iOS 26 looks an awful lot like Android in many ways

As was expected ahead of time, Apple used its WWDC 2025 keynote to reveal iOS 26, the latest major software upgrade coming to iPhones. Many of the upcoming features will look familiar to Android users, from how calls get translated on the fly, to the way you can look up information online.

If you saw iOS 26 and felt like you just awoke from a cryogenic slumber, don’t stress. Apple confirmed that all of its operating systems are now unified under one naming convention. Every device, including Macs, iPads, and even the Apple Vision Pro, now has “26” as the OS suffix.

Back to the major iPhone update, Apple highlighted the added ability to translate written and spoken conversations as they happen. iPhones had translation capabilities before, but the new “Live Translation” feature is now baked into the Messages and FaceTime apps, in addition to phone calls.

Image: Apple.

The translated text appears on-screen in real-time, using Apple’s local AI models, meaning the translations work offline. It’s almost identical to Samsung’s implementation of on-device language translation as part of its Galaxy AI platform launched in early 2024. The feature is one of Samsung’s most popular, so it’s little surprise to see Apple arrive with its version.

Apple’s Android similarities also extend to its updated version of Visual Intelligence, the feature that acts as an AI-powered visual lookup tool. As part of iOS 26, Visual Intelligence lets iPhone users search for whatever’s on the screen, find more details online, or add event details to a calendar listing.

Visual Intelligence is now Google’s Circle to Search in all but name. Google’s visual search feature debuted with the Samsung Galaxy S24 range last year, quickly becoming a highly popular Android tool.

Is iOS 26 just a reskin of Android at this point?

Add in more generative image features, further ChatGPT integration, and other visual flourishes, iOS 26 arguably looks more like Android than any major Apple software update before it.

Apple also took time at WWDC to show new call screening features, in-message polls, and its new gaming-centric app. It also made a lot of noise about “Liquid Glass”, which sounds like a new hardware technology, but is actually a refreshed visual aesthetic for how apps and UI elements appear on screen.

Based on the headline features, the gap between Apple’s software ecosystem and Android has never been narrower. If you’re keen to see iOS 26 for yourself, the developer beta is available to download now ahead of the public release in Australia’s spring.

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