It’s official: Apple is renaming and unifying its operating system to be iOS 26. Going forward, the version number will be based on the year ahead.
The overlong, bubbly presentation given at WWDC25 conference on Monday, June 9, saw innovation after innovation lauded, praised, adored and lavished love on. They include a new ‘liquid glass’ display, and a slate of programmes coming to its Apple TV+ system.
There will be updates to iPads, Glass and the Mac OS, which will now be known as Tahoe.
Add in AI features via Apple Intelligence, and it’s a pretty comprehensive overhaul.
There are plenty of tools for video and audio creators.
For example, Voice Isolation is available which Apple promises will give record studio-quality audio, AirPods can be used to start and stop video recording, while video calls can be recorded to make podcasting easier.
OK, there are a lot more features being updated, added, prodded and poked, but like all the add-ons, not every feature will speak to every user.
What accessibility enhancements are coming to iOS 26?
Some of the accessibility enhancements were announced last month and not at WWDC25. They include updates to Braille support and Live Listen. We covered them here.
Apple says that its Apple Intelligence system will help users get things done easier than ever, while unlocking new ways to communicate and do more with what’s on their screen. Live Translation is integrated into Messages, FaceTime, and Phone to help users communicate across languages, translating text and audio on the fly.
This takes place on the device, so the conversations are not uploaded to the cloud nor seen by anyone else.
The example Apple showed in the WWDC25 demo related to instantly translating from French into English, so whether the iPhone has any updates to its Live Caption facility – displaying subtitles in a same language phone call – is not presently clear.
Apple Music will offer Lyrics Translation and Lyrics Pronunciation to display the words, making it easier for people to join in.
In iOS 26, Accessibility Reader will offer users customisable text to make it easier for people to read, even with menus, or textbooks. They can also ask the iPhone to use text-to-speech to say what they see.
Where is Auracast in iOS 26?
The answer is we still don’t know.
The 90-minute slick presentation at WWDC25 may have whetted the appetites of Apple fans, but there was no mention of what’s happening with Bluetooth. And that means no news yet about Auracast.
As it stands, Apple is lagging behind Android, which is promising Auracast from the new version 16 due to be released later this month.
It’s baffling, as many creatives will want to be sharing audio via Auracast, especially if the content they are creating should be heard by more than one person at a time. Auracast’s one-to-many capabilities should be seen as an essential, not a maybe.
As Auracast becomes more integrated into our public spaces, more and more users will be wanting to tuning into Auracasts as they go through life, be it at the theatre, at the railway station, or in a place of worship. Apple isolating vast swathes of people by not including the Bluetooth LE Audio text is a missed opportunity.
What is Apple doing instead of Auracast?
In February, Apple announced that AirPods Pro 2 users could use the devices as hearing aids, taking an online test and fine-tuning the devices using a phone-controlled app
We wrote about it here.
It’s not the same as proper Auracast, though.
Across the WWDC 25 presentation, Apple’s team talked about their excitement towards the new iOS, the new features, and the new interfaces. Excitement at this, excitement at that … and yet here was a missed opportunity.
Hopefully as WWDC 25 goes on there will be some mention of Auracast and Bluetooth LE Audio, but there wasn’t a dicky bird in this address.
I’m not excited, I’m disappointed.
When will iOS 26 be appearing on people’s phones?
A public beta will be released in July, and iOS 26 will be released to applicable devices from this autumn – Apple says from iPhone 11 upwards.
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