The rebranded iOS 26 is set to make its debut later today at WWDC 2025 – but we already know a whole lot about the upcoming iPhone software update, and it’s a doozy.
You’ll likely have already heard about the big iPhone redesign, offering a more glassy look to the UI that reflects that of VisionOS, and the bevvy of AI features said to accompany it – but what about the more recent rumors? Last-minute iOS leaks tend to crop up right before WWDC is set to kick off, and this year is no exception.
Here are five last-minute iOS 26 leaks and rumors that you might’ve missed in the past week.
Full-screen animated lock screen artwork
The next version of iOS is set to overhaul the Now Playing view on the Lock Screen. While Apple has already recently tweaked the look of the Now Playing widget with larger artwork and a new tint, the iOS 26 redesign is said to maximise the experience.
It’s said to lean heavily on a feature already present in the Apple Music app; animated album art. The idea is simple: when you play music, you’ll see full-screen animated album art on your lock screen. It’s a minor feature, but one that’ll make the experience a little more visually exciting.
The only question is whether this will also be the case when playing music from other streaming services, such as Spotify and YouTube Music. Only time will tell.
Messages app updates
The Messages app gets a lot of attention in Apple’s yearly iOS updates, and iOS 26 is rumored to be no different – though don’t expect anything as transformative as the iOS 18 update with a new UI and other elements.
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Instead, the update focuses on smaller elements, such as AI-powered live translation. While we’re not at the point where it can translate voice messages or FaceTime calls, it’s said that iOS 26 will automatically translate text-based messages.
There’s also said to be a new Polls feature – something present on pretty much every competitor, from WhatsApp to Telegram and even Slack. Apple is also said to be considering the use of Apple Intelligence with this feature, utilising AI to suggest poll options based on the conversation.
New Preview app for iPhone
The Preview App has been a staple of the Mac experience for years, allowing you to easily preview photos and other files, with a particular focus on PDFs. Most Mac users use Preview for PDF viewing, as it allows you to not only view the document but also annotate (such as adding a signature) and edit it.
It’s an invaluable tool that, for some reason, hasn’t migrated from the Mac desktop software – until now, that is.
Rumors claim that iOS 26 will ship with a dedicated Preview app specifically for managing, editing and annotating PDF documents, with a similar layout to Apple apps like Pages and Keynote, allowing you to browse recently stored PDFs.
What’s unclear, however, is whether it’ll also come with basic image editing capabilities as it does on Mac. It’s not likely considering the wealth of image editing features in the Photos app, but you never know.
New AirPods features
It’s not just your iPhone getting an upgrade with the iOS 26 update; AirPods are also said to benefit from new features, if rumors are to be believed.
Users of the AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4 may soon be able to use a new head-based gesture to toggle Conversation Awareness, which reduces music volume and amplifies environmental sounds to facilitate conversations without removing your earbuds.
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That’d make a lot of sense, given that it’s currently either done automatically – in a very hit-and-miss fashion – or manually by squeezing the stem of the AirPod.
It’s also said to include a new sleep auto-pause feature that should pause your music or podcast if you fall asleep with your earbuds in. It’s not clear whether this will be a standalone feature, or whether it’ll tie into the Apple Watch that can detect when you’re asleep, but it’s a welcome feature nonetheless.
Other features include the ability to trigger your iPhone’s camera using your AirPod, while audio quality could also see a boost via a new “studio quality” mic mode, allowing Apple to better compete with standalone microphones from the likes of Sennheiser.
CarPlay upgrades
Considering that CarPlay – the interface that allows you to interact with your iPhone apps on a car touchscreen – runs via your iPhone, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that the software is also getting an overhauled look to match the glassy look of iOS 26.
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It’s worth noting that this is separate from CarPlay Ultra, which offers deeper integration with cars and started rolling out on specific cars in May. This is the non-exclusive version of CarPlay available to all cars that support the tech.
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