ByDavid Phelan,
Senior Contributor.
Apple’s latest iPhone software is iOS 26. Released in mid-September, it was followed by a small bug-fix update in the form of iOS 26.0.1. Now, there’s the first major update, with new features as well as bug fixes — though there are dozens of security issues addressed here, too.
I held back this post for a few extra hours because the release landed later and I wanted to monitor responses for a little longer. This post has the initial thoughts on the new release and I’ll be updating this post over the coming week and I’ll add final thoughts on Wednesday, Nov. 12.
The new iOS 26 software cycle, including this new iOS 26.1 update, is compatible with all iPhones from 2019 on — so the iPhone XS, XS Max and XR which were supported with iOS 18 aren’t supported here. Instead, it’s the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 1 Pro Max models and every phone since. As well as the iPhone 12 series, iPhone 13 and so on right up to the iPhone 17 series and iPhone Air, it also includes the second- and third-generation iPhone SE models.
