iPadOS 26 Adds These Four Apple Apps to Your iPad

[MacRumors]

The upcoming iPadOS 26 update adds four pre-installed Apple apps to all compatible iPad models: Phone, Preview, Journal, and Games.

Below, we provide an overview of each of these apps.

iPadOS 26 is currently available as a developer beta, and the update will likely be released to the general public in September.

Phone

Apple has expanded the Phone app to the iPad, complete with new features coming with iOS 26, such as Hold Assist, Call Screening, and Live Translation. The app syncs with your iPhone, allowing you to make and receive phone calls over Wi-Fi, view recent phone calls, listen to voicemail messages, and more directly on your iPad.

Preview

A staple on the Mac, the Preview app is now available on the iPad too, providing you with a built-in app to edit and mark up PDFs and images. You can also create an empty page, and use an Apple Pencil to draw and write on it.

Journal

Apple introduced a Journal app on the iPhone with iOS 17, and it is now available on the iPad too. You can use this app to type out your daily thoughts, and you can include drawings, handwriting, photos, videos, audio recordings, and more.

Games

The all-new Games app on iPad, iPhone, and Mac is an all-in-one app for discovering App Store and Apple Arcade games, and in-game events. There are also new single-player game challenges for competing with family and friends.

Article Link: iPadOS 26 Adds These Four Apple Apps to Your iPad

 

[ss2cire]

The phone app has been a long time coming. That one is much appreciated.
Journaling, that's nice but I don't really do it... but helpful for people who utilize multiple devices and like to do that.
Preview is a good one too. Glad this is finally a thing.
The games app, I guess is ok, I game more on my iPhone than I do on iPad but still nice to see.

 

[Frosties]

Nice update. If we instead could get a full phone app then we finally could match the Apple Watch to an iPad instead of being hand cuffed to an iPhone. I already make phone calls with Siri on the iPad through the iPhone. Any way.😏

 

[Apple Mac Daz]

Does the phone app work over 4G / 5G if your in different locations

 

[jclardy]

Phone app took way too long. Preview is a huge upgrade, I use preview every day on mac just for cropping images. The others are nice to have. Overall, iPadOS 26 is a great update, though I really hope they dial back the "simplification" of the "simple" iPad mode (The non-freeform window mode) as removing split view and slide over from that mode makes the tablet mode of iPad kind of worse in many ways...

 

[jz0309]

phone app and preview are nice additions, hope I can uninstall the others as I don't use those.

 

[Baywatchboy]

Phone app on my iPad? My iPad is my getaway from my phone. That app will be deleted quickly.

 

[BelgianChoklit]

I'm very happy with Preview considering the best PDF editing apps are all overpriced subscriptions. The h*ll with them.

 

[patjem]

I use the Files app quite often to go through pictures in a folder. It's easy going to the next photo and find what I'm looking for. Now with the new Preview app it opens that one and I haven't found a way to easily go to the next picture to get a preview. Has anyone experienced the same?

 

[shornby]

I use the Files app quite often to go through pictures in a folder. It's easy going to the next photo and find what I'm looking for. Now with the new Preview app it opens that one and I haven't found a way to easily go to the next picture to get a preview. Has anyone experienced the same?

iPhone and iPad have never done file type associations well, if at all. This is just annoying.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

So with the phone app on an iPad mini you can finally have a iPhone 26 SD (superduper)

Or, even better, a large iPad Pro as a iPhone 26 SDUM! (Superduper ultramax, off course). Wouldn’t that look cool on your ear walking down the street?!

 

[AppliedMicro]

hope I can uninstall the others as I don't use those.

Regulation that “stinks” allows you to do so.

 

[johnnytravels]

Does the Preview app still destroy PDFs that have been processed with Adobe ClearScan?
On the Mac it still does.

Background: ClearScan is OCR tech that creates custom fonts and embeds them in the PDF. Preview treats them as a text layer underneath the image, renders the image and replaces the embedded fonts with standard system fonts.
The result is a completely garbled OCR text layer that cannot be restored.

Apps like PDF Expert and the Nutrient PDF Viewer do not suffer from this as they run on their own engines which respect the Adobe PDF standard.

 

[Reimulo]

With the Phone App available, is the iPad mini now the new iPhone Pro Max Ultra?

 

[emulajavi]

Does the Phone app in Cellular iPad lets you make calls without a near iPhone?

 

[Baritone_Guy]

Does the phone app work over 4G / 5G if your in different locations

Does the Phone app in Cellular iPad lets you make calls without a near iPhone?

No. The article mentions the WiFi limitation that exists today.

 

[montuori]

Or, even better, a large iPad Pro as a iPhone 26 SDUM! (Superduper ultramax, off course). Wouldn’t that look cool on your ear walking down the street?!

Requisite Trigger Happy TV link:

 

[Seoras]

Preview on iPad means I can now sign my PDF documents with my Apple Pencil.

However, I just installed Beta 2 on my iPad Pro and the file selector pop up is covering the "Preview" window and something else behind it. I can't close the file selector to see what it says under "Preview" title. Too soon, too buggy...?

 

[baconcat_8964]

Does the Phone app in Cellular iPad lets you make calls without a near iPhone?

No. Cellular iPads are still be registered as 5G Data Device, not a mobile phone. It only provides mobile data, without SMS/RCS/voice call support.

 

[mandrake2016]

Have they fixed the plethora of broken keyboard shortcuts at random times/places and various basic UI issues like STILL, in 2025, places on the device where the OS allows something to stop copy/paste?

 

[Dr McKay]

Regulation that “stinks” allows you to do so.

Oooooooh busted! I often wonder if the same people complaining about certain things are the same people that praise them when it’s convenient. Like, the people telling you to switch to android if you wished iOS had a certain feature, do they suddenly use that feature when Apple implements it? Or do they stick to their guns?

 

[O.N.Y.X]

At last some actually useful features among all this useless Apple Intelligence nonsense….

 

[svish]

Very happy to see Phone app along with the Preview app. Will be nice if Apple allows making phone calls on iPad models with sim card/e-sim without depending on iPhone. Hopefully Apple will allow it at least in iPadOS 27

 

[Sandstorm]

No. Cellular iPads are still be registered as 5G Data Device, not a mobile phone. It only provides mobile data, without SMS/RCS/voice call support.

I wonder if this could be enabled — is it a technical limitation or just a software/registration restriction? If it’s not possible on current iPads, I hope future models could support proper standalone phone functionality.

 

[djplong]

Not a bad batch of addition.

I can see Preview being VERY useful for those who already use the Files app (or that this would encourage them to do so.

Phone is a "why has it taken so long?" app

Journal should have been co-released with iOS - but that's one I'll make more use of.

Games? Well, that could cut down on the number of Games folders I have (not wanting to take up PAGES of screens for a couple dozen games - so I used folders to cut that down a bit).