After overpromising on AI plans last year, Apple kept its iOS roadmap focused more on basic quality of life improvements this year. There are multiple useful additions coming to the Phone and Messages apps on your iPhone,

Apple announced iOS 18 at WWDC 2024 and released iOS 17.6 more than a month later in July. That update was filled with more than 30 important bug fixes and security patches but no new features. Apple recommended that everyone download the update at the time and it was the last major iOS 17 update before the release of iOS 18 .

Apple’s Photos app got a big overhaul last year, and iOS 26 introduces new changes that both push the app forward and restore familiarity.