive. These included Writing Tools that helped users create, edit and rephrase texts, emails and other text messages.

Visual Intelligence turned the iPhone camera into a way to get more information about objects and places, aided by Apple Intelligence searching for matching images and information.

Siri was also meant to be powered up by the new AI features, although that seems to need more work, but the Image Playground did allow you to generate pictures via prompts on your device. Apple Intelligence was limited to only the iPhone 16 generation of devices, as well as the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max.




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Personalisation

Following on from the widgets in iOS 17, the ability to personalise your home screen with shaded/tinted icons that you could place wherever you like (shock horror!) was another big player for iOS 18.

Control Center Updates

Apple also gave users the ability to add new shortcut controls and ones for third-party apps in Control Center. The option to group them into specific situations, such as Home, Work, Music, etc, is also provided.

Privacy Enhancements

In iOS 18 you can lock and hide specific apps, plus there’s the option to restrict which contacts apps can see and which wireless accessories they can access.

Messages improvements

The Messages app in iOS 18 finally allowed users to be able to add formatting, such as underlining and italicisation. You can also use animations called Text Effects to show your support or surprise at what your friends say.

There was also the introduction of Message Via Satellite which allowed you to send emergency messages if you’re stuck in a place with no carrier signal.

Photos redesign

The Photos app got some attention in iOS 18, with new filters and collections there to make it easier to find images. This wasn’t an entirely successful attempt to help users: there was a big backlash to Apple’s changes to Photos, with people searching for ways to turn the new Photos app changes off.




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What’s new in iOS 26?

Building on the foundations of iOS 18 (and all that went before), Apple has unveiled what we can expect to see on our iPhones when September 2025 rolls around and the iOS 26 update becomes available. Here’s the pick of the bunch:

Liquid Glass

At the heart of iOS 26 is Apple’s new design language, which is calls Liquid Glass. This revamped the existing menus and interactive parts of the OS with translucent areas that mimic glass. Those fearing a return to the old Aqua design of ancient macOS versions, the iPhone design is actually very tasteful.




Apple

Search bars seem to float above the images behind them, allowing colors to pass through as if refracted. The effect is something that looks organic rather than the blocky overlays to which we’ve grown accustom. Contextual menus appear where you tap the screen in newly designed cards that look consistent throughout the interface.

Liquid Glass supports both light and dark modes, as well as the tint introduced in iOS 18, plus there’s a new translucent mode for iOS 26 that looks rather fetching.

Lock Screen / Home Screen updates

As personalisation was high on the agenda in 2024, it’s not surprising that Apple has tweaked a few more things for the annual update. This time around the time on the Lock Screen will stretch to fit the background image you choose, while also ensuring it never obscures the main image. In fact, Apple showed off a feature where the wallpaper seems to adjust its position so that the subject doesn’t get masked by notifications that come in.




Apple

Apple has also brought back the old parallax images from a few years ago, where an image appears 3D if you tilt the iPhone – although the new one does seem more pronounced than its predecessor.

Camera

With the introduction of Liquid Glass, Apple has also decided to simplify the camera app, removing the various scrolling options from iOS 18 and instead pairing every back to just Photo and Video. If you still want to access options like Portrait or Panorama, then they remain available simply by swiping left or right when you’re in the Photo mode. Advanced settings (such as aspect ratio, etc.) can be brought into play by simply swiping up. But, if you don’t want to accidentally shot a portrait when you meant it to be a normal snapshot, the interface should now stay out of your way and let you capture that moment.




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When you’re done, you can also use a couple of tweaks in the Photos app to track down the images, as there are new tabs and collections that can be pinned to the main page.

Safari

Apple’s browser gets a nip and tuck, with edge-to-edge web pages filling up the screen, and the tab bar now shrinking as you scroll so that it keeps out of your way. The Liquid Glass update also makes everything feel more part of the page rather than interrupting the flow.

CarPlay

If you use you have support for CarPlay in your car, then the updates to CarPlay might be of interest. The interface has been overhauled so that calls and messages now appear in a small section of the display, allowing you to still see the directions from Maps clearly at the same time.

Widgets for various features also keep things neat, with live information displayed from them meaning you can always know if the flight you’re meeting at the airport is on time.




Apple

Environmental controls are also included now (with supporting car brands) so you can adjust temperature controls, air conditioning, and other features directly from CarPlay.

Phone gets a helpful assistant

The Phone app hasn’t been neglected this time around, as it a receives a few nice upgrades. First up, there’s a unified layout that shows you your Favourites, Recents and Voicemails (with the later displaying summaries from Apple Intelligence), plus the normal Calls, Contacts and Keypad.

The most impressive addition though is that of Call Screening. Now, if your iPhone receives and incoming call from an unknown number, it will automatically answer it in the background and an A.I. agent will ask the callers name and reason for calling. When it has this, a summary will appear on your screen and you’ll have the option to take or reject the call. Nice.

Hold Assist is another potentially fantastic feature, as the app will monitor your calls and when it hears that you’ve been put on hold (it scans for music), you can then leave the A.I. agent to take your place while you get on with other things. When the live person comes on and takes you off hold, they’ll be informed that you’re there and just coming to the phone, at which point your phone will ring and you can take over the call once more.

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Messages

The look of Group Chats can be a bit basic on Messages, but that’s about to change as iOS 26 allows you to add wallpapers to the background, which everyone will be able to see. There’s also a new Poll feature that can help you and your family or friends decide what you want to do or where you want to go.




Apple

Typing indicators will arrive in the updated version of the app, so you can see when someone is composing a response, plus you’ll now be able to mix emoji’s together to create bespoke responses to something someone has said.

Like on Phone, Apple Intelligence will screen you messages for any potential spam or missives from strangers, all of which are filtered into a separate section so your inbox remains clean.

Apple also powers up Image Playground, with it now able to create new memoji images for contacts, with poses and changes to their style allowing you to have fun.

Live Translation

A feature that really stood out in the Apple presentation was the new Live Translation. As the name suggests, this uses language recognition tools to enable multi-language conversations on the Phone, Messages and FaceTime apps.




Apple

Messages will translate your language into that of the recipient, then do the same back to you, making it seem like you are both speaking the same one.

FaceTime will create real-time captioning, so you can read the words the other person is saying, while the Phone app will take your spoken words and translate them into simulated speech that the other person can respond to, then in turn do the same for them. If it works as well as it did in the presentation, then we can’t be far away from that universal translator that Sci-Fi has promised us ever since Arthur Dent had a Babel Fish stuffed into his ear.

Gaming Challenges

A neat addition in the Apple Arcade app is the ability to set up instant gaming challenges with your friends. These give you the chance to pit yourself against your mates in a score-based competition, with the app showing the leaderboard. Apple stated that several games support the feature, with more sure to join them as the release of iOS 26 draws near.

Visual Intelligence

In iOS 18, Apple brought Visual Intelligence to the table, which gave users the helpful tool of pointing the iPhone camera at something as then having Apple Intelligence gather information about the place/item/person etc; so you could find out more. Now this will also include what’s on your iPhone screen.

Basically, you take a screenshot of your social media feed, browser or anything from an app, then you can use Visual Intelligence to search for more details. Say you like a coat that someone is wearing on a show, just screenshot it, tell Visual Intelligence to find it, and you’ll be able to get something the same or similar in seconds.

It can also pull text out of the image, such as the date and time of a concert or meeting, then create calendar entries replete with the directions and details.




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Plenty of other updates to the iPhone

That’s not all that’s in store with iOS 26, as Apple showed off several other features that will no doubt be useful in the year ahead. These include Maps creating alternative routes for your most popular trips; Wallet now allowing the creation of a Digital ID of U.S. Passports that can be used for domestic flights and age verification; order tracking in Apple Pay; new interface for Apple Music; plus lots more little details that are there to improve the iPhone experience.  

What’s the main differences between iOS 26 and iOS 18?

As you can see, there’s plenty to be excited about in iOS 26. The new Liquid Glass design does look great, but it’s the improvement-to-life features like Call Screening, Message Screening, Live Translation, and Visual Intelligence now including what’s on your iPhone screen that really mark a difference between the two iterations.

Should I upgrade to iOS 26?

This is a definite yes, but bear in mind of course that some of the features outlined here will rely on Apple Intelligence, which means that they will only be available for the latest iPhone models. So, if you have an older device, then it might be worth sticking with what you’ve got if it’s running well. Then you’ll have all these features to look forward to when you eventually upgrade.

Now you just need to wait until iOS 26 comes out in September… Or perhaps you’d like to try the beta?

For an in-depth look at what it has to offer, take a look at iOS 26 changes everything about how you use your iPhone.