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Hidden Features in iOS 26
Jun 22, 2025
Article on Cult of Mac: https://www.cultofmac.com/news/hidden-ios-26-features More Apple news: http://www.cultofmac.com Produced by Extra Ordinary for Cult of Mac Music composed by Will Davenport, arranged by D. Griffin Jones While #Apple highlighted the #iOS26 major features during the #WWDC25 keynote, many meaningful quality-of-life improvements flew under the radar. Here are some of the smaller, hidden features in iOS 26 that you shouldn’t miss. Follow us! Threads: https://www.threads.net/@cultofmac Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@cultofmac Instagram: https://instagram.com/cultofmac/ X: https://x.com/cultofmac Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cultofmac
View Video Transcript
0:00
apple focused heavily on liquid glass
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during its iOS 26 unveiling last week
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and to be fair so did I but there are
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many more awesome features you won't
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want to miss
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the Apple Passwords app is a feature
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everybody should be using more and it
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gets one great new feature in iOS 26
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password history if you accidentally
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overwrite your password with one of your
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security questions well you can go in
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there and figure out what your password
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was and fix it as cameras keep getting
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bigger it's really easy to accidentally
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rub your finger over your camera lens
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which can lead to blurry pictures in iOS
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26 on iPhone 15 Pro models and later
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you'll get a warning if your camera is
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smudged you can export your Apple notes
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into markdown which is really handy for
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drafting blog posts or exporting your
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notes into a plain text format on iPhone
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15 Pro and later adaptive power mode is
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a new way to get more battery life out
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of your phone it learns your usage
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habits to dynamically adjust settings
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like brightness background processes and
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clock speed to get more juice without
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affecting your daily usage for years the
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iPhone alarm clock has always snoozed
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for 9 minutes but finally in iOS 16 you
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can set a custom snooze length anywhere
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between 5 and 15 minutes for those of
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you who use a third-p partyy alarm clock
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app iOS 26 has a new alarm kit framework
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for developers this means that
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third-party apps can still ring your
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phone and sound the alarm even when your
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phone is in silent mode or in a focus
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mode just like Apple's own clock app in
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iOS 26 your iPhone will send you a
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notification when your AirPods need
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charged and later again when they're
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fully charged in iOS 18 and before in
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the messages app all you could do was
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copy the entire contents of a text
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message well now you have a new select
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option so you can select part of a
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message to copy translate or trigger a
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web search apple also says that there is
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a new natural language search feature in
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the messages app in the files app in the
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list view you now have these disclosure
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triangles just like on the Mac this lets
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you quickly browse through subfolders
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without entering them one by one safari
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has a bold new look with a super minimal
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tab bar but just like before you can go
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back to either of the old styles the
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bottom tab bar from iOS 15 or the
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separated top and bottom tab bar from
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iOS 14 and earlier and for all of you
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tab hoarders you can now sort all of
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your open tabs by title or by website if
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you prefer organized chaos what is often
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described on social media as Apple's
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best feature ever the thing that
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autofills one-time passcodes from
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messages and mail gets even better
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because now it supports third-party apps
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like WhatsApp and Gmail you can now find
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your Apple Music replay directly from
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the music app before you had to do this
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complicated dance of signing in
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separately on the web whereas now at the
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bottom of the home tab you can see all
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of your playlists of previous years and
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you can drill into the detailed
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statistics and see your top artists
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songs and albums of every month in
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settings general screen capture you can
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choose whether screenshots and screen
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recordings are in HDR for higher dynamic
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range or SDR for broader compatibility
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if you have both a personal and work
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phone number you can now create a focus
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triggered by which SIM you're using so
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you can have a work focus that only
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shows calls and voicemails to your work
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phone similarly while you're in a
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personal focus you can silence those
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calls taking a cue from Overcast the
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Apple Podcasts app now has a button you
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can tap to correct for poorly mixed
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podcasts and you can dynamically set the
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speed anywhere between.5 all the way up
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to 3x speed when you're placing a phone
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call iOS 26 adds a little bit of haptic
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feedback when the other person picks up
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and some haptic feedback when they end
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the call if you're running low on
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storage when it's time for an important
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software update iOS 26 can temporarily
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uninstall some Apple Intelligence
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features in order to make room for the
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update but unfortunately it does
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reinstall them when the update is
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complete and finally iOS 26 will let you
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export your saved passwords and now pass
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keys to a third-party password manager
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like one password if you want to switch
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and those are all of the iOS 26 features
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we have found so far be sure to like and
4:54
subscribe for more and check out my
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other video which has my hands-on
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impressions and oneweek review with iOS
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26 i'm Diego Jones with Cult of Mac