The Evolution of iOS: From iPhone’s Launch to iOS 26.

iOS 1.0 debuted in June 2007, when it was launched as the operating system that the first iPhone generation would use. It would present innovative features at the time like multi-touch support, responsive virtual keyboard, full integration with iTunes, etc.

Since 2007, iOS has continued improving as new iPhone models were released to the public, with some of the most remarkable features being:

• iOS 2: Introduction of the App Store as a marketplace where third-party developers can share their apps.
• iOS 4: Multitasking and AirPlay was introduced, allowing users to keep multiple applications opened in the background to keep existing progress and to easily stream content to other devices from the Apple ecosystem respectively.
• iOS 5: Siri was purchased by Apple and adopted as the default voice assistant for iOS
• iOS 8.1:: Wallet app (previously named Passbook) provided a safe place to store debit/credit cards data, passes, etc.
• iOS 11: Support for bigger screens due to new iPhone X “Notch” concept
• iOS 18: Thanks to the increased computational power of the most recent Apple silicon ARM chips, A local (and cloud-based) AI model was feasible for iPhones with at least an A17 Pro chip, this model was called “Apple Intelligence”.

As a curious fact, iOS became even more specialized for iPhones since iPads stopped using it with the introduction of iPadOS in 2019, also, in February 2024, Apple shared their latest active iOS devices data, having a total count of 2.2 billion devices around the world.

iOS 26 WWDC 2025 Highlights: What’s New This Year.

As usual, every year, Apple hosts the WWDC event from June 9th to June 13th, in which new products and features for existing ones are announced. Just in the first day of the event significant changes were announced for all of Apple’s proprietary operating systems which shifted their versions numbers to 26, matching the release year of each major update and unifying the naming rules to avoid confusion, meaning that (just to mention some examples) we will not have iOS 19 or watchOS 12, but iOS 26 and watchOS 26 instead.

Since it’s impossible to cover all the changes presented in the conference, iOS 26 will be the main focus for this blog, exploring all the improvements and new functionalities that covers everything from the renewed UI Liquid Glass concept, updates to Apple Intelligence, major changes to the Photos and Phone apps, Games and Preview as new additions to the default applications of iOS, and lastly, several quality of life revisions

Brand new Liquid Glass UI: iOS 26’s Stunning Design Concept

One of the best features of iOS 26 presented at the WWDC is the massive rework of the User Interface, which presents Liquid Glass as a new standardized UI style not only for iOS, but for all the Apple ecosystem, aiming for a universal set of components that leaves behind specific designs for each device, unifying even more the experience between Apple’s operating systems.

For the iPhone, this means icons and overlays with the perfect transparency balance which lets users see through them, while keeping the communicative behavior as before, making the most of the screen size and improving multitasking experience.

Another interesting addition to the “Liquid Glass” style is the new movement-reactive elements, which dynamically change their appearance (mainly brightness and reflections) depending on the motion applied to the device.

This concept is not something new, we already had a major attempt to make it work from Microsoft with its Windows operating system in their Vista and 7 editions, where a design style colloquially known as “Frutiger Aero” was introduced featuring a similar “transparent” style, that sadly wasn’t really well received at that time, so, taking that previous failure into account, could Liquid Glass be the redemption of Frutiger Aero?

Enhanced Apple Intelligence: 3D Scenes & Context Rich Screenshots

Apple Intelligence, unlike last year, was not the main character of this WWDC event, but it didn’t go unnoticed either, presenting a couple of new features for iOS from which stood out the following.

1. 3D Spatial Scenes:

One of the most remarkable additions to the redesign of the photos app was the ability to take any existing or new photo from your gallery and apply an immersive depth effect that will react to the movement of your device in real time, being now able to set these new spatial scenes as background wallpapers on your device for added style to your iPhone.

2. Redesigned screenshots UI:

Aside from the addition of the Liquid Glass style to the screenshots menu, two new options were added to either search for similar content on the internet or ask questions to Apple Intelligence about the context of the screenshot.

Imagine that you are scrolling through your favorite social media apps and came across a friend’s post wearing an astonishing pair of sneakers that you instantly fell in love with, but didn’t know anything about them aside from maybe the brand, so, instead of asking your friend about the shoes and waiting for their response, you can quickly take a screenshot of the post to search for similar content on the internet, while having the possibility of asking Apple Intelligence about the screenshot as a backup plan in case that nothing similar on the web was found.

3. New Foundation Models framework for developers:

You can now make use of the Apple Intelligence Language Models to perform “intelligent” tasks within your app, such as summarization, entity extraction, text comprehension and refinement, create dialog for games for a truly unique experience for each player, creative content generation, etc. This new framework can also be configured to make decisions on their own and call code to tackle specialized tasks. This package is available for Apple Intelligence compatible devices with iOS 26.0 onwards.

Call Screening: No More Waiting on Hold

Another quality of life feature presented in the event was Call screening as an improved method to handle those long wait times with hold music.

The Phone app will automatically detect background waiting music in your call and it will ask you if you want to hold the call until the music stops and give you a notification when you can talk with an actual person, freeing your phone speaker for other multimedia apps while waiting in the call queue.

Live Translation: Real-Time Voice & Text Translation for Calls

One of the most requested features for Apple Intelligence was real-time translations for messages and calls, in fact, this addition is so important that it needs its own section in this blog apart from Apple Intelligence.

In the Messages app, messages written in foreign languages will now be automatically translated to yours, showing both the original and translated text in the conversation, on the other hand, you can now help others to understand you by automatically translating your messages to other languages, avoiding the hassle of switching to a translation app to communicate.

Live translation is not only limited to text, and it is now a reality in FaceTime and the phone app, so you can now have live captions while chatting with your international buddy over FaceTime, and replace your voice in real-time to a target dialect, The phone app will listen to your words, and translate them out loud for the call recipient.

One thing to notice is that a similar behaviour to this feature can be achieved in custom apps with the Translation framework for Swift, available for iOS 17.4 onwards.

Digital ID Cards: Your Wallet Goes Completely Digital

In ways to pursue the goal of fully replacing your physical wallet, a new feature has been added to the Wallet app where you can now carry digital versions of your IDs within it, the validation process is simple, you just need to take photos of both sides of your ID and scan your face to send this data to your local ID-issuing authority for them to validate your identity and approve the digital ID.

Processes in apps that require, for example, age validation, will be so much easier since the digital verification process no longer needs to be done by them, quickly allowing you to rent cars, order drinks for your party, etc.

Sadly, this new way of carrying your IDs is not available everywhere, being limited to certain states and territories with authorities that support them, and for that reason, this feature does not replace your physical ID, especially for international travel where your passport is involved.

New Default Apps: Preview & Games Come to iPhone

Two new apps that will be default installed starting from iOS 26 are the Preview and Games apps which accomplish the following functionalities.

1. Preview app:

You may recognize this app if you’re also a user of macOS, it is essentially a PDF viewer and editor that works as an “extension” to the file app since it also allows you to navigate through all your local and iCloud stored files.

With this tool, aside from just reading PDF files, you can check the document information like size, total pages, date of creation/modification, etc. You can also make use of the autofill feature to automatically add text boxes for a quick form fill and signing from your phone, additionally, document scanning from the camera comes as another cool feature included in the app

Bringing the Preview app to iOS is a “strange” move from Apple since it appears to function as another file browser with some extra capabilities that could be added to the existing files app, it will be a matter of time to see if this PDF viewer/editor will be kept as a different app or be absorbed by the files app when iOS 26 is officially released in this fall.

2. Games:

With iOS 26, your iPhone will come with a game launcher by default in the form of the brand new Games app. Like the Preview app, Games also extends an existing feature from the App Store, more specifically the games and arcade sections.

To improve the user gaming experience in the iPhone, Games app will centralize all your games in a single place, allowing you to seamlessly navigate through your collection not only with the touchscreen but also with supported controllers, invite your contacts to play with you in multiplayer games, etc.

iOS 26 Release Date & Device Compatibility

iOS 26 will be available to all iPhone models starting from the iPhone 11 and iPhone SE (2nd generation) with the following schedule:

– Developer beta: June 9th, 2025.

– Public beta: July 2025.

– Official release: Fall 2025.

How to Install iOS 26 Developer Beta: Step-by-Step Guide

Before trying to install the beta, you must enroll in the Apple Developer Program to be able to receive it, also, it is highly advisable to NOT install the beta in your daily driver due to the unstable nature of this early iOS version, but, if you decide to install it in your personal phone anyways, make sure to perform a backup of your data in either a Mac, PC, or iCloud beforehand. Once you understand the risks of installing such an early beta, follow these steps:

1. Make sure that the account with which you are enrolled in to the Apple Developer Program is the same one your iPhone is using.
2. Open the Settings app and navigate to General > Software Update > Beta updates.
3. Choose the “iOS 26 Developer beta” option.
4. Navigate back to the previous screen
5. An “Update now” button should appear, press it and wait for the update to be downloaded and installed.

Remember, installing the iOS 26 beta will be much easier and a little bit more reliable when the Public beta is released at some point of July 2025 since a lot of bugs from the current beta will be identified and solved, and an Apple Developer account will no longer be required to install it.