What these changes mean for you is that your technology experience may differ drastically depending on which type of phone you buy in the coming years.

Apple has confirmed iOS 26’s public launch this fall, following the release of beta 4 to developers and testers with major UI and Apple Intelligence updates.

Indeed, Liquid Glass does bring somewhat of a major change to iOS 26, or what we would have called iOS 18 (Apple is switching iOS numbers to years, and iOS 26 will release in the fall). I've been using the developer beta of iOS 26 for some weeks now,

Liquid Glass brings a lot to the table compared to what on your iPhone right now. Here's a side by side of what's to come.

As part of iOS 26's interface changes, your iPhone lock screen can take on a new look with spatial photos available as the background image for your phone and an adaptive time feature that adjusts the look of the on-screen clock to fit with the other visual elements. We go through all the iOS 26 lock screen changes.

Visual Intelligence is getting a new screenshot search feature in iOS 26, giving the iPhone it's own version of Google's Circle to Search.

We’ve been playing around with the developer betas of Apple’s latest software, and now that we’ve spent time with iOS 26, Liquid Glass and more on actual devices, we have thoughts. From representation in Genmoji and Live Translation adventures to Apple Intelligence musings,