Yesterday, Apple introduced the next versions of the operating systems for all of its platforms, which will be released this Fall. For the first time ever, there will be not only a consistent theme across all of these operating systems—including a look at that Apple calls Liquid Glass—but also a consistent numbering system, one based upon a year. Thus, we will see iOS 26, watchOS 26, tvOS 26, macOS 26, visionOS 26, and iPadOS 26. It is a good thing that we have until Fall before the final versions are released because it is going to take until then just to wrap our heads around all of the improvements. In today’s post, I’m focusing on the features for the iPhone and iPad that lawyers and other professional users will appreciate the most when they are using their devices to get work done. But note that there are lots of other great features I’m not discussing in this post that you can use when you are not billing hours, such as nice improvements to the Camera and Music apps. I’ll start by focusing on iOS 26 for the iPhone, in part because virtually all of the big changes for the iPhone in iOS 26 are also included in iPadOS 26. However, I do so at the risk of burying the lede because professional users of the iPad will have quite a bit to love about the improvements in iPad OS 26.
Liquid Glass
When Apple introduced iOS 7, one of the major new features was a clean, flat interface. It’s now twelve years later, so Apple has decided that it is time for a new interface, and it is called Liquid Glass. The “glass” part of Liquid Glass refers to the fact that many interface features are translucent, so they partially show what is underneath. It looks interesting, and it is also functional because it means that you can see more of whatever is underneath: the app contents, the webpage, the document, etc. But it is more than that; the new design also seems to bend and reflect light as you move your iPhone and based upon what is happening on your iPhone. Here is a picture of the new Phone app in iOS 26. If you look at the buttons at the bottom of the screen, you can see what is underneath.
The “liquid” part of Liquid Glass refers to a number of things. First, these shapes are not fixed. They can grow bigger or smaller as necessary. If you own an iPhone with the Dynamic Island at the top, you already have an idea of how this works; the island changes shape depending upon what is being shown, and it dynamically responds to touch. But now, this will occur across the interface. And as you interact with the new interface—such as when you touch a button—it responds as if it is an illuminated gel that changes size and becomes brighter. It is a beautiful effect, and it is also functional because it provides more visual clues of what the iPhone is doing. Moreover, it can give you more options. As John Gruber of Daring Fireball noted yesterday, contextual menus can now expand vertically to show lots of options, reducing your need to swipe multiple times to get to what you need. Note that all of this is only possible because modern iPhones have incredible power that give Apple the luxury of devoting processor cycles to something like this.
Liquid Glass looks great in either light or dark mode, and there is also a new clear look, which removes the color so you can more easily see through to whatever is underneath:
If you want to learn more about Liquid Glass, here is a video that Apple created for developers. The first half does an excellent job of showing off the new design and the amazing things that it does. (The second half provides advice for developers working with the new interface, so you may want to skip that part.)
Reduce unnecessary communication distractions
I hate it when I am trying to get work done and I am interrupted because my iPhone rings for a call or beeps from a new text message and it turns out that it is a solicitation call or something else that holds no interest for me. I currently use the iPhone feature that lets me tap the voicemail button to send a call directly to voicemail, and it is nice that I can see a transcription of the voicemail as it is being left so that it is turns out that if it is someone that I want to talk to, I can answer the call while the voicemail is being left. But this is all still an interruption.
iOS 26 features a Call Screening function. When enabled, if a call comes from an unknown caller, your iPhone answers the call without alerting you and asks the caller to share their name and reason for the call. Only then does the iPhone ring so that you can decide if you want to answer the call—and of course, many unwanted callers won’t even provide this information, so your phone will never ring at all. It is nice to have a virtual receptionist built-in to the iPhone.
What if you initiated the call and you are put on a long hold? The iPhone can help you here as well. Hold Assist detects that you have been placed on hold (for example, by noticing the hold music) and will offer to hold the call for you. You can then go back to your work and when a person finally comes back, your iPhone will ask that person to wait a moment and your iPhone will alert you to return to the call. All of us know how frustrating it is to suffer through long hold waits when seeking customer service, so this sounds like a great new feature.
Unwanted text messages can be just as annoying as unwanted calls, and iOS 26 can help with this, too. Screening tools will detect spam messages and let you decide what appears in the Messages app—and in recent calls in the Phone and FaceTime apps.
Messages improvements
In addition to blocking or filtering unwanted messages, the messages that you do want to see are improved in numerous ways in the Messages app in iOS 26. One improvement is that you can select partial text in a text message. Currently, if you want to copy a word or a phrase that someone texts to you, your only option is to copy all of the words in the text message bubble. In iOS 26, you can copy just the word that matters so that you can more easily paste just that word into an email, the Safari web browser, etc.
If you are texting with multiple people in a group chat, iOS 26 will provide typing indicators so that you can see who is about to say something—the same feature we have long had when you are texting with just one other person. And if there is someone that you don’t know in the group chat, iOS 26 will include a button so that you can add that person to Contacts.
Maximize battery power
If you have used more battery than normal at a given point during the day, an iPhone running iOS 26 can alert you and even identify the apps that are sucking most of your battery power.
Juli Clover of MacRumors notes a number of interesting changes to the battery interface. For example, when you are charging your iPhone, iOS 26 shows you how much time is remaining until a full charge. That’s often very useful to know.
Say what?
Every immigration lawyer that I know is busier now than any other point in their life due to the Trump administration. But no matter what your reason for doing so is, if you need to communicate with someone who speaks another language, iOS 26 can translate for you. This is done using Apple Intelligence on your iPhone, so your confidential communications remain confidential.
For example, the Messages app can automatically translate texts so that each party can simply type using their preferred language, and the iPhone takes care of the rest.
This also works in a FaceTime call. As each person speaks, your iPhone displays live captions and then translates the text in the captions.
This also works in a phone call. You say something, and then when you pause, the iPhone speaks the same words that you just said in the foreign language. When they respond, you can then immediately hear and see a spoken translation of what they said. This even works if the other person isn’t using an iPhone.
Apple showed off these new translation features in Apple’s own apps, but Apple also announced that third-party developers can incorporate these translation tools into their own apps as well. Not only does this make things easier for other developers, but it also helps to protect the privacy and confidentiality of your communications since the translation is done on your own device.
CarPlay
CarPlay may be something on the screen in your car, but it is driven by the iPhone so it is part of iOS. In iOS 26, when you receive a phone call, the call notification no longer takes over the entire screen but instead appears in a compact pop-up overlay. That way, you can decide whether to take the call but still see what CarPlay was doing before the call—such as showing you the map and the upcoming turn that you don’t want to miss.
CarPlay in iOS 26 also supports widgets, and they look similar to what an iPhone can currently show you in StandBy mode. I believe that traditional CarPlay screens will only show one widget at a time, but if you have a car with a wide screen for CarPlay, you can show two widgets at once.
Another improvement is that Live Activities, a feature that already exists on the iPhone today, will show up in CarPlay in iOS 26. For example, if you are driving to an airport to pick someone up, you can see a Live Activity that counts down the arrival time and then shows when the plane has landed.
And of course, if you are in the car, some of the distraction-reducing features discussed above, such as Call Screening, will be very welcome.
An iPad that is more like a computer
Many of the features discussed above come to the iPad as well: Liquid Glass, Messages improvements, translation options, and even a new Phone app for the iPad. But some of the biggest changes in iPadOS 26 are new features that make an iPad more like a computer.
For many years, Apple has tried out different ways to support multiple windows at the same time on the iPad. First, there was the split screen mode and slide over. Then, there was the first version of Stage Manager, which gave you a little more flexibility on where to place windows, but not complete flexibility. In iPadOS 26, you can now place windows wherever you want—just like you have been able to do on a computer for many years now. And you will be able to have even more windows open at once. Sure, this can sometimes cause a little chaos, but we have all learned to deal with this on the computer, so I think we will have no trouble doing the same thing on an iPad.
When you want to close, minimize, or maximize a window, you can use the red, yellow, and green buttons—just like windows on a Mac.
When you are using an iPad with an external pointing device such as a trackpad, the cursor can now change to an arrow to be more precise: again, much like a cursor on a computer. And one of the new things that you can point to with that cursor is a menu bar at the top of the window—yes, just like we have been doing on computers since the Macintosh debuted in 1984. The menu bar appears when you swipe down from the top of the screen.
These are changes that many professional iPad users have been requesting for years. I’ll have to try this to see how it works, but my expectation is that it will make it easier to get work done on an iPad.
Files app
The Files app is more powerful in iPadOS 26. The list view includes resizable columns, making it easier to work with your files. Folders will be collapsible in the list view. And folders can be given custom colors and icons, making it easier to identify a specific folder.
When you are ready to open up a specific document, you can select which app will open that type of document. And you can change the default app for a file type so that a certain type of file is opened in the app that you prefer to use.
You can also drag a folder from the Files app onto the Dock. This gives you easy access to the folder. And it also makes it easier to quickly open items that are within the folder, even when you are not in the Files app.
When it comes time to work with files that are in PDF format, there is a new Preview app on the iPad. This gives you simple options for viewing and editing a PDF file without having to use a more full-featured program like PDF Expert from Readdle when you just want to do something simple, like quickly look at the document.
Conclusion
I believe that these and the other improvements in iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 will make a big difference for attorneys and other professional users of the iPhone and iPad. Kudos to Apple for these new features. As always, the new operating systems will be released this Fall. A public beta will be available in July, but I discourage installing beta software on any device that you depend on to get your work done.