These 7 new features make iOS 26.1 a must-have instant iPhone update

Make Liquid Glass more frosted

One of the main highlights of iOS 26 is the new Liquid Glass interface. However, Apple’s attempt to make its operating system look fresher and more modern has resulted in as many complaints as compliments.

After many attempts to fine-tune Liquid Glass, Apple decided to give users control over the interface. That’s because iOS 26.1 adds a new toggle to radically adjust the appearance of Liquid Glass. Now you can choose between “Clear” mode to stick with Liquid Glass’s transparency or “Tinted” mode for higher opacity and better contrast.

To do this, go to Settings > Display & Brightness > Liquid Glass and choose the best option for you.

If you’re part of the group of users who were unhappy with Liquid Glass in iOS 26.1, you’ll certainly appreciate the new “Tinted” mode. Of course, if you like Liquid Glass, you don’t need to do anything about it – and you can rest easy without worrying about Apple backtracking on Liquid Glass now that there’s an option.

Don’t sleep through alarms anymore

iOS 26 brought another small but impactful change to the lives of iPhone users: the alarm interface. Some users didn’t like how Apple made the stop alarm button much larger in iOS 26 and placed it just below the Snooze button, which is the same size but a different color.

As a result, a number of users have claimed that they’re oversleeping because they turned off the alarm instead of hitting the snooze right after waking up.

To fix this, iOS 26.1 once again tweaks the alarm interface. Now, Apple has added a “Slide to Stop” feature, which requires users to slide their finger from left to right to turn off alarms completely. But if you think that’s too complicated and want the old Stop button back, here’s what you can do.

Once you install iOS 26, go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch and enable the “Prefer Single-Touch Actions” toggle. This will bring back the button to stop the alarm instead of the new swipe gesture.

Stop accidentally launching the camera

While iOS already offers an option for users to remove the Camera button from the Lock Screen, the app is also accessible by swiping from right to left. If, for some reason, you want to completely remove access to the Camera app from the Lock Screen, you can now do so.

By going to Settings > Camera and turning off the “Lock Screen Swipe to Open Camera” toggle, the Camera app will no longer be accessible by swiping your finger on the Lock Screen. Of course, you can still access the app in other ways, such as by pressing the Camera Control on iPhone 16 or later. But that can also be turned off.

Although swiping to open the Camera app is meant to be a useful shortcut, some users complain about accidental launches when the iPhone is in their pocket, resulting in excessive battery drain. If that’s the case, iOS 26.1 is the update for you.

Swipe to change tracks

iOS 26.1 also makes it easier to skip songs in the Apple Music app. Instead of having to open the full-screen player or press any buttons, all you need to do now is swipe your finger on the mini player to skip to the next song or go back to the previous one.

Give it a try after you update: play an album or playlist, then minimize the player and test the swipe gestures. Although it’s not a life-changing feature, it’s certainly slicker than tapping the skip button.

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Use Apple Intelligence in more languages

Introduced last year, Apple Intelligence is what Apple calls its set of AI-based features. This includes things like Writing Tools for reviewing text, Genmoji for creating your own emojis, and Visual Intelligence for searching for things with your iPhone camera.

Apple Intelligence has been available in the following languages: English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish, Chinese (Simplified), Japanese, and Korean. With iOS 26.1, Apple is expanding support for Apple Intelligence to more languages. These include: Chinese (Traditional), Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, Portuguese (Portugal), Vietnamese, and Turkish.

If you speak one of these languages and have a compatible device (iPhone 15 Pro or later), go to Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri after updating to iOS 26.1 and make sure to enable the Apple Intelligence toggle.

Quickly patch security holes

As we previously reported here at Macworld, iOS 26.1 revamped a feature formerly known as “Rapid Security Responses.” Now called “Security Improvements,” the feature can automatically and silently install security patches on your iPhone or iPad without requiring you to download a new version of iOS.

If you want to make sure your device is always secure with the latest patches, go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Background Security Improvements and enable the Automatically Install option.

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This may sound like a small thing, but many users forget to install iOS updates. That’s why having the option to install security patches automatically without any action is actually huge.

Get Slide Over back on iPad

Good news for iPad users. iPadOS 26.1 brings back Slide Over, one of the iPad’s multitasking features that lets users keep an app always visible on the screen, overlaying other apps.

Although iPadOS 26 has improved multitasking and window management in many ways, the removal of Slide Over has left some iPad users upset. Thankfully, Apple listened to the feedback and brought the feature back.

This time, users will find Slide Over by tapping and holding the green resize button in the upper-left corner of any app window. 

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Update now

For those who have already updated to iOS 26, the update to version 26.1 makes the system even more reliable and secure, and adds some extra features. And if you’re still running iOS 18 for some reason, now might be the right time to update to iOS 26 and take advantage of everything new in iOS 26.1.

You can update your device by going to Settings > General > Software Update. It’s available for all iPhones and iPads already compatible with iOS 26.