Five iOS 26 Features That Changed How I Use My iPhone

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iOS 26 has been out for a few days now, and with it, a bunch of convenient little tweaks to how you use your phone. Not everything’s a keeper, and I’ve already written about how to disable the new Liquid Glass transparency effects or fix Dark Mode icons that appear tilted. Still, there are things to like about this update, even if you have to go out of your way to turn some of them on.

After spending a couple nights tweaking iOS 26 to my preferences, here are my favorite new features in Apple’s latest operating system.

Resize the clock

This one works well with my iPhone 15 Pro’s always-on display. As a millennial, I don’t always have old-school clocks conveniently placed around my apartment. Instead, I’ll just carry my phone around with me and plop it down somewhere in my peripheral vision where I can quickly glance at the always-on display to check the time. The problem was, until now, the clock was tiny.

With iOS 26, though, you can now resize the lock screen clock (and by extension, the always-on display clock). That makes for less wasted space on my screen, and makes it easier to see at a glance or from a distance. 

It’s a small change, but it’s probably made the biggest difference in how I actually use my phone. To resize your lock screen clock in iOS 26, simply navigate to your iPhone’s lock screen, then long press. Hit the customize button, and then drag the lower right corner of the clock widget until you’re satisfied with the clock’s size.

Note that the resized clock will only work with the first available font. If you don’t see a selection frame around the clock widget’s lower right corner, you’ll first need to tap into it and change the font before you can resize it.

Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt

Also, as a bonus, depending on your wallpaper, you can trigger a depth effect by clicking the three-dots icon in the lower right corner. This will allow you to place some photo elements in front of the clock, which could hurt legibility but might be worth it to see more of your background, depending on your tastes. For instance, here are my cat’s ears appearing over my lock screen clock. The clock still appears unobstructed on my black always-on display (on the iPhone 14 Pro and up, you can change how your always-on display looks under Settings > Display & Brightness > Always On Display).

Call screening

I pretty much never pick up phone calls anymore. As my grandparents used to say “if it’s important, they’ll call back.”

That said, sometimes I do worry about missing a chat I really needed to have, or just coming across as rude. That’s where iOS 26’s new Call Screening feature comes in.

Credit: Apple

When enabled, under Settings > Apps > Phone > Screen Unknown Callers > Ask Reason for Calling, this will have your iPhone pick up calls from numbers you don’t know for you, then ask the caller their reason for calling. As they answer, a transcript of what they’re saying will appear on screen, and you’ll be able to pick up the phone if it seems important. I actually haven’t gotten a spam call since turning it on, so I haven’t personally tested it yet, but it seems like a great way to avoid spam while not worrying about missing something important along the way.

And if you want to go nuclear, you could instead toggle on Silence instead of Ask Reason for Calling, which will simply send all calls from unknown numbers straight to voicemail.

Note that Call Screening does not work for contacts, so you’ll still have to decide whether it’s worth picking up your long-winded uncle’s calls for yourself.

The improved fitness app

Until now, the iPhone’s Fitness app has been useful for getting a summary of your fitness data, or for accessing Apple Fitness+ workout videos, but not for actually tracking workouts while you’re on a run or in the gym. Now, though, that’s changed.

Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt

Once you’ve updated your phone to iOS 26, open the Fitness app. You’ll see a new Workout tab in the navigation bar towards the bottom. Tap it, and you’ll see a number of workouts that you can start right from your phone.

These are all for outdoor exercises, like walking, running, cycling, and hiking. The idea is that, even if you don’t have a health tracker, your phone can use GPS data to estimate metrics for you (tapping on any of these will bring up a screen where your phone asks for location tracking permissions).

But that’s not all you can do. If you pair your phone with a heart rate tracker, like the one built into the Apple Watch (although you’re not limited to Apple’s own peripherals for this), you’ll also get access to other workout types, like Indoor Run, Yoga, and High Intensity Interval Training. You’ll just need to wear your tracker while exercising.

It doesn’t only work in the background, too. Start any workout, and you’ll see your metrics live on your phone while you’re exercising—no more peeking down at your smartwatch’s tiny screen to see your stats. This will also work for workouts started from your Apple Watch, as they’ll simply mirror to both the Fitness app and a Live Activity on your iPhone’s lock screen. Nice.

Hold assist

I have a trip coming up next week, and I need to call my pharmacy to get some prescription refills before I head out of town. Unfortunately, they love to leave me on hold for way too long. That’s where Apple’s new Hold Assist feature comes in.

Credit: Apple

With this, your iPhone will detect when you’ve been put on hold (by listening for cues like hold music), and will offer to hold the call for you so you can step away. Press the “Hold This Call?” button that pops up, and your call will shrink to a small pill towards the top of your screen. Audio will be muted, and you’ll be able to walk away or use your iPhone as usual. When the other line takes you off hold, they’ll get a short message saying Hold Assist is active, and you’ll get a notification along with a ring and/or vibration to let you know you can pick up the call again. You’ll also see a transcription of what the other person said while they waited for you to pick up.

Hold Assist should be active for you by default after installing iOS 26, but to double check, simply navigate to Settings > Apps > Phone > Hold Assist Detection and ensure the toggle is enabled.

A spam folder for the Messages app

Finally, your iPhone will automatically sort away spam messages for you. I don’t know about you, but I’ve been getting so many scam texts as of late, like for unpaid traffic tickets (I don’t drive). Already, the new Spam folder in Messages has done a good job of keeping me from seeing these.

Essentially, it works just like the Spam folder in Gmail. Simply open your Messages app, and you’ll probably notice fewer scam texts or solicitations in there. To see where they’ve all gone, click the three-lines icon in the top right corner, then the Spam folder.

Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt

You’ll see any texts your iPhone has decided to mark as spam, as well as buttons to mark them all as read or simply delete them. Of course, be careful when looking at these messages—you probably don’t want to click any links in them.

And that’s it. Note that, just like in Gmail, there is a chance for false positives, so you might want to check this folder if you’re expecting an important text and aren’t seeing it. If you leave a message in the Spam folder for more than 90 days, it will be deleted, but you can click Recover under a message you want to keep to send it back to the main text folder.

Like with Hold Assist, spam filtering should be enabled for you by default, but to double check, head over to Settings > Apps > Messages > Unknown Senders and ensure the Filter Spam toggle is on.

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