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iOS 26 Will Add 10 New Features to the Messages App on Your iPhone

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iOS 26 includes significant updates for Messages, with the app set to receive at least 10 new features and changes on the iPhone.

ten messages features
Below, we recap what is new in the Messages app on iOS 26:

  • Polls: You can now create polls in group chats, allowing people to vote on topics or questions, such as which restaurant to go to. Apple Intelligence can detect when a poll might come in handy and suggest one.
  • Backgrounds: You can now add a background to any conversation, and all participants will see it. You can choose from Apple's selection of backgrounds, or you can set any of your own photos as a background. You can turn off conversation backgrounds in the Settings app if desired.
  • Apple Cash in group chats: You can now send and receive Apple Cash in group chats.
  • Typing indicators in group chats: You can now see who is typing in group chats.
  • "Add Contact" button in group chats: This button makes it easier to add people to the Contacts app in group chats.
  • "Select" option: When you tap and hold on a message bubble, a new "Select" option appears. Tapping on it allows you to select a portion of text in a message, whereas you could previously only copy an entire message.
  • Unknown sender screening: This new option automatically moves messages from unknown senders to the Unknown Senders folder, and hides notifications for them until you accept them. The app can also detect spam and move it to a new Spam folder, with notifications for these messages also hidden.
  • Natural language search: You can now search for photos within a conversation by describing what you are looking for. Examples: "Eric skateboarding in a tie-dye shirt," or "Juli with stickers on her face."
  • Photo previews: When a new "Send Photo Previews" setting is turned on, the Messages app will only send a lower-quality preview of a photo while an iPhone is in Low Data Mode. The full photo will be sent later.
  • End-to-end encryption for RCS: In March, Apple announced that it planned to add support for end-to-end encrypted RCS messages to the Messages app in a future iOS update, which is likely to be iOS 26, or a later version like iOS 26.1. This change would prevent Apple and any other third party from being able to read RCS messages and attachments while they are being sent between devices, as has always been the case with iMessage blue bubbles.

iOS 26 is available now in developer beta, with a public beta to follow next month. The update will be released later this year for the iPhone 11 and newer.

Related Roundups: iOS 26, iPadOS 26
Tag: Messages
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Top Rated Comments

D
darngooddesign
17 months ago
Does the Add Contact button have a 'No Journalists' filter?

Asking for a friend.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Jody Hewell Avatar
Jody Hewell
17 months ago
I hope they fixed the syncing bug between iCloud devices, and the incorrect badge counts I constantly see.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
klasma Avatar
klasma
17 months ago

You can now add a background to any conversation, and all participants will see it.
Cool! For lack of quoting, I can now set a screenshot of the previous conversation as the background.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
W
Wizec
17 months ago
Unknown Sender filtering is already a feature.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Diopter Avatar
Diopter
17 months ago
There should definitely be an option with backgrounds to select between using the shared background or using your own background, so that you don't have to force a background on the other person (or have a background forced on to you). Essentially, like the way contact photos work.

I know there's a general setting to turn off all backgrounds, but it's a bit silly to have to turn them off for all conversations.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
WarmWinterHat Avatar
WarmWinterHat
17 months ago

Unknown Sender filtering is already a feature.
Yes, but instead of dumping unknown sender messages in the "all messages" area, it puts them in an "unknown senders" folder that doesn't mix with the others.


Great, are they fixing how awful the RCS implementation is? Mine fails back to SMS probably 40-50% of the time and switches back and forth with every message sent.
My wife uses a Pixel and RCS has been rock-solid between her and I.

T-Mobile for myself and Spectrum (Verizon) for her, if it matters.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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