The Best iOS 26 Features Will Require at Least an iPhone 15 Pro

It was a big week for Apple as it showed off all its upcoming software releases. While Monday’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) wasn’t as action-packed as many had hoped, it signaled a refreshing return to a less complicated, more focused Apple.

There were no extraneous hardware announcements or hyping of AI features to muddy the waters; this year, WWDC is all about Apple’s core competencies. Apple unified its entire operating system lineup in two very significant ways: first, by simply aligning all the version numbers to match the major release year, and second, with a radical new redesign of all of them into a new Liquid Glass motif.

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Still, there’s more to Apple’s software updates than just a fresh coat of paint, and as usual, the iPhone will receive the lion’s share of the new features with iOS 26. However, Apple is also drawing a pretty firm line this year on which iPhone models will be able to take advantage of all the new goodies.

We can thank Apple Intelligence for this; even though it wasn’t a core aspect of this year’s WWDC keynote, its influence was felt throughout. Many of the new iOS 26 features are heavily reliant on AI, which means you’ll need an AI-capable device to take advantage of them.

As with the initial release of Apple Intelligence in iOS 18, that means an iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, or any iPhone 16 model. Only these have the memory capacity and sufficiently powerful A-series chips to handle the necessary AI processing.

The good news is that this doesn’t rule out everything Apple announced. For example, Liquid Glass will be available on all iPhone models that support iOS 26 — the iPhone 11 and later — as will other related design changes such as the simplified Camera app, new FaceTime landing page, unified layout in the Phone app, backgrounds and polls in Messages, and new Apple Pay, Digital ID, and boarding pass features in Apple Wallet.

At least one other feature, the more vibrant Lock Screen with a 3D photo effect, will require an iPhone 12. Others, such as call screening and hold assist, will be available on all iPhone models but only in specific languages. However, several other significant features will require at least an iPhone 15 Pro.

Here’s a rundown of all the features Apple announced in iOS 26 and what you’ll need to use them:

iOS 26 Features that Require an iPhone 15 Pro or Later

1. Visual Intelligence for Screenshots. Apple introduced Visual Intelligence in iOS 18.2 as an iPhone 16-exclusive feature since it relied on the Camera Control for activation. It only later extended that to the Action button with the iPhone 16e, bringing it to the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max in iOS 18.4. Since Visual Intelligence is part of Apple Intelligence, it’s no surprise that you’ll need an Apple Intelligence-capable device to handle it, even if you’re only querying screenshots. We’re not convinced that’s genuinely a hardware limitation since Visual Intelligence mostly leans on ChatGPT and Google searches, but there may be some on-device processing involved, too.
2. Live Translation. Apple’s new real-time Live Translation features understandably require powerful chips as the translation is handled entirely on-device. It’s an Apple Intelligence-powered feature, but there’s another wrinkle since languages are involved here. Live Translation in Messages is available in Simplified Chinese, US and UK English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Brazilian Portuguese, and Spanish; Live Translation in Phone and FaceTime is available only for one-on-one calls in US and UK English, French, German, Brazilian Portuguese, and Spanish.
3. More Powerful Shortcuts. iOS 26 will let you incorporate Apple Intelligence into your Shortcuts, even asking them to query Apple’s Private Cloud Compute servers directly. However, that doesn’t mean older iPhone models will gain the ability to talk to those servers.
4. Genmoji and Image Playground. These features have been limited to Apple Intelligence-capable iPhone models from the start, and even though Apple is adding ChatGPT to Image Playground with five new styles (Anime, Oil Painting, Print, Vector, and Watercolor), it’s not expanding this to older models, any more than it did with Siri and ChatGPT integration last year.
5. Reminders Suggestions and Auto-Categorization. Apple is enhancing its Reminders app in iOS 26 to let it suggest tasks, grocery items, and follow-up reminders based on emails and other text. It can also auto-categorize reminders into sections, similar to what it already does with grocery lists. However, while it’s easy to map groceries into specific aisles, more sophisticated auto-categorization and suggested reminders require the AI powers of Apple Intelligence.
6. Apple Wallet Order Tracking. Apple added built-in order tracking to the Wallet app a few years ago, but it only worked if specific companies supported it. iOS 26 will enhance this by using Apple Intelligence to scan tracking details from emails in the Mail app, turning the order tracking section into a more versatile dashboard for everything that’s coming your way.
7. Background Creation and Poll Suggestions in Messages. While all iPhones that can run iOS 26 will be able to use backgrounds and manually create polls, only those with Apple Intelligence can create AI-generated backgrounds and take advantage of suggested polls.
   

iOS 26 Features Limited to Specific Languages

Some iOS 26 features will be available on all iPhone models but only in specific languages and regions:

1. Visited Places in Maps is the surprising one, as it seems like something that should work anywhere since all it does is remember places you’ve visited and let you browse and search through them. However, it will only be available in Australia, Canada, Malaysia, Switzerland, the UK, and the US, which is a somewhat odd list. The usual four we can understand, but Malaysia and Switzerland are outliers for getting new Apple features before anyone else.
2. Hold Assist, which detects hold music and takes over the call so you can move on to other things, will only be available in English, French, German, Japanese, mainland Mandarin Chinese, Brazilian Portuguese, and Spanish.
3. Call Screening, which will answer calls on your behalf to filter out telemarketers and other unwanted callers, will be available in Cantonese, English, French, Canadian French, German, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Brazilian Portuguese, and Spanish.
4. Lyrics Translation in Apple Music surprisingly won’t require an Apple Intelligence-capable iPhone. That’s because there’s no real-time translation going on here. Instead, Apple says it’s only “available for select songs” in a handful of languages: English to simplified Chinese, English to Japanese, Korean to simplified Chinese, Korean to English, Korean to Japanese, and Spanish to English.
5. Digital IDs in Wallet: No surprise, this is still mainly limited to the US. Apple announced support for US passports in iOS 26, which can be used at TSA checkpoints and as a form of digital identification anywhere else that digital IDs are accepted. However, you’ll still need to carry your physical passport with you when traveling.