iOS 26.1 has arrived, and it brings all of these changes to your iPhone
By Zachary McAuliffe | Published: 2025-11-03 22:56:00 | Source: CNET
Apple launched iOS 26.1 On Monday, more than a month after the company released iOS 26, which introduced Liquid Glass, call screening and more to your phone. iPhone. The iOS 26.1 update brings some new settings and features to your device, including a new way to adjust Liquid Glass and a useful security feature.
You can download iOS 26.1 by going to Settings And eavesdropping general. Next, select Software updatehandle Update now Follow the prompts on your screen.
Here are the features that the iOS update brings to your iPhone now.
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Another way to adjust liquid glass
With iOS 26.1, Apple is making it possible for you to further customize your iPhone’s new Liquid Glass design. If you enter Settings > Display & brightness > Liquid GlassYou can choose the new design to be transparent or colored.
“Scanning is more transparent, revealing the content underneath,” Apple wrote of the setting. “Tinted increases opacity and adds more contrast.”
Changing Clear or Tinted seems to adjust only some elements of Liquid Glass, such as the Notification Center and some search bars on your iPhone. However, there doesn’t seem to be a change to the Liquid Glass elements on your home screen. But there is another way to set Liquid Glass to your home screen.
To adjust Liquid glass on your home screenpress and hold your screen, then tap Edit in the upper-right corner of your screen, then tap Customize. From here, make your app icons either clear or colored, then you can tap Light, Dark, or Auto at the bottom of the customization menu to adjust the Liquid Glass elements on your home screen.
You can also go to Settings > Accessibility > Display and text size Then press the switch for Reduce transparency To set the new design.
Automatically install security improvements
Apple is introducing a handy new security setting in iOS 26.1 that allows your iPhone to download and install security improvements on its own. You can find this by going to Settings > Privacy & security > Background security improvements.
“Background security improvements provide additional protection for your iPhone between software updates,” according to Apple. “In rare cases of compatibility issues, these security improvements may be temporarily removed and then improved in a future software update.”
This feature reminds me of Apple Fast security responses. The company introduced RSRs in 2023 as a way to quickly deploy security fixes to devices. Although it’s a good idea in theory, Apple hasn’t used RSRs for iOS since the release of iOS 16.5.1(c) in July 2023.
This isn’t a flashy setup, but it’s useful and allows you to stay on top of smaller security updates without doing any extra work. Once enabled, this setting takes care of the rest, so you don’t have to check your iPhone every day for new updates for potential security issues.
Stop accidentally opening your camera with this new switch
The iOS 26.1 update also introduces a new toggle that may prevent you from accidentally opening the Camera from the Lock screen. To find this switch, go to Settings > Camera And scroll down the list. There you will see a toggle for Lock screen Swipe to open the camera.
“Swipe left on the lock screen to quickly access the camera,” Apple wrote about the setting.
Touch control of phone calls
In iOS 26, there’s a new option to turn off touch when your iPhone connects to or drops a call. This way your iPhone doesn’t vibrate and make you think you’ve received a message or other notification every time you make or stop a call.
To access this setting, go to Settings > Applications > Phone And click on Touch Switch.
Local pickup options
Local Capture is an easy way to record high-quality video and audio recordings of video calls on your iPhone, and iOS 26.1 introduces a new settings menu for this feature. To find the setting, go to Settings > General > Local capture. The menu gives you the option to select a save location for your recordings, as well as a toggle switch that lets you record audio only when using Local Capture.
“Add Local Capture to Control Center to record your audio and video during a call to save and edit later,” Apple wrote on the Local Capture settings page.
New accessibility option
iOS 26.1 update introduces a new option to prefer one-touch actions over sliding actions on your iPhone’s screen. You can find this new option by going to Settings > Accessibility > Touch And scroll to the bottom of the page.
The alarm clock gets another update
One of my favorite little upgrades in iOS 26 was the ability to Change the length of the alarm snooze. In iOS 26.1, Apple is making it harder to accidentally dismiss an alarm. Once you update to iOS 26.1, you now have to swipe to stop the alarm instead of pressing a button. This can be annoying if you’re trying to turn off the alarm quickly or it can help make sure you’re actually awake before turning off the alarm.
Change songs in Apple Music
Apple music It got a number of new features in iOS 26, but iOS 26.1 doesn’t change much in the app or service. Instead, the update lets you change songs in a new way.
With iOS 26.1, instead of tapping the Next or Back buttons to change songs, you can swipe left or right on the song title from the music player within Apple Music. You can do this when the player takes up your entire screen or when you’re searching Apple Music and the player is small and near the bottom of your screen. The song title seems to move left or right when changing songs now as well.
More languages direct translation
iOS 26.1 update adds more languages to the new version Direct translation feature. Apple brought this feature to iPhone and AirPods with iOS 26, and the iOS 26.1 update lets you use it with these languages.
- Chinese (Mandarin, Simplified)
- Chinese (Mandarin, Traditional)
- Italian
- Japanese
- Korean
Apple Intelligence in more languages
If you have an iPhone with Apple Intelligence, iOS 26.1 brings AI features to these languages.
- Chinese (Traditional)
- Danish
- Dutch
- Norwegian
- Portuguese (Portugal)
- Swedish
- Turkish
- Vietnamese
New video filter bar
The iOS 26.1 update also brings a small change to the video scanning bar in Photos. If you go to Photos and watch a video, you’ll notice that the bar at the bottom of your screen is more compact and compact compared to the previous cleaning bar, which had play/pause and volume buttons at the top of the bar.
This is another small change that you may not have noticed before.
For more iOS news, here My review of iOS 26How to reduce the effects of Liquid Glass in the update and how Text scan Works on update. You can also check our website iOS 26 cheat sheet.
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