Bought a new iPhone? Here are 10 basic things to try with new iOS 26

New iPhone

• iOS 26 brings major visual updates and new features to iPhones
• Users can customise Lock Screen, Home Screen, and Messages backgrounds
• New features: Call Screening, Live Translation, Genmoji, and a Games app

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Whether you bought a new iPhone or just updated the software of your old one, now that iOS 26 is rolling out to all users, the scale of changes becomes clear the moment your iPhone restarts. If you have used older iPhones, you may be surprised to see the changes with iOS 26. Apple has not just refreshed visuals but also added practical features that need manual setup to work as intended. Running through this checklist ensures you are not missing out on what matters most.

Set up your Lock Screen properly

The new Liquid Glass design starts at the Lock Screen. Long press on the Lock Screen to enter customisation mode, choose your font and colour for the clock, and enable the Glass effect. You can resize the clock by dragging its corner, which works especially well with photo wallpapers.

When selecting wallpapers, try the new Spatial Scene option. It converts supported 2D photos into layered scenes that subtly move as you tilt your iPhone. Finish by placing widgets anywhere on the screen, including near the bottom, and customise Control Centre buttons to match how you actually use your phone.

Customise the Home Screen look

Long press on the Home Screen, tap Edit, then choose Customise. iOS 26 introduces Clear, Tinted, and refreshed Default icon styles. Clear icons allow your wallpaper to show through completely, while Tinted offers a softer translucent colour match. Apple also lets you automatically match icon colours to your iPhone or official case.

Try Visual Intelligence with screenshots

Visual Intelligence is no longer limited to live camera input. You can now use it on screenshots. Take a screenshot, then tap Ask, Search, or Highlight to Search to identify objects, look up products, or get context using tools like Google Image Search or ChatGPT. This feature requires an iPhone that supports Apple Intelligence.

Turn on Call Screening

Call Screening adds a much-needed layer of protection against unknown callers. When enabled, your iPhone asks callers to state their name and reason before your phone rings. You can enable this under Settings, Phone, Call Screening. While you are there, review the new spam call and voicemail filtering options.

Set custom backgrounds in Messages

The Messages app now supports conversation-specific backgrounds. Open any chat, tap the contact name, and choose Backgrounds. You can select presets, colours, photos, or generate one using Image Playground. Remember that backgrounds apply to everyone in the conversation. If this feels distracting, you can disable them entirely in Settings.

Enable Live Translation

Live Translation makes multilingual conversations far easier. In Messages, tap a contact name and turn on Automatically Translate. Messages will translate incoming and outgoing texts in real time. Supported languages include English, Mandarin, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish. Live Translation also works in FaceTime captions, phone calls, and even in-person conversations using supported AirPods models. This feature also requires Apple Intelligence.

Create your first Genmoji

Genmoji lets you combine multiple emoji into a single custom character. Open Messages, tap the emoji button, and select Genmoji. You can describe an emoji in text or combine two or more existing emoji for better results. Emotional emoji paired with objects tend to work best. Image Playground also now supports emotion-based prompts and ChatGPT-powered image generation.

Explore the new Games app

Apple has added a dedicated Games app in iOS 26. It collects App Store and Apple Arcade titles in one place and introduces social features such as challenges and shared high scores. Even if you are a casual player, it is worth exploring once.

Customise ringtones and alarm snooze times

iOS 26 expands the Reflections ringtone with new variations and adds a new option called Little Bird. You can find these under Settings, Sounds and Haptics, Ringtone. Apple has also finally made alarm snooze duration customisable. Open the Clock app, edit an alarm, and choose a snooze time anywhere between one and fifteen minutes.

Choose your Safari layout

Safari introduces a new Compact tab layout that hides more interface elements. If it feels too minimal, you can switch back to the classic top or bottom tab bar layout from Settings, Safari. This small change can significantly affect browsing comfort.