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iOS 26: New Messages and Phone App Features Leaked Ahead of WWDC

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Apple is planning to announce several new features for the Messages and Phone apps on iOS 26, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.

General-Apps-Messages-Redux.jpg

In a lengthy report outlining his WWDC 2025 expectations today, Gurman said that the two main changes in the Messages app will be the ability to create polls, as well as the option to set a background image within a conversation.

9to5Mac was first to report that the Messages app would be gaining polls, allowing users to vote on questions and topics. It is a feature that has long existed in other popular messaging apps, such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Telegram.

Background images would add a personalized flair to conversations, and Gurman said that the images will automatically sync across Apple devices.

The new Messages features should extend to iPadOS 26 and macOS 26.

For the Phone app, Gurman said that iOS 26 will introduce a new view that combines favorite contacts, recent calls, and voicemails into a single, scrollable window. He said this new design will be optional, with users able to revert to the legacy interface.

iOS 26 and other software updates will be announced during Apple's WWDC 2025 keynote, which begins on Monday, June 9 at 10 a.m. Pacific Time.

Article Link: iOS 26: New Messages and Phone App Features Leaked Ahead of WWDC
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2025/06/06/ios-26-messages-and-phone-features/
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Wow wallpapers at last. And it will probably take Apple another 5 years from here to adapt them to light and dark mode.

I want a damn DELETE ALL or SELECT ALL button to mass delete iMessage attachments. It's currently such a pain in the A and one of the reasons I went back to WhatsApp.

One time viewing of photos would also by nice. I don't need every food picture or screenshot saved forever
 
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All I want for messages is to not be kicked back to the conversation view when you’re looking at an attachment and then switch apps.

Also, exportable conversations and better managing of storage would be nice. All of my top conversations (everything else is under 500mb) total 50gb, but iMessages uses 185gb in iCloud for me. Theres a ton of storage unaccounted for. Reviewing large attachments is marginal.

Also, sometimes messages searching will break completely and omit recent messages.

… So I guess I have a few complaints. Polls, though!
 
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MacRumors said:
For the Phone app, Gurman said that iOS 26 will introduce a new view that combines favorite contacts, recent calls, and voicemails into a single, scrollable window. He said this new design will be optional, with users able to revert to the legacy interface.
Click to expand...
This has potential to be a nice feature, IF Apple can organize it. But if it's anything like Apple's "notifications," I'm not holding out much hope.
 
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sw1tcher said:
Looking forward to someone picking a background image that makes reading the text difficult
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Why would it when currently texts are shown with either blue bubbles or green bubbles? The image would be behind both of those types so the picture choice wouldn't matter
 
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julesme said:
“He said this new design will be optional”

Probably a smart move. 🤣
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Apple is so unsure of itself lately that every new feature is made optional.

The new iPhone will have two fully functional modem chips. The Apple C2, but it's optional and you can switch it off and let the Qualcomm chip be in charge if the C2 fails to do the job.

Too bad that Tim is still in charge. When is he retiring or being ousted, does anyone know?
 
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iMessage needs a way to re-name yourself within a group chat.

I was just on a weekend guys trip. We had 8 people in a group chat, 4 of which I didn't have their numbers. Every time they texted, I had no idea who it was. I saved one of them, but the others I probably won't see for another 5 years, why do I need to add them as a contact?

There should be the ability to type your name in the group chat -- add emojis, nicknames, whatever. Similar to how you can re-name the group itself.

I shouldn't have to save everyone's number in order to get their name.
 
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julesme said:
“He said this new design will be optional”

Probably a smart move. 🤣
Click to expand...
I just thought maybe most things actually changing the layout of things might be optional.
They’ve tried thinks in the past, Safari, Calendar, now Photos. And the first impressions were often mostly negative.
If they change everybody’s parents phone without a way to revert back them and their children won’t be happy.
 
nfl46 said:
It’s funny you mentioned that. I have some text messages threads I want to keep but not delete. I’d love to archive them so they don’t show in the normal text message screen.

Press the Edit button then choose Archive.
Click to expand...

Trausner said:
Can’t wait for when in 5 years iMessage will gain an Archive feature…
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I've been saying this for YEARS. It's crazy this isn't a feature. In 2025 we just have an endless scroll of conversations in one folder. I have messages from years ago I don't want to erase but don't need in my full convo "inbox".

Also, it's just as bad when you erase a contact in your phone, but still have the text thread, now you don't know who it is anymore. The name should remain, not default back to the phone number.
 
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You know what could be a awesome new unique feature for messages? a consistent UI for it. Want to send an audio message? bring up a menu style not used anywhere else within the operating system... also make it oddly large so typically have to scroll.. this desperately needs to be implemented OS wide or replaced completely.

Categorising Texts. Using their pretty useless AI to sort by Personal, 2fa, companies, spam etc.

The block menu looks to be left over from IOS 7. Time to update it, make it more user manageable.

Set favourite emoji's.. or allow you to easily hide ones you will never use. There's a ton of them I doubt anybody uses, and having a clean easy panel of the emoji's you actually want, will make things easier.

Stop seperating texts by colour. Have them all blue and either tick or no tick. I don't know about you but it's hard to read the white on green on dark mode.

Allow you to connect various messsaging apps. Allow contacts in what's app/social media to match up and have a UI indicator to distinguish the difference in message types.

Make contacts more useful by listing your interactions with them (by date or grouping), through socials, messages, photos with them etc. Then within the UI allow you to send them content either though txt, social, etc.

Put a phone icon next to the video icon and allow you to call as facetime OR call. Even combine the button if need be. Show only a phone button for non iPhone contacts without socials. Using third party API's allow it to call/video on whats app, or audio/video call on Facebook etc.

These are literally off the top of my head. Where is Apples team? imagine the meeting of random managers patting each other on the back about backgrounds in messages..
 
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The likely other change in the Messages app in iOS 26 could be GSMA RCS Universal Profile 3.0 support. This means true end-to-end encryption text messaging to Android phones if the Google Messages app also supports Universal Profile 3.0.
 
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SactoGuy18 said:
The likely other change in the Messages app in iOS 26 could be GSMA RCS Universal Profile 3.0 support. This means true end-to-end encryption text messaging to Android phones if the Google Messages app also supports Universal Profile 3.0.
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this is all I care about. give me the latest RCS where I can edit and unsend messages to my family that has Android phones.

Also iPhone mirroring sucks and works half the time. please fix Tim
 
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