We are just a few days away from WWDC 2025, and the rumor mill is churning out new information almost every day. After hearing about the iOS 26 naming, and the watchOS and tvOS redesigns, a new report today brings a slew of feature additions coming to iOS 26 this year.
The 9to5Mac report (link) mentions that Apple will be announcing a bunch of smaller-in-scale, yet significant features in some of its most used apps in iOS 26: Messages, Music, Notes, and CarPlay.
Polls and Automatic Translation in Messages
As per the report, Apple is finally going to add support for Polls in Messages. A feature that has long been available on pretty much every other popular messaging app, Polls is likely to be a native option in iMessage starting with iOS 26.
The report also mentions that the company might integrate the feature with Apple Intelligence, allowing Messages to suggest the format for the poll based on the context of the conversation.
Also coming to Messages is an automatic translation feature which will translate incoming and outgoing messages automatically using Apple Intelligence.
CarPlay UI Redesign
Since iOS 26, macOS 26, and every other “OS 26” is getting a visual overhaul this year to match a visionOS-inspired look, it seems only fair that CarPlay gets the same treatment. Apparently, that is set to happen as well, so you will be able to see the new UI in cars too. It remains to be seen whether this new redesign launches on CarPlay Ultra as well right away, or if Apple takes a more cautious approach there.
New Animated Artwork in Music
According to the report, the Music app will also get new, animated, full-screen artwork for the lock screen. This means you’ll get animations on your lock screen when you’re listening to music with Apple Music, and yeah, it will likely make the experience better. I am curious about the hit on battery life, but it should be a minimal difference since the lock screen animations won’t really play for too long anyway.
Markdown in Notes
Markdown is absolutely the best. I write everything in Markdown. This article is also being written in Markdown on Obsidian, and therefore, I am excited that the native Notes app is getting support for Markdown export.
So, what do you think about these new iOS 26 features? Are you excited for any (or all) of them? Let us know in the comments.