Apple has switched to year-based numbering for all their operating systems, so iOS and iPadOS have jumped from version 18 to version 26. These new versions sport a futuristic Liquid Glass interface and a wide range of new features, including a brand-new multitasking system for iPads. This book covers all the changes, enabling you to get more out of your iPhone or iPad. (It doesn’t cover everything iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 can do, however. For an in-depth overview of using an iPhone or iPad, read iPhone and iPad Basics.)
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This book helps you understand:
- The new features (both large and small) in iOS 26 and iPadOS 26
- How to determine whether the version 26 operating system will run on your device, and the steps to follow to install the upgrade
- What Liquid Glass is all about, how to use it, and how to turn off some of its features if you don’t like them.
- How to work with the new iPad multitasking system, including sizing, modifying, and arranging windows (and how to switch back to Stage Manager if you prefer)
- Other iPad-specific changes, including new features for the Dock
- Helpful new features in the Phone app, including Hold Assist, Call Filtering, and Call Screening
- New spam-reduction features in FaceTime and Messages
- Live Translation, which provides real-time translation in FaceTime, Messages, and Phone
- Smaller changes to apps including CarPlay, Files, Passwords, and Wallet
- What you can do with the new Preview app, previously available only for Mac
Take Control Books Executive Editor Glenn Fleishman spent 30 years writing for publications like The Atlantic, Fast Company, The Economist, The New York Times, Macworld, and TidBITS. Glenn now focuses his time on Take Control Books, Six Colors (as a columnist), and his own micro-publishing endeavor, Aperiodical, where he writes books about type, printing, comics, and language history, like Six Centuries of Type & Printing and How Comics Are Made. You can find Glenn on Mastodon and Bluesky. Reach him by email at glenn@glennf.com.
What’s New in Version 1.3 and 1.3.1
With the release of iOS 26.2 and iPadOS 26.2, Apple changed and added a few features:
- Adjust Lock Screen time translucency: You can adjust or disable Liquid Glass as applied to the time on a Lock Screen. See “Resist the Flow.”
- Local Capture change: Apple updated how the new-to-26 Local Capture feature lets you choose where to store audio and video, and changed the Control Center icon for it. See “Capture Local Audio.” (Version 1.3.1 includes this update, which Apple didn’t document.)
- AirDrop code: If want to receive a file from someone who isn’t in your contacts using AirDrop’s Everyone for 10 Minutes setting, you must now generate a code that lets them send you files for 30 days. See “AirDrop.” (Version 1.3.1 of this book fixed errors in the original description of this revised service.)
- Reminders alarm: You can now mark a reminder as Urgent, and your device will use a Clock-style alarm when the time and date for the reminder is hit. See “Reminders.”
- AirPods translation now in EU: Apple has enabled live translation on supported AirPods models in the European Union. See “Translate in Real Time in Your Ears.”
Just before iOS 26.2, Apple also made good on a promise to add support for encoding a U.S. passport as a digital ID on an iPhone (on November 15, 2025). Once added, you can use the Wallet app to present your digital passport at TSA checkpoints. See “U.S. Passport.”
What Was New in Version 1.2
Since version 1.1 of this book appeared, Apple released iOS 26.1 and iPadOS 26.1, which contained a few changes:
- Less translucency: Apple listened and added a switch for iPhone and iPad that reduces the effect of the new Liquid Glass button. See “Resist the Flow.”
- Slide Over returns to iPad: A popular windowing feature on the iPad that was eliminated with the release of iPadOS 26’s fully rethought multitasking and windowing interface has returned. You can now use SlideOver in iPadOS 26.1. See “Tile Windows.”
- More languages in Live Translation: Apple added additional languages to Live Translation for Messages (see “Live Translation Has Language Limitations”).
- AirPods Live Translation: Apple released Live Translation for certain AirPods models paired with an iPhone 15 or later, and added new supported languages in iOS 26.1. See “AirPods.”
- Turn off Lock screen Camera app swipe: If you find yourself launching Camera by accident from the lock screen, you can now disable this feature. See “Camera.”
- Default blocking of adult website: Apple now enables a feature by default for Child accounts for those 13–17 to block access to adult websites. See “Family Offers Minor Upgrades.”
One thing that wasn’t new but that I missed in previous versions of this book is a change to the Battery settings. In iOS and iPadOS, the main Battery information view in version 26 provides time-to-full-charge data based on your maximum charge selection. On an iPhone, you can pick a new adaptive power mode for heavy usage days to extend your battery life. See “Battery.”
What Was New in Version 1.1
This update to the book reflected changes Apple made between their late beta test releases in August 2025 and their general production release to customers on September 15, 2025. Some typos and small errors were also fixed.
These changes include:
- Stage Manager: I added a little more information about the difference in iPadOS 26 between Windowed App and Stage Manager. They’re quite similar. See “Don’t Like the Changes? Switch Back.”
- A newly important More button: The More button in FaceTime and Phone takes on some heavy lifting. You will use it to access nearly all extras in both apps, like adding callers or starting screen sharing. See “A More Better Organization.”
- Learn about the revised info pane: Messages has overhauled the pane that appears when you tap an avatar or avatars in a conversation. Information is now better organized (and in sync with macOS 26 Tahoe’s new look). See “It’s All a Pane.” This section also explain how adding a participant to a group chat now happens immediately on selecting them.
- Expanded explanation of Live Translation in Messages: With more testing, I have rewritten and expanded the explanation of how to work with “Live Translation in Messages.”
- Accessibility Reader: With this feature working more reliably, I’ve fully documented how to use it. See “Accessibility.”
Posted by Joe Kissell on November 15, 2025
Glenn Fleishman joined host Chuck Joiner on MacVoices to talk about a variety of topics—some directly related to Take Control, some not.
In part one, Glenn discusses Apple’s newest operating systems (and Liquid Glass in particular), as well as how Take Control Books deals with the constantly changing world of software.
In part two, Glenn talks further about Liquid Glass and Take Control Books, then goes into more detail about changes in Apple’s mobile operating systems and several other personal projects.
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