iOS 26 settings: Is your iPhone slower after iOS 26?

After updating to iOS 26, changing the right iOS 26 settings can dramatically improve privacy, battery life, and everyday usability on your iPhone. The Liquid Glass design, Apple Intelligence features, and a wave of minor, yet significant changes create the impression that the iPhone is a new phone when it reboots, regardless of whether it is brand new or merely updated. The tour of some important settings will ensure that the new appearance, privacy controls, and AI tricks are in fact applicable to the routine rather than remaining buried in menus. The iOS 26 update makes your iPhone feel new again, but only if you tweak key settings immediately after installation. Apple’s latest iOS update focuses on practical intelligence, visual refinement, and real-world usability rather than flashy changes. Here are the iPhone settings you should change. 

iOS 26 features: Start with the lock screen

Many iOS 26 features such as Liquid Glass design, Call Screening, and Visual Intelligence are powerful but remain hidden unless users manually enable them. Liquid Glass redesign starts with Lock Screen, which has a more modern glassy appearance due to the use of translucent panels, depth effects and introduction of new fonts. Press the Lock Screen long and then customise by setting the font and colour of the clock as well as the Glass effect to make the time and the widgets form part of the background rather than being placed on a flat card.

iOS 26 Lock Screen

The iOS 26 Lock Screen introduces Spatial Scene wallpapers, adjustable clock sizes, and widgets that improve one-hand usability.Spatial Scene wallpapers transform the appropriate pictures into 3D-style lock screens which are layered and slightly move with the phone tilted to give a holographic effect without dying out the legibility. Once the wallpaper has been picked, drag the clock to resize, drag the widgets nearer to the bottom so it can be one-handly accessed, and organise the Control Centre to match the real usage of the phone.

Liquid Glass design: Refresh the Home Screen look

The Liquid Glass design in iOS 26 transforms the Lock Screen with translucent layers, depth effects, and smoother animations. The iOS 26 provides up-to-date Default icon styles of Clear, Tinted, and updated, changing the way the apps appear on the Liquid Glass background on the Home Screen. Clear icons allow wallpapers to shine fully through, making it a good match with abstract gradients, whereas Tinted provides a translucent colour wash that is exactly matched to a case or accent with the new colour picker and sliders.

iOS 26 Home Screen

With iOS 26 Home Screen customisation, users can choose Clear or Tinted icons that blend seamlessly with Liquid Glass wallpapers.Apple also allows the colour of icons to automatically match the iPhone or official case, and thus the device becomes more unified without the need to adjust the themes manually. The mix of new icon designs, more practical locations of various widgets, and Liquid Glass panels finally allows users, who disliked older and more rigid designs, to make deep-seated visual customisation feasible without third-party applications.

Try visual intelligence and screenshots

iOS 26 allows Visual Intelligence to scan not only the inputs of the camera, but any screen contents, which enables the system to identify objects, text and products on the screen. Once you have a snapshot, the tap of the screen options such as Ask or Search can fetch product information, definition or context, which are particularly useful in comparing products, saving recipe snippets or taking directions.

Most of these features are based on the Apple Intelligence that supports iPhones and operates on models on-device and private clouds to comprehend contents in a secure way. Enabling Apple Intelligence in Settings also opens these screenshot smarts in addition to other features like more sophisticated Image Playground styles and enhanced Shortcuts actions.

iOS 26 privacy settings: Turn on call screening and phone protections

Adjusting iOS 26 privacy settings like Call Screening and spam filters helps Indian users reduce robocalls and protect personal data. iOS 26 develops around the reinvented Phone app with the Call Screening feature which requires the unknown caller to identify themselves by name and purpose before the phone rings. On the one hand, this is possible as an option in the Settings - Phone - Call Screening, in order to block spam and robocalls, and listen to fewer real people and more scams.

Better spam call and voicemail filters (which can be found in the same section in Settings) also utilise the on-device intelligence of Apple, which promotes such numbers as suspicious. Together these features will lessen distraction, maintain voicemail lists cleaner, and make the Phone app more in keeping with current messaging apps that already filter unwanted contact. For iOS 26 India users, features like Live Translation and Call Screening are especially useful for multilingual communication and spam control.

Personalise messages with backgrounds and Genmoji

Messages acquires backgrounds specific to conversations that can be configured on a chat-by-chat basis, with a variety of background colours and photos as well as more dynamic Liquid Glass style backgrounds. All the backgrounds are applicable to all members of the thread, and therefore, they are suitable when planning a close friend, a family of people, or even a club where a group of people have a similar visual identity that makes conversations personal. Several Apple Intelligence features in iOS 26, including Visual Intelligence, Live Translation, and Genmoji, work on-device to maintain user privacy.

Genmoji belongs to the Apple intelligence and allows creative emoji by joining the already existing ones or explaining a face, object or mood through text. Combining emotion triggers with objects, such as "excited dog with headphones" will create a sticker with an expressive look and a one-off quality, which can capture more reactions than the fixed emoji grid.

iOS 26 India: Make Live Translation useful

Apple Intelligence features are some of the best features in iOS 26 with Live Translation being one of the features that offer real-time language translation in Messages, FaceTime, and Phone. Within a conversation, tapping the name of the contact and then tapping Automatically Translate allows the phone to translate in real-time messages going in and out between the two languages it supports (English, Mandarin, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish). For iOS 26 India users, features like Live Translation and Call Screening are especially useful for multilingual communication and spam control.

In the case of calls and FaceTime, live captions with translation can be seen to allow both parties to speak their own language and still be understood. Apple mentions that both interlocutors require devices with Apple-Intelligence capabilities to translate two-way, and a user can also translate the received texts even in case the other party has outdated hardware.

Explore the new Games App with new iPhone features

Among the new iPhone features in iOS 26, the dedicated Games app and improved Safari layout stand out. iOS 26 adds a special Games app to curate titles on the App Store and Apple Arcade content employees into a single app. In addition to basic curation, it also includes social features such as challenges and high scores shared, which provides both amateurs and serious gamers with a platform to find new games and competition with friends.

To users who game only occasionally, opening this app one time after updating presents customised suggestions without the user having to scroll through the App Store on their endlessly. Combined with the enhanced controller support and enhanced background control in iOS 26, it helps the iPhone become more of a lightweight console when required. Among the new iPhone features in iOS 26, the dedicated Games app and improved Safari layout stand out.

Tweak sounds, snooze and Safari

iOS 26 includes a larger Reflections family of ringtones and adds a new one, Little Bird, with newer tones more in line with the lighter look of Liquid Glass. More to the point, the Clock application has finally enabled its users to set personal snooze times of 1-15 minutes, which is the price to adjust alarms to various schedules. Several Apple Intelligence features in iOS 26, including Visual Intelligence, Live Translation, and Genmoji, work on-device to maintain user privacy.

Safari has also been updated with a Compact layout that conceals more interface chrome leaving more space to websites, particularly in smaller iPhones. When the former is too bare, a user may revert to top or bottom tab layouts he or she recognises under the Settings - Safari option, where everyone can choose the way of browsing that is most comfortable.

Final take

Taken together, these best iOS 26 tips ensure smoother performance, better privacy, and smarter AI usage.The iOS 26 update makes your iPhone feel new again, but only if you tweak key settings immediately after installation. These are the iPhone settings you should change first after installing iOS 26 to unlock its full potential.

Disclaimer: The information regarding the gadgets/devices listed in the table and article has been sourced from various secondary sources. For detailed product specifications, please refer to the brand sources.