A return to the old Photos app – kind of

Apple’s iOS 18 came with plenty of benefits, including Apple Intelligence smarts, advanced Home Screen customisation and the ability to edit your Control Centre layout, but there was one change that fans were not best pleased about: the Photos app. 

Apple’s Photos app had remained unchanged for quite some time, which meant that most users had a good understanding of the app, its layout and how to access the various features and functions on offer.

Well, Apple undid all that with the iOS 18 Photos app; rather than featuring different tabs to separate your library from folders, favourites, and other collections, Apple rolled everything into a single page, with your library at the top and a customisable list of albums, AI-generated photo collections, and more at the bottom. 

It should’ve made it easier to use in theory, but that wasn’t the case in practice. As you might expect, there was an outcry from iPhone users following its release, with many lamenting the loss of the old layout, as the new app was simply more complicated to navigate.

Well, it looks like Apple has heard, and with iOS 26, it’s reverting back to the old-style Photos app – kind of, anyway. 

The new Photos app will once again split your library from your collection of albums, favourites and other types of content, with dedicated Library and Collections tabs at the bottom of the app. While it doesn’t completely undo Apple’s redesign from last year, I think that fixing the most egregious feature will go a long way with iPhone users – this writer included. 

A smarter calling experience

Considering the main reason – once upon a time, anyway – to get a phone was to make calls, most phone manufacturers overlook this most basic of tasks in modern smartphones. That’s what makes Apple’s Phone app updates quite so interesting. 

First up is a new design, bringing your voicemails and contacts onto the same page as recent calls – calls at the top, with contacts and missed voicemails at the bottom. That should speed up the process of making a call, negating the need to switch between tabs to make a call or check your voicemail, but it’s once you get a call that things will get more interesting. 

Call Screening is a new feature coming to iOS 26, with the aim of reducing the amount of spam or scam calls that you mistakenly answer. It’ll do this by automatically answering calls from unknown callers in the background and answering questions. 

Once that information is shared, the call will come through, displaying information like who the caller is and why they’re calling. If you’re happy to accept the call, you can answer, but if not, you can decline. 

Similarly, Hold Assist should come in handy when you’re stuck on hold in a seemingly endless queue. Rather than sitting there anxiously waiting for your call to be connected, listening to the same old Coldplay song on repeat, your phone will automatically keep your spot in the virtual queue while you get on with other tasks. Once you’re connected, you’ll get a call back, bringing you right back into the conversation. 

It’s worth noting that these features aren’t new – Google’s Call Screening does something similar, while Hold for Me offers very similar features to Hold Assist – but it’s great to see an iOS-based alternative. 

Apple Music AutoMix

Now, I must caveat this section by saying that I’m not currently an Apple Music subscriber. I was a subscriber for years until I started using more Android phones, at which point I switched to Spotify because, let’s be honest, the Apple Music app on Android is garbage. 

That said, the new Automix feature coming to iOS 26 could convince me to ditch the Big S for Apple Music once again. 

It does what it says on the tin; it automatically mixes your songs for better transitions. Importantly, this isn’t the basic crossfade that you’ll find in alternatives like Spotify and YouTube Music; this is real AI-powered mixing, complete with time stretching and beatmatching. 

The result, at least in Apple’s WWDC demo, is a professional-sounding mix with one song flowing perfectly into the next. That’ll be great not only for personal listening but also for playing music on a Bluetooth speaker at BBQs and parties, with no awkward dead silence between tracks.

As an extra, the lock screen in iOS 26 will display full-screen animated album artwork when playing music, but only tracks from Apple Music. Damn, Apple, you really are tempting me here…  

Apple’s Circle to Search alternative

I can’t stress how often I use Google’s Circle to Search technology when I’m using an Android smartphone. See something I like on Instagram? Circle to Search to see where to buy it. Not sure what a specific dish is on the Just Eat app? Circle to Search to find out what it is, along with photos. You get the idea.

It has become second nature to me at this point, to the extent that I find myself longing for the feature when I switch back to my iPhone. It’s a core part of my phone experience that Apple isn’t catering to – well, not right now, anyway.

That’ll change with iOS 26 though, as long as you’ve got an iPhone that supports Apple Intelligence. More specifically, Visual Intelligence is getting a huge upgrade, allowing you to not only search for things around you but also on your screen. Sound familiar? Yep, you got it. Apple’s Circle to Search alternative is coming. 

It’s not the exact same as Google’s alternative; for one, it’s available once you take a screenshot on your iPhone, rather than activated via gesture. It’ll also give you the option of which source to use for search purposes, with options including Google, Pinterest and more, depending on what’s installed on your iPhone. 

Still, this should make looking things up much easier on iPhone once it drops later this year. 

New CarPlay UI

CarPlay might fly under the radar for many, but if you’ve got a CarPlay-enabled car – or one of the new HUDs that fit into any vehicle – the new update will bring some exciting new features to the iPhone-connected cockpit.

Not only will CarPlay get the same Liquid Glass-inspired visual upgrade as iOS 26 and other Apple software, but it’ll benefit from a wealth of new widgets that you can add to your dashboard. 

What’s more, Apple claims that existing iPhone widgets should work with CarPlay automatically, allowing you to display live football scores, your Apple Health stats or anything else you like on your dashboard without waiting for an update. 

There’s also a new style of notification that looks quite a bit less intrusive than the current, somewhat chunky system, especially in cars (like mine) with smaller screens. 

So yes, while the iOS 26 redesign is welcome, there’s much more to the upcoming iPhone update than a fresh look – and I can’t wait for its release later this year.