June 20, 2025, 1:07 pm | Read time: 4 minutes
iOS 26 not only introduces a completely revamped user interface—it’s also packed with new features. Most of these were already unveiled by Apple at WWDC25. However, some are quite well hidden.
Call screening, surveys in iMessage, and live translation are features Apple has talked about extensively. TECHBOOK, however, has scoured the first beta version of iOS 26 for hidden features—and found quite a few.
Custom Ringtones
Hard to believe but true: Until now, it wasn’t possible to use your own audio files as ringtones on the iPhone. Only through the iTunes Store or GarageBand could you set tones other than the standard selection in the iPhone settings.
The ability to choose your ringtone freely is arguably one of the most basic phone functions missing from the iPhone—but iOS 26 finally remedies this. In the file manager, users can now select the “Use as Ringtone” option via the “Share” function for audio files.
Create 3D Scenes from Regular Photos
As some users may have already noticed on the lock screen, iOS has long had the ability to identify objects in photos and separate them from the background. It’s one of the well-known features that iOS 26 now significantly expands—albeit somewhat hidden.
Spatial scenes can be manually created on the lock screen and in the Photos app. There’s a new hexagonal button for this. Clicking it prompts the iPhone to calculate a 3D space for the photo, separating the background from the foreground. Moving the device in your hand then changes the perspective in the image.
Additionally, iOS 26 offers the ability to expand the lock screen wallpaper using AI. This allows the screen to be filled even with a smaller image. However, the AI-generated result is currently still very blurry and not particularly promising.
Adaptive Energy Management
One of the new AI-supported features in iOS 26 is adaptive energy management. Although Apple doesn’t explicitly bundle the feature under Apple Intelligence, only the iPhone 15 Pro and newer support intelligent battery management. Older iPhones without access to Apple Intelligence are thus left out.
When users activate the feature, the iPhone adjusts settings as needed to increase battery life. For instance, if full performance isn’t required, the iPhone limits the chip’s power budget. It also frequently adjusts screen brightness downward. The power-saving mode also activates automatically. Adaptive energy management is designed to learn from user behavior to ensure that power-saving measures are as unobtrusive as possible.
Apart from the greater power-saving potential, iOS 26 also finally shows on the lock screen how much time approximately remains until full charging.
Natural Context Menus
The Control Center on the iPhone has come a long way since its introduction. However, some interactions still feel very rigid and unnatural—a result of the fact that many functions were added much later over existing elements. For example, when you open the Bluetooth submenu, a completely new window pops up, covering everything else.
With iOS 26, this changes: Context menus no longer appear separately and out of place. The interface is more dynamic, meaning further options pop directly out of the button you just pressed. Everything feels smoother and more interconnected—like a common thread running through the operating system. A common thread that Apple seems to have lost over the past decade since the launch of iOS 7.
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More Hidden Features in iOS 26
- Warning in the Camera app when the lens is dirty.
- New quick access to reminders in the Control Center.
- In iOS 26, it’s no longer necessary to swipe directly from the edge of the screen for the back gesture. It now works from anywhere on the screen, as long as there’s no control element in the way.
- Ambient sounds are expanded with more options like “Airplane” and “Train” in iOS 26.
- CarPlay adapts better to the size and shape of the infotainment display with iOS 26.
- iOS 26 automatically reserves space for software updates, so users don’t have to free up storage to install an update.
- Apps receive AI-generated tags (such as “Music,” “Text,” “Effects”) to improve searchability in the App Store.
- Users can set custom snooze times for alarms in the Clock app.