Five more iOS 26 features leak from a reliable source

AppleInsider

New features for Messages, Music, Notes, and CarPlay have possibly leaked ahead of their reveal for iOS 26 during WWDC 25.

iOS 26 leak reveals five new features

Almost every rumor surrounding iOS 26 has focused on the possible redesign that'll bring it closer to visionOS. Few feature updates leak out, if ever, but a last-minute rumor reveals five possible changes coming in iOS 26.

According to reliable, anonymous sources speaking to 9to5Mac, there are a few app-specific features we can expect on June 9. These features could offer some nice quality-of-life upgrades that users will immediately notice.

First, Messages is rumored to get a new live translation feature powered by Apple Intelligence. When a text arrives in a language other than the one the user has set for the system, a translation will be automatically provided.

Apple could also be bringing polls to Messages -- a feature available in rival messaging apps and iMessage apps. It could also use contextual data and AI to help users generate polls on the fly.

Apple's Music app could get an update that brings full-screen animated album artwork to the Lock Screen. Currently, album art is shown in a square on the Lock Screen and doesn't animate.

Expect this feature to basically turn the Lock Screen into the Apple Music Now Playing screen. Select albums have full-screen animating artwork in this view.

Apple Notes is possibly getting a long-requested nerdy feature -- the ability to export notes in Markdown. It's something power users look for and it's available in competing apps.

Finally, the rumor suggests CarPlay will also have a UI change to reflect the wider ecosystem visionOS-like redesign. This one feels obvious, but it hadn't been mentioned in rumors before.

There are only a few days left before Apple reveals everything during WWDC 2025. Everything from iOS 26 to new Apple Intelligence features is expected.

Rumor Score: Possible

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cdy

Ha. Apple Intelligence can’t even accurately summarize text in my native language, how am I to trust its translations?

michelb76

Would search finally be working properly everywhere in the OS?

www1111222

I do hope the animation on the lock screen for the music app is optional! I would want to disable it as it's a gimmick and serves no true purpose.

edited June 4

macapfel

These are niceties, but not features. I watched Goolge I/O and MS Build. There was nothing but AI. If Apple doesn't quickly change their AI game, they will fall behind massively. Siri cannot stay as it currently is.

anantksundaram

Wow!

INNOVATION!!

stabitha_christie

cdy said:

Ha. Apple Intelligence can’t even accurately summarize text in my native language, how am I to trust its translations?

iOS has had a translation feature for 5 years. What issues have you had with it?

appleish

Music on iOS... Can we get a major overhaul of Music on MacOS. It's embarrassingly bad.

9secondkox2

macapfel said:

These are niceties, but not features. I watched Goolge I/O and MS Build. There was nothing but AI. If Apple doesn't quickly change their AI game, they will fall behind massively. Siri cannot stay as it currently is.

There is much more to computing than AI. 

And Apple is usually never first on anything. But they are usually the best once they decide to pursue something. 

Unfortunately, Apple has rushed a few things in recent memory:

1. The launch of Maps
2. tje launch of Apple Music
3. Vision Pro glasses - that ended up being a kludge heafset
4. AI

Maps is now exceptional, Apple Music is best in class, the Vision Peo is best in class, even though it’s a headset, AI is very limited and sometimes not too great. 

For some reason Tim Cook hits the panic button too early instead of relying on Apple customers’ trust and expectation thst we will get new features when they are ready to knock our socks off. 

He tends to cave to mefia pressure and Apple has suffered for it. But he shines where his strengths are. 

Thst said, AI is big enough that Apple isn’t just sitting around while everyone else is talking it up. They’re hard at work on beating those guys and will no doubt have some exceptional stuff to deliver. But they aren’t going to stop innovating everywhere else in the meantime. 

Ms and Google may indeed be doing well in AI, but they aren’t going not everywhere else. And I don’t purchase devices solely on AI capability. 

On the other hand, Apple can afford to take time in developing AI bevause apple users can use Hoogle, Chst GPT, or whatever they want anyway. Apple just needs to focus on making the best platforms snd profucts, hardware and software. AI excellence is coming. 

elijahg

Appleish said:

Music on iOS... Can we get a major overhaul of Music on MacOS. It's embarrassingly bad.

It is awful. Half the time when it’s connected over AirPlay to my HomePods it doesn’t accurately show what’s actually playing, it almost always refuses to queue things in up next, the progress bar randomly stops moving (but music on HPs keeps playing) and it randomly won’t connect. It’s really terrible. It works pretty well on iOS generally. 

williamlondon

Ignoring all the childish hyperbolic, negative nelly comments, iteration in these apps is always a good thing.

Expecting major INNOVATION annually ignores the reality of a mature product category.

The Notes rumour is interesting, using Notes can be great but sometimes you want to extract that data and use and expand on it in another more full-featured app - the options are limited unfortunately, but a markdown export feature could open possibilities.

Looking forward to next week's presentations, not just the keynote which is always a good viewing, but some of the other lesser watched sessions reveal some very interesting updates and changes which don't always feature on the marquee but are nonetheless important.

hexclock

I would be happy if Siri could just pronounce the street names around where i live correctly when using maps. 
“Use the right lane to merge onto the ‘I dash 90’

wesley_hilliard

macapfel said:

These are niceties, but not features. I watched Goolge I/O and MS Build. There was nothing but AI. If Apple doesn't quickly change their AI game, they will fall behind massively. Siri cannot stay as it currently is.

I think that Google I/O and MS Build being nothing but AI is a detriment, not a positive. It shows a lack of innovation and individualism while chasing the current fad with features that will never launch as demoed.

The AI grift will eventually end and people will be in the forums here claiming Apple is behind in something else soon enough.