iOS 26.1 is Out! - What's New?

iOS 26.1 introduces significant new features, visual refinements, and crucial bug fixes, resulting in improved performance, reduced heat, and better battery life across supported devices.

• iOS 26.1 offers extensive new customization options and app enhancements.

• Critical security and quality-of-life improvements have been integrated into the system.

• The update delivers substantial boosts in performance, thermal management, and battery longevity.

Apple has released iOS 26.1 to the public, bringing numerous new features, changes, and bug fixes that enhance the user experience. Key updates include customizable liquid glass effects, new security improvements, expanded language support, and various app-specific enhancements. The update also significantly improves overall performance, heat management, and battery life, making it a highly recommended upgrade for most users.

New Customization Features

• 00:00:37 iOS 26.1 introduces a new 'liquid glass' option under Display & Brightness, allowing users to change the appearance of icons and menus from clear to tinted for a frosted effect, which applies to notifications and media players. Additionally, users can now disable the lock screen 'swipe to open camera' gesture in Camera settings and enable visual borders on icons under Accessibility > Display & Text Size, alongside improved contrast settings.

System Enhancements and Utilities

• 00:01:57 The update includes 'background security improvements,' an all-new feature that allows automatic installation of security updates between major iOS releases, similar to rapid security responses. Phone app settings now allow disabling haptics for call connection/disconnection, and the in-call icons have been updated to a liquid glass appearance. The Clock app now requires a 'slide to stop' action for alarms by default, though this can be reverted to a single tap in Accessibility settings, and the clock widget's second hand changes from sweeping to ticking in low power mode.

App-Specific Updates and Language Support

• 00:09:05 iOS 26.1 enhances Apple intelligence and Siri with eight new language options, including Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, Portuguese, Swedish, Turkish, Vietnamese, and Chinese. These expanded language options also extend to the Translate app, though live translation with AirPods has a more limited set of supported languages. The Calculator app gains a new history button, and the TV app icon has been visually updated.

Performance and Bug Fixes

• 00:13:38 Many visual bugs and performance issues have been addressed in iOS 26.1, including improved FaceTime audio quality, consistent notification delivery, and faster search within the App Library. CarPlay connectivity issues prevalent in iOS 26.0.1 have largely been resolved for most vehicles. The update also brings significant improvements in overall performance, reduced device heat, and enhanced battery life, with benchmark scores on devices like the iPhone 17 Pro Max showing full potential utilization.