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While the new glass-like design may be the most visible change within iOS 26, the operating system also has five features that might be particularly appealing for business users.
iOS 26 made its debut on June 9 at WWDC 2025, in a relatively subdued keynote event. While Apple put a strong emphasis on its cross-platform “Liquid Glass” design language, there’s more to iOS 26 than meets the eye.
Some of the upgrades and improvements in iOS 26 allow you to express your creativity more easily, like the new ChatGPT-powered styles for Image Playground. Other features, meanwhile, will help you get work done, and they might be especially useful for those in the business world.
Phone screening and voicemail spam reporting
With iOS 26, Apple is stepping up its fight against spam calls and voice messages through improvements and new options in the Phone app.
iOS 26 has a new Call Screening feature that helps you filter out spam callers.
The iPhone maker has rolled out a new Call Screening feature, which saves you the hassle of answering calls from unknown numbers. It makes things easier, as you don’t need to manually verify whether or not the person on the other line is someone you want to speak with.
Instead, when an unknown number calls, your iPhone will prompt the caller to provide a name and a reason for calling. That information is then relayed to the end user, allowing for quick decision-making with effectively no effort.
Apple’s Call Screening feature helps filter interruptions, such as telemarketers and scammers, without blocking unknown phone numbers indiscriminately.
The call screening feature is especially useful if your phone number is publicly available and affiliated with a business, organization, or other legal entity.
The Phone app in iOS 26 also lets you report spam voicemails directly to Apple. If you get a voicemail from an unknown number, tapping on the message now reveals a “Report Spam” button.
You now have the option to report it and keep the voicemail or report it and delete it. Either way, the message is flagged and sent to Apple for review.
These reports don’t automatically block the caller. You’ll still need to take that extra step manually, just like before. But the information could be used to improve Apple’s filtering algorithms, especially if a large number of users flag similar messages.
Polls in Messages
While the Messages app also has a similar spam-detection feature, it’s not the only improvement the app received with iOS 26.
The Messages app has a new poll feature on iOS 26 and iPadOS 26.
There’s now a new option to create polls within group chats. These in-app polls allow you to propose options and cast votes, without the hassle of downloading a separate app. It’s all baked into iMessage.
With the new polling feature, it’s possible to add multiple options, and all members of the group chat can vote, with results appearing in real time. The in-app poll capability is meant to be quick and intuitive, meaning that using it is fairly straightforward.
Apple’s polling feature also leverages Apple Intelligence, the company’s on-device AI software, available on the iPhone 15 Pro and newer. When Apple Intelligence detects plan-related questions, you’ll automatically see an option to create a poll.
For instance, if someone writes “What movie should we see tonight?” the Messages app will prompt the user to set up a poll with suggested titles. This only works with iMessage, however, as the in-app poll feature is not available for SMS or cross-platform chats.
While apps like Telegram and WhatsApp have had polling features for years, their presence in the Message app makes things much easier for end-users, who no longer need to deal with third-party apps just for polling options.
The in-app poll feature will allow for near-instant decision making, whether you’re discussing a business strategy with coworkers or making plans with friends.
Live Translation is now a system-wide feature
Also available in Messages is Apple’s new Live Translation feature, which helps users break down language barriers in real time.
Live Translation is available in FaceTime, Messages, and the Phone app.
The company’s Live Translation feature is powered by on-device AI processing models. It works across first-party apps like FaceTime, Messages, and Phone. There’s even a new Call Translation API that developers can use for third-party applications.
For example, the Live Translation feature can immediately translate text into other languages as you type out a message in iMessage. As texts in other languages come in, the Apple Intelligence feature can instantly translate them for you.
In FaceTime, the feature provides live captions during video calls. For audio-only calls, it can translate and speak the conversation aloud.
The feature provides real-time, on-device interpretation of conversations without sending data to the cloud. However, you will need an iPhone 15 Pro or newer to use Live Translation, as the feature requires an Apple Intelligence-compatible device.
Support for languages varies by app, even though Live Translation is available in three first-party applications.
The supported languages vary by app. In Messages, live translation works with English (U.S., UK), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, and Chinese Simplified.
For Phone and FaceTime, support is narrower at launch. It’s limited to English (U.S., UK), French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish. Apple says more languages will be added by the end of 2025.
Live Translation is a meaningful upgrade for business users working across borders. It’s also great for tourists or for communicating with family members from different parts of the world.
Unlike existing standalone apps, Apple’s solution is embedded in everyday communication tools that are already present in iOS. The company’s Live translation doesn’t rely on cloud-based processing the way Google and Samsung’s features do, either.
Messages now has typing indicators for group chats
Along with Live Translation and enhanced spam-detection features, Apple’s Messages app has gained another long-overdue improvement — Typing indicators.
The Messages app in iOS 26 now displays typing indicators in group chats.
While communication applications such as Slack, Discord, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp have all had typing indicators for years, the feature was notably absent from iMessage.
With iOS 26, however, you’ll finally be able to know who’s typing at any given moment. This will make group communication significantly easier, with interactions being visible in real-time. It also works in one-on-one chats.
This feature is great for business users with multiple iMessage group chats. It makes it easier to control the flow of a conversation, and offers insight into who’s actively participating, or who might be hesitating to provide input, or an idea.
Shortcuts are now more powerful with Apple Intelligence
iOS 26 brings Shortcuts and Apple Intelligence closer together, allowing you to complete tasks with AI much more quickly.
The Shortcuts app in iOS 26 now supports Intelligent Actions, which leverage Apple Intelligence.
All of the Apple Intelligence tools so far are now available in what Apple calls Intelligent Actions.
In the first and second developer betas of iOS 26, the main actions are:
- Change the tone of text
- Make list from text
- Make table from text
- Proofread text
- Rewrite text
- Summarize text
- Use model
That last is potentially the most significant because it lets Shortcuts users specify which model of AI they want to use. The options here are:
- Private Cloud Compute
- On-Device
- Extension
- Ask Each Time
Private Cloud Compute leverages Apple’s privacy-enabled cloud-based processing systems, while On-Device uses the locally stored Apple Intelligence LLM. Extension currently refers to ChatGPT, but it could allow for other AI model options in the future, such as Google Gemini.
Ask Each Time understandably lets users choose a model every time a particular shortcut is used.
Intelligent Actions can be used independently or alongside traditional Shortcut options, which can greatly simplify workflows. Instead of having to navigate to Writing Tools whenever text alteration or summarization is needed, for instance, a shortcut can help you make a text more concise in just a few clicks.
Apple’s AI-infused Intelligent Actions are available on iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and macOS Tahoe.
Apple’s example is an impressive one that has a student sharing their notes and an audio recording of a lecture into a shortcut. The shortcut then uses existing actions to transcribe the audio, and then the new Intelligent Actions to compare that to the notes.
Similarly, a shortcut could be used to add the date and time to text, then summarize it all, and email the summary to someone.
The new-and-improved Shortcuts app offers endless possibilities, and Intelligent Actions are sure to benefit students and business users alike, given that meetings could be processed like lectures in Apple’s example.
Overall, iOS 26 offers a multitude of new features that will help you get work done more easily. Whether it’s the Live Translation feature for communicating with international associates or the Call Screening capability, which filters out spam callers, there’s something for just about everyone.
Apple’s macOS Tahoe and iPadOS 26 share some of the productivity features with iOS 26, but the two opearating systems also have platform-specific enhancements that are just as impressive.
