It happens regularly that Apple takes a bit of the mouth in the presentation of its new operating systems in summer: the group then announces innovations that are not immediately available with the first release, but still need another months. This is usually recognizable by a footnote – or Apple is informed of the announcement. With iOS 26, too, this is now the case: a handful of expected features are not yet available in the release version that was published on Monday.
RCS: better communicate towards Android
Since iOS 18, Apple’s news app has been dominating the Rich Communication Services (RCS) for the first time. This allows you to communicate with Android devices in an impressive manner-Google has tried to take Apple to participate for years. However, important features are still missing, which only come to the devices – in addition to the iPhone also iPad and Mac – with the takeover of the RCS Universal Profile 3.0.
This includes in particular the end-to-end encryption, so that mobile phone providers can no longer look into the news. Furthermore, “real” tapback support (reactions with emojis) is planned plus in-line answers, the withdrawal of messages and their subsequent edit. Apple has not yet mentioned a specific schedule-it is to be hoped that RCS Universal Profile 3.0 will come to the devices by the end of the year via an iOS 26 update.
New Siri, satellite weather, ID card
Also not yet at the start is the context -sensitive siri, which is already announced for iOS 18, which can also read out the screen and interact with apps. According to Apple, the company’s AI department apparently loses employees every week. We expect the better siri to be released by spring 2026, but it should not really be based on LLM (dialogue).
There is also no possibility to get weather data on the device using a satellite. Corresponding Betacode has already been discovered, but the feature itself has not yet been discovered. It could still need some iOS-26 releases. Apple also provided the introduction of digital ID cards – initially in the United States. There are delays here, while driving licenses can already be integrated into the wallet. It should also take some releases here, also because the manufacturer has to clarify this with the US authorities. The hope is that you only need an iPhone at the airport to identify (“Real ID”).
Discover more from Apple News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.