The 5 best iOS 26 features I want Android to copy ASAP

Apple has done it. After releasing iOS 18 in 2024, this year’s iPhone update jumps up by eight to iOS 26. Not only is the new name significantly but thanks to Apple’s new liquid glass redesignIs it also one of the most drastic iOS updates we have seen in many years.

Although I hope the entire liquid glass case stays far, far away from Android, there are some items in iOS 26 that I actually like. They are not drastic features, but there are things I would like to look at Android – as blasphemous as it may sound.

One of my favorite updates in iOS 26 is incredibly unimportant, but I can’t help but love it. The lock screen clock is now automatically changed in size to take up all the available space above/around the subject of your locking screen, and it changes seamlessly from image to image.

What I especially love is how the clock, like notifications, shrinks a bit with each new notification card that pops up, and then expanded again when you swipe them away. It’s so much more reactive than anything on Android, and even though it’s aesthetic touch, I think it looks incredibly – and I would like it on my Android phone.

For all AI calls features Google has added Pixel phones over the years, the Google Phone app looks pretty archaic. It is not poorly designed or difficult to use, but it just feels outdated and needs a fresh layer of paint.

If/when Google updates the phone app, I would like to see the company draws inspiration from what Apple is doing with its phone app in iOS 26. Instead of isolated pages for your recent calls, voicemail, etc., the new conversation is grouping all together in a really smart way.

Your favorite contacts are attached at the top of the app for easy access, while the recycling not only shows newer calls you have made or received, but also all the voicemail you have. It puts so much more information on the screen at once, and it’s infinitely better than Google’s phone app – or any of the other manufacturers at Android’s phone apps today.

Like someone on a flight last year more times than I can count, I know the importance of a good digital boarding pass. Onboard in the Apple Wallet and Google Wallet are both solid these days, but iOS 26 makes Apple’s versions even better.

Now includes boarding cards in the Apple Wallet some extra checks that are not previously available. My favorite option is the “Del Flight Tracker” button, which allows you to quickly share your aircraft with a contact, and if they have an iPhone, it will appear to them as a live activity. My mom is constantly asking me to share my flight information with her when I travel, and having something like this on the Google Wallet Boarding pass would make my life ten times easier.

I also appreciate the new options to see an airport terminal map or track my luggage directly from the boarding pass. There are things you can already do in other applications, but having them appeared for you right by your boarding pass just sensible.

When I go back to the lock screen for a moment, I definitely love that iOS 26 now lets you see animated album artwork from Apple Music on the lock screen. Apple Music is filled with lovely animations for so many albums, and just being able to see them with the Apple Music app Open is a damn shame.

Although it is not a necessary feature in any way, it would have made me so happy to see Android follow here, even though I imagine implementing it would be more difficult. Apple Music, Spotify and Tidal have all animated album covers, and they all have Android apps, so it would be sources to subtract if Android has ever added a live album artwork to the lock screen. And hey, maybe it will encourage the YouTube music to finally get on the animated album Artwork Train.

I am a big credit card person, with cash back and points spread over several different cards and accounts. But more often than not, I never plan to redeem my credit card rewards, so they often sit unattended for months (if not years) at a time.

The iOS 26 introduces the opportunity to resolve cash/points when using Apple Pay in person, which I think is fantastic. As I save chasing and my Amex points for travel redemptions, it would be great to pay for coffee or lunch using Discover or US Bank Cash Back. It is a relatively small feature and one I would not use all the time, but it would still be great to see Google Wallet on Android offer something similar.

As Picasso once said in a quote, Steve Jobs was famous inspired by, “Good artists copy; great artists steal.” Everyone copies everyone in the mobile technological world, and it’s something we’ve seen time and time again – whether Apple is copying something from Google or vice versa.

While I think what we’ve seen of iOS 26 so far largely fades compared to Googles Android 16 -Update (Especially Android 16 QPR1) it is important to give Apple credit for what it was right with this year’s iPhone software. I am certainly not a supporter of everything Apple did with iOS 26 (seriously, what happens with liquid glass), but I am quite impressed with the features mentioned here – and I hope to see them all make their way to Android before rather than later.