After more than a decade, Apple finally decided to revamp the design language of its operating systems at WWDC 2025. The company kicked off the keynote by highlighting how iOS and other Apple platforms hadn’t shared a consistent design language, and that iOS itself hadn’t seen a major update in over a decade. With that, Apple unveiled a brand-new design language calledLiquid Glass.
Liquid Glass marks Apple’s shift to a fresh visual theme across its OS lineup, including iOS 26, with transparency and glass-like shine effects spread throughout the system. You’ll now see glass-inspired materials across the interface, featuring blurred backgrounds that respond dynamically to whatever’s behind them.
Alongside this design overhaul, iOS 26 introduces a range of new features, such as updates to the Messages app, aredesigned Phone app, and improvements to core Apple apps like Wallet, Maps, and Music. Still, what stood out to me most were some of the new features that feel heavily inspired by Android. Here are a few iOS 26 additions I’m genuinely excited for – even if they’re clearly borrowed from Android.
5 top reveals from WWDC 2025: Windows Vista-like glass redesign, Mac-style iPadOS changes, and more
Apple has announced a slew of new features across its portfolio of operating systems.
5Call Screening finally comes to the iPhone
A long-overdue feature that Google’s Pixel nailed years ago
Apple and Google frequently copy features from each other’s operating systems, but one feature I’m genuinely happy to see finally arrive on iOS is Call Screening. Since the launch of the Google Pixel 3 in 2018, Pixel phones have offered aCall Screen featurethat answers phone calls from unknown numbers on your behalf.
Using Google Assistant (and now Gemini), the Pixel responds to unknown calls, determining whether it’s spam, a robocall, or a real person – all while displaying a live transcription on-screen. If the caller is legitimate, you get the option to answer.
With iOS 26, Apple is now bringing a similar feature to the iPhone.Call Screeningworks alongside Live Voicemail, prompting callers to explain who they are and why they’re calling. Similar to Google’s implementation, it then lets you decide whether to answer or ignore. This feature has been exclusive to Pixel phones until now, but it’s finally arriving on iPhones with iOS 26.
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4Hold Assist: Makes waiting on calls bearable
A smarter way to sit through hold music
Another feature Apple is borrowing from Pixel smartphones is the Hold Assist feature. It’s frustrating when you call customer care and get put on hold for 20 minutes, listening to annoying hold music while waiting for a customer care agent to answer.
Pixel phones offer a neatfeature called “Hold For Me"that stays on the line through the music and notifies you when a real human finally picks up. It’s a lifesaver when those minutes feel endless, especially when you can put those minutes to some productive use.
Apple is now bringing a similar feature to the iPhone with Hold Assist. Just like on Pixel phones, it holds the call for you and alerts you when a real person is on the line.
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3Live translation during calls is here
Samsung beat Apple to it – but it’s still a win
With the launch of theSamsung Galaxy S24series in 2024, Samsung went hard onGalaxy AI features. One of the standout additions was live translation during calls, allowing users speaking different languages to talk with real-time translation. With iOS 26, Apple is not only bringing this feature to the iPhone but also taking it a step further.
While showcasing the newApple Intelligence featuresin iOS 26, Apple revealed that it is also bringing Live Translation to the iPhone. However, this feature not only works during phone calls, but will also work across other apps, including FaceTime and Messages. So, whenever your iPhone detects a message or call in a different language than your device’s language, it will instantly translate it for you.
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2Apple Wallet finally gets serious with digital IDs
It’s catching up with Google Wallet’s best features
Similar to Google Wallet, Apple Wallet has long supported storing credit cards, flight boarding passes, and even digital car keys. With iOS 26, however, Apple is finally adding a feature recentlyintroduced in Google Wallet— Digital IDs.
Like Google Wallet, Apple Wallet will now let you create a digital ID based on your U.S. passport. While it won’t replace your physical passport, you’ll be able to use it for domestic travel, TSA checkpoints, in apps, and in person for verification. This feature has been available on Android smartphones for over six months now, and will finally be coming to iPhones in the fall.
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Google Wallet works perfectly fine for tap-to-pay, but the Android app can store a lot more if you let it.
1Visual Search now works like Circle to Search
A familiar idea, but still a welcome iOS addition
One of my favorite AI features has beenCircle to Search. This feature lets you easily search for what’s on your screen by just drawing a border around the object. For example, when you’re scrolling Instagram, you can simply hold the navigation bar and draw a circle around the product you like to get buying links to it. You can even search for context about the object you’ve selected using Google Search.
Apple is also bringing a similar feature to the iPhone. On the iPhone, Image Search is built into the screenshot workflow. So when you take a screenshot, you’ll get options like share and markup at the top, but at the bottom, you’ll see features like Highlight to Search and Image Search.
Highlighting a part of the image will work similarly to Circle to Search, letting you learn more about products, buy them, etc., while a new feature called Ask, which is not available on Android, lets you ask about the screenshots' content directly via ChatGPT. iOS 26 will also extract relevant details, such as calendar events and addresses, for various call-to-actions.
Overall, even though flagship devices from Google and Samsung had these features first, I’m glad Apple is finally bringing them to iOS. These arefeatures I missevery time I switch back to myiPhone 16 Proafter testing an Android phone, but with iOS 26, I’ll get to enjoy them on my iPhone, too.
iPhone 16 Pro
Apple’s iPhone 16 Pro line features a few notable upgrades over last year’s iPhone 15 Pro, including a dedicated camera button, a new A18 Pro chip, a bigger screen, and several AI-powered Apple Intelligence features.
This year’s iPhone 16 line blurs the line between the “Pro” and the base-level iPhone by offering a new camera button and the Action Button, alongside the A18 chip.
