The Phone App Is Smarter Than Ever

The Phone app is one of the biggest winners this year, and these improvements fix long-term frustrations that every iPhone user (and pretty much every adult) has experienced.

Call Screening is the standout change. When someone who isn’t in your contacts calls, your iPhone can answer on your behalf, ask the caller to identify themselves, and show you a live transcript. You can decide whether it’s worth picking up, which is extremely helpful for dealing with spam calls, scams, or other unknown numbers.

Hold Assist might be even better. If you’ve ever sat on hold with customer service listening to the same boring song for almost an hour, you know how miserable that is. In iOS 26, your iPhone can wait on hold for you. When a real person finally answers, your phone notifies you so you can jump back into the call. You don’t have to stay glued to your screen or listen for your name while cooking or working.

All of these changes are life and time-savers. And if you’ve ever dealt with these types of calls, installing iOS 26 will be a huge win.