iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 Launch in India: An In-Depth Look at Apple’s Latest OS Revolution

Introduction: A Game-Changing Release for iPhones and iPads in India

On September 16, 2025, Apple officially rolled out iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 in India, marking one of the most significant updates to its mobile operating systems in over a decade. Unveiled first at WWDC in June and honed through months of vigorous beta testing, these updates introduce not just a fresh design language—Liquid Glass—but also a comprehensive suite of features powered by Apple Intelligence, deep privacy enhancements, and performance refinements. For Indian users, this release signals a bold new era for iPhone and iPad, with a focus on aesthetics, seamless functionality, and regionally relevant experiences.

Let’s explore what’s new, which devices are included, the mechanics of updating, and how these OS upgrades fundamentally shift the user experience in India.

Release Timing and Rollout: When and How to Get iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 in India

Apple’s global software rollouts traditionally begin at 10 a.m. Pacific Time, which in India equates to 10:30 p.m. IST. On September 16, 2025, millions of Indian users began receiving notifications for the iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 updates2. The download sizes vary by device and prior OS version, ranging from approximately 6GB on older iPhones to nearly 15GB on recent Pro models.

How to Get the Update:

Go to Settings > General > Software Update on your iPhone or iPad.
Tap ‘Download and Install’ and follow onscreen prompts.
Make sure your device is backed up (via iCloud or Finder), connect to Wi-Fi, and ensure 50%+ battery or plug in to charge.
Expect 30–60 minutes for the installation to complete; the process may be longer on older devices or slower connections46.

Indian users should note that Apple stages rollouts, so if the update isn’t immediately visible, check back periodically through the night. This OS release coincides with the iPhone 17 series launch, with the latest hardware shipping with iOS 26 by default.

Eligibility: Which iPhones and iPads Get iOS 26 and iPadOS 26?

Apple’s compatibility criteria for iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 center on the device’s chipset. Only iPhones with the A13 Bionic or newer, and iPads released from late 2019 onwards, are included. Notably, the iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR (all from 2018) are now excluded from major updates, ending years of support8103. Below is a summarized eligibility table.

Eligible iPhones and iPads for iOS 26 and iPadOS 26

iOS 26: Supported iPhones	iPadOS 26: Supported iPads
iPhone 11 / 11 Pro / 11 Pro Max	iPad Pro 12.9″ (3rd gen and newer)
iPhone SE (2nd & 3rd generation)	iPad Pro 11″ (1st gen and newer)
iPhone 12 / 12 mini / 12 Pro / 12 Pro Max	iPad Air (3rd gen and newer, including M2 and M3)
iPhone 13 / 13 mini / 13 Pro / 13 Pro Max	iPad (8th gen and newer, including A16)
iPhone 14 / 14 Plus / 14 Pro / 14 Pro Max	iPad mini (5th gen and newer, including A17 Pro)
iPhone 15 / 15 Plus / 15 Pro / 15 Pro Max	iPad Pro (M4), iPad Air (M2 / M3), iPad mini (A17 Pro)
iPhone 16e / 16 / 16 Plus / 16 Pro / 16 Pro Max	—
iPhone 17 / 17 Air / 17 Pro / 17 Pro Max*	—

\*iPhone 17 series and iPad Pro M4 require iOS 26/iPadOS 26 and ship with it pre-installed.

Only iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 16 series, iPhone 17 series, and certain M-series iPads support all Apple Intelligence features101113.

Liquid Glass UI: The Most Ambitious Redesign Since iOS 7

What Is Liquid Glass?

Liquid Glass is Apple’s new visual language—a translucent, tactile UI that aims to bridge minimalism and materiality. Inspired by visionOS and macOS concepts like “glassmorphism,” Liquid Glass overlays soft blurs, curved surfaces, and depth cues throughout the OS interface15. This overhaul applies to Lock Screen, Home Screen, apps, widgets, notifications, and controls, unifying the look and feel across iPhone, iPad, and Mac for the first time.

Key UI Attributes and Innovations

Translucent Layers: Menus, buttons, notifications, and dock now appear as frosted glass, dynamically reflecting light and blending with wallpaper and app backgrounds.
3D Depth & Motion: Widgets and app icons show subtle layering or floating animation; the Lock Screen clock and elements adaptively float over photo subjects with striking 3D effects.
Dynamic Color & Tint: Buttons and bars auto-tint as you scroll. Color bleeds and real-time reflection create responsive immersion.
Adaptive Time: The Lock Screen clock is no longer fixed and adapts font, size, and layout to your chosen wallpaper and widgets, offering both clear reading and expressive visuals.
Clear and Tint Modes: Home screen icons can be set to an all-glass look or color-tinted variants, letting users accentuate or minimize UI elements.
Context-Aware Navigation: Toolbars, tab bars, and sidebars shrink and fade when content scrolled, enabling unobtrusive interfaces and focus on user content14.
Spatial Scenes: Select photos set as wallpaper gain spatial 3D motion with device tilting—no special camera needed—using on-device AI for depth mapping.

Reception and Impact

While many designers have praised the polish and cohesion, some users cite occasional legibility issues, especially against intricate wallpapers. Apple continues to refine the effect, with betas having adjusted opacity for Control Center and navigation elements, aiming for balance between wow-factor and day-to-day usability14. However, even skeptics note it’s Apple’s most thoughtful blend of style and substance since its jump from skeuomorphism to flat design in 2013.

iPadOS 26: Liquid Glass at Scale

The effect is even more pronounced on iPad, where larger screens amplify the sense of depth and layering, and extended to elements like the new menu bar, resizable window borders, and the revamped multitasking system20.

Apple Intelligence: AI Features, Visual Intelligence, and Developer APIs

Overview

iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 deliver Apple Intelligence—a package of AI capabilities powered mainly by on-device machine learning, with privacy at the core. These tools extend across communication, media, system intelligence, and can be integrated by third-party apps through standard APIs2224.

Important: Apple Intelligence requires iPhone 15 Pro, 16, 17, or M-series iPads. Core features are available to all, but advanced AI is hardware-dependent911.

Flagship Apple Intelligence Enhancements

Live Translation: Integrated in Messages, Phone, FaceTime, and AirPods. Enables real-time, bi-directional translation of text and speech, even for group chats or on calls. Language packs are downloaded (~900 MB) for offline privacy25.
Visual Intelligence: Users can select or screenshot content and ask ChatGPT to summarize, explain, or search using Google or supported apps. It works for identifying objects in images, parsing receipts, or adding detected events to Calendar.
Genmoji and Image Playground: Not just static emoji—users can mix and match emojis, create new ones via text description, or customize attributes to look like friends/family. Image Playground offers generative art powered by ChatGPT with styles like Anime, Oil Painting, Watercolor, etc..
Adaptive Power: AI-driven battery management that automatically tweaks background processes to stretch battery life, especially during heavy use or low power situations—delivering subtle savings over aggressive Low Power Mode. Available on iPhone 15 Pro/Max, 16, 17.
Call Screening and Hold Assist: Instantly screen unknown callers (they must state their name and reason before your phone rings), while Hold Assist allows your phone to wait on hold for you with automated callbacks25.
Intelligent Shortcuts & Developer APIs: New shortcut actions allow automations for summarizing, creating images, or responding using Apple’s LLM or ChatGPT. 3rd-party developers get access to on-device AI via Foundation Models, bringing private, offline LLM features to their apps28.
Game and App Features: Personalized recommendations in the new Apple Games app, and AI-powered order tracking in Wallet, using on-device processing to scan for e-commerce receipts across your email inbox24.

AI Developer APIs

Apps can hook directly into Apple Intelligence’s on-device language and vision models, offering summarized content, recommendations, prediction, and advanced search—all privacy-protected. New privacy frameworks allow apps to request parental consent for age-ranges, comply with global laws, and more27.

Core iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 Features: What’s New for Everyday Use?

Enhanced Core Apps and System Experiences

Messages

Custom Backgrounds: Personalize chats with dynamic, photo, or AI-generated backgrounds synchronized across the conversation.
Group Polls: Create polls natively and get voting results in real-time, with AI suggesting polls when relevant.
Live Translation: Translate messages as they come in or go out. Multilingual family and friend groups benefit seamlessly.
Typing Indicators and Add Contact Button: See which participants are about to reply in group chats; quickly add new contacts from within conversations.
Spam/Unknown Message Filtering: By default, unknown and potential spam messages are auto-sorted into a dedicated folder, reducing inbox clutter, and minimizing scams2.
Apple Cash Integration: Send or receive money in group chats north of the official Indian Apple Wallet/UPI rollout.

Phone

Unified Favorites, Recents, Voicemail: All in one screen for better call management.
Call Screening and Hold Assist as detailed above.

Camera and Photos

Simpler Camera App: Now focused on just ‘Photo’ and ‘Video,’ with most other features just a swipe or tap away.
Lens Smudge Alerts: Newer iPhones can alert you if the camera lens is dirty.
Spatial Scenes in Wallpaper and Photos: All devices running iOS 26/iPadOS 26 gain access to spatial 3D photo effects for wallpapers and eligible photos.
Cleaner Photos App: Library and Collections split for intuitive navigation; customizable albums.

Apple Music

AutoMix: DJ-style, seamless transitions between songs, time-stretching, and beat-matching for continuous playback.
Live Lyrics Translation: On-the-fly translation of lyrics, singalong synchronously across languages.
Animated Album Art: Album art is now full-screen and dynamic on supported tracks, making playback more immersive.

Maps

Visited Places: Apple Maps now tracks and tags the places you visit, so you can easily recall favorites or share with friends.
Preferred Routes: The map learns and adapts to your personal driving or commute patterns, optimizing suggestions.

Apple Wallet

Order Tracking (Beta): AI in Wallet pulls receipts, tracking numbers, and status updates directly from your emails.
More Boarding Pass Info: For international travelers, boarding passes now offer real-time refresh on delays, gate changes, and fast links to airline apps.

Gaming

Apple Games App: All-in-one destination for your game library, friends’ activity, score tracking, and achievement highlights, with personalized recommendations and Apple Arcade integration.

Lock Screen and Customization

Adaptive Time: Lock Screen clock resizes and shifts automatically based on wallpaper and widgets.
Spatial Scenes: Add a 3D effect to photo wallpapers so they subtly move with device motion.
Icon Customization: Home screen icons can be set to clear glass, color tint, light, or dark, furthering personalization17.

Performance and Battery Optimizations

Faster App Launches: Up to 30% faster on the latest chips; background refreshes are now more intelligent.
Adaptive Power: As outlined above, extends battery without user input.

Security and Privacy

Safari Protections: Default-on fingerprinting safeguards, link-tracking removal (including UTM and ad IDs), more robust against browser-based surveillance.
On-Device AI: Apple’s LLM runs locally whenever possible. Cloud fallback is privacy-preserving, with no personal data stored.
Expanded Parental Controls: Parents now get more granular age range restrictions, forced approvals for unknown contacts, and face/NSFW detection even in FaceTime27.

iPadOS 26: The iPad Grows Up

The iPad finally crosses a major usability milestone with iPadOS 26:

True Windowing: Freely resize, tile, or stack windows; window positions/arrangements are remembered for continuity; more akin to Mac than previous Split View/Stage Manager modes1911.
Menu Bar: Swipe down from the top or hover with pointer to get all app commands, always in the same place.
Preview App: At last! Mark up, sign, and edit PDFs directly on iPad, with Apple Pencil markup.
Background Tasks and Live Activities: Exporting a video, downloading large files, or any long task now shows progress in a persistent overlay while you keep working.
Revamped Files App: Customizable folders, collapsible sidebar navigation, easy drag-n-drop, assign default apps per filetype.
Journal App: Dedicated journaling, with handwriting, maps, photo import, and daily prompt just like the iPhone.
Audio Tools and Local Capture: Flexible multi-input recording, select mic per app, record podcasts or music with full control.
Calculator and Math Notes: Write equations, see 3D interactive graphs, supports Apple Pencil.
Game Overlay: Chat with friends, adjust system settings, or take calls—without ever leaving your game.

On top of that, all the enhanced Messages, Safari, Apple Intelligence, and Liquid Glass features carry over for a truly unified experience.

Installation and Update Process: Step-by-Step

Back Up: Use iCloud or connect your device to a Mac/PC with Finder or iTunes. Encrypt the backup for health data.
Free Up Space: At least 6GB (up to 15GB recommended). Remove unwanted apps/photos if needed.
Connect to Wi-Fi and Power: Plug in or ensure a 50%+ battery.
Download Update: Go to Settings > General > Software Update. Wait for iOS 26/iPadOS 26 to appear. Tap Download & Install.
Authenticate: Enter passcode and agree to terms.
Install: Wait for device to reboot and finish the update. The process can take up to an hour on older models.
Post-Update: The device completes background setup and may feel warm and offer shorter battery life for a day or so as it indexes files and apps.

Notable Regional and India-Specific Enhancements

While Apple has not announced exclusive India-only features in iOS 26, localization and region-specific support remain robust:

Extensive Language Support: AI-powered Live Translation now supports Indian English and is expected to expand to more Indian languages in the coming year.
Maps Improvements: Apple’s expansion of Maps accuracy and POIs in India is ongoing, enhancing the value of “Visited Places” and sharing features.
Apple Wallet: While not yet UPI-integrated in India, Apple continues to enhance Wallet’s capabilities for tracking flights, loyalty cards, and international travel.
Accessibility: Expanded language packs and optimized voice input benefit users across India’s multilingual population.

Security and Privacy: Major Improvements

iOS 26 reinforces Apple’s privacy-first reputation:

On-device processing: Apple Intelligence never sends content to external servers unless absolutely needed, and fallback cloud requests are run on verifiable private compute clusters with no personal storage23.
Browser Tracking: Safari removes ad click tracking parameters (UTM, gclid, fbclid, etc.) from URLs in Private and regular browsing, Messages, and Mail.
Age Verification APIs: For apps in regulated sectors (finance, social, etc.), new APIs let users share only a verified age range (e.g., 13–15) to comply with evolving Indian and global child protection laws, all without storing DOB externally.
App Store Nutrition Labels for Accessibility: Users now see upfront if an app supports accessibility features like VoiceOver, Braille, or Captions before download.
Communication Limits and Safety: Expanded limits let parents restrict communication by age, contacts, or time of day, with nudity detection in live FaceTime and blurred images for children.

Developer APIs and Third-Party App Support: A New Era

For developers, iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 represent a leap forward:

Foundation Models & Visual Intelligence: Third-party apps can implement summarization, translation, and generative media using onboard AI—no cloud needed.
Xcode 26: Integrates Apple’s AI assistant (based on ChatGPT) for code generation, testing, and debugging; performance enhancements shorten build times; new “Icon Composer” assists in building adaptive app icons29.
SwiftUI 5.0: More adaptive layouts, advanced gesture and animation support, easier localization, new APIs for game overlays and 3D graphing.
Background Task APIs: Apps can now keep working on long audio, video, or export jobs even in the background.
Metal 4 and Game Porting Toolkit 3: Real-time ray tracing and expanded game development capabilities aim to grow India’s already-booming mobile gaming industry.

Performance, Battery, and User Experience: Calm, Cohesive, and Fast

Multiple reviewers and testers describe iOS 26 as providing “calm and coherence”: transitions are smoother, animations subtler, and interface chrome melts away when reading or working, resurging only when needed26.

Performance Highlights:

App launches are faster, especially on the latest A18/A19 and M4 chips.
Battery life is preserved via Adaptive Power, now active and learning on mid-range and high-end devices.
Fewer micro-hesitations, especially among users leveraging Reduce Motion and high-contrast accessibility toggles.
After-update battery drain is normal for the first few days, as the OS finishes background indexing and optimizations before settling back to prior (or better) battery life.