iOS 26.3 Arrives with Android Switching, Cellular Privacy, and More
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It’s becoming easier to see why Apple chose to unify its OS version numbers across all of its products last year. This week, we saw the release of its latest updates for the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and more, and it’s nice to be able to just refer to them as “OS 26.3” updates rather than having to spell out half a dozen different version numbers.
Of course, the individual operating systems still have unique names: iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS (not to mention the “HomePod Software,” which was also updated this week), but at least the numbering is all the same. However, now that we’re into the third point release, that unified feel may be one of the most exciting things about it.
That’s not to say that iOS 26.3 et al don’t have some new features, but we’ve begun to enter niche territory. As we saw from the first beta in December, the latest update is more about complying with regulatory agencies — particularly in the European Union — with some side benefits for the rest of us.
What’s New in iOS 26.3 and the Gang
One of the biggest additions in iOS 26.3 is iPhone-Android Transfer, which offers a much smoother way to hop between platforms than the clunky tools of the past. That’s a nice bonus for anyone who is thinking of leaving or joining Apple’s smartphone ecosystem, but it won’t mean much to the contented fans like us. Still, if you’re thinking of leaving, you can find Transfer to Android under Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone.
Google released a corresponding feature in an Android update last year, although it’s currently limited to Samsung Galaxy and its own Pixel devices. The feature relies on a complementary high-bandwidth Wi-Fi “handshake” between the two devices that Apple and Google co-developed to accomplish the transfer. Those moving from Android to iPhone will initiate the transfer from that end, but the new iPhone will still need to be running iOS 26.3 to cooperate.
This is something both companies are clearly doing to comply with Europe’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), but it’s good to see that Apple isn’t locking it down to only that region. Still, not everything will be transferred due to compatibility and security reasons. For example, Health data is out, as are protected items like locked notes and journal entries.
Some of the other features seen in the iOS 26.3 betas related to DMA compliance may have been either pushed off or restricted to the EU, such as Notification Forwarding and Proximity Pairing. These are intended to put third-party smartwatches on a level playing field with the Apple Watch. The options appeared globally in the iOS 26.3 betas, but it’s possible they’ve been gated to EU users in the final release.
The other changes in iOS 26.3 are smaller or even more niche. The most notable of these is Offline Lyrics in Apple Music, a minor but handy change for folks who regularly listen off the grid.
There are also three new Weather wallpapers for the Lock Screen, which now get their own section distinct from Astronomy. These aren’t so much new wallpapers as new layouts, with different pre-set widget arrangements to help users get started.
Lastly, there’s a very promising carrier tracking privacy feature that Apple quietly announced last month that would help prevent mobile network operators from determining your precise location over the cellular network. It’s a fantastic privacy play — and undoubtedly a sign of things to come — but for now, it’s exclusive to devices sporting Apple’s custom C-series modem chips: the iPhone Air, iPhone 16e, and M5 iPad Pro.
That’s somewhat understandable as this likely requires some magic that Apple has baked into its own silicon, but even if you were seduced by the ultra-sleek iPhone Air last year, you’ll also have to be on one of the six carriers that support it: Germany’s Telekom, EE or BT in the UK, Boost Mobile in the US, or Thailand’s AIS and True. Other carriers will undoubtedly come on board, and we’ve heard reports that both Verizon and T-Mobile are trialing it, but there’s no word on when we’ll see this launch.
If you meet this rather narrow list of requirements, you’ll find the Limit Precise Location setting under Cellular > Cellular Data Options and your specific SIM (if you have more than one) in the Settings app. You may also need to restart your device to enable it.
For the rest of Apple’s OS 26.3 updates, iPadOS inherits some of the same changes from iOS 26.3, while macOS, watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS are devoid of any notable new features, with release notes listing only the usual bug fixes, performance improvements, and security updates.
Security: The Real Reason to Update
Don’t be too quick to gloss over those last two words in the release notes. Security Updates are often the main reason to update to the latest OS releases, and that gets more important every year as cybercrooks look for new ways to separate you from your money or even your very identity.
We’ve said this before, but it bears repeating: Nearly every new OS update includes security fixes that are published online. That’s responsible software engineering, but it also means that if there were any vulnerabilities in iOS 26.2 and the rest that hackers and criminals hadn’t discovered, that ship has now sailed; Apple has just provided a complete laundry list of what to look for, and you can bet all the bad actors are now hard at work on finding ways to exploit devices for those who haven’t updated.
This isn’t a scare tactic; merely a reality. While Apple’s operating systems aren’t nearly as vulnerable as Windows, I recently had a family member who stayed on Windows 10 a little bit too long after it reached end-of-life. It took only one day after a Windows 11 security patch came out for his computer to become infected by kernel-level malware. Hackers were able to exploit a vulnerability published in the Windows 11 release notes because Windows 10 also shares most of the same kernel code — and the seedy developers who create malware were clearly looking for the first opportunity to take advantage of that.
Apple just published a list of 37 security vulnerabilities fixed in iOS 26.3 and iPadOS 26.3. These are all things that devices running iOS 26.2.1 or earlier are still vulnerable to, and three of them exist as the kernel level, meaning a hacker that finds a way to exploit them could gain full access to everything on your iPhone and iPad, or at least all the information that passes through it. There’s also a vulnerability where a person with direct access to an iOS device might be able to access photos from the lock screen — a good reminder that physical security is just as important as digital security.
To be clear, Apple doesn’t publish a specific guide on how to exploit these security flaws. That would obviously be very irresponsible and put its customers at risk. However, for transparency, it has to admit they exist — and credit the researchers who helped to discover them — which gives bad actors an idea of where to start looking for new ways to break into your iPhone.
Digital security will always be a cat-and-mouse game, and there will undoubtedly be more flaws discovered in OS 26.3 and fixed in a future OS update, and onward ad infinitum. However, undiscovered and undisclosed flaws are far less dangerous, and Apple and other security researchers do the best they can to stay ahead of the dark side of the internet and ensure as many of these are patched as possible before they can cause any harm.
