There are a lot of changes coming to iOS 26, particularly thanks to the brand new Liquid Glass design that takes a lot of cues from visionOS. But there are a few features Apple announced that may sound a little familiar if you're an Android user — especially if you've ever used a Google Pixel.
That's to be expected, though. Android has a lot of great features that iPhone users could benefit from, while the opposite is also true. As much as we wish that these features had made their way to iOS much sooner, we're happy that they finally made the jump to a new platform.
Here are 3 iOS 26 features that you'll already find on Android phones.
Call Screening
The amount of absolute garbage that comes through on my phone would be impressive if it wasn't so frustrating to deal with. Thankfully, Google's Pixel phones do have a bunch of features to help mitigate the problem of picking up the phone and finding a robot at the other end of the line — and Call Screen is one of the best.
Powered by Google Assistant, this feature answers the phone for you and has the virtual assistant speak to whoever is calling. That way they can say what they want, and you can decide whether you actually want to talk to them or not.
Apple's version seems to work in a similar fashion. Built on Apple's Live Voicemail feature, Call Screening is supposed to help minimize interruptions by getting information from callers, and passing it onto you so that you can make a decision on whether to pick up the phone.
Hold Assist
Being stuck on hold is one of the worst things any adult human has to do on a regular basis. Whether it's the annoying music, constant interruptions that always give you a brief hope that someone has picked up, or the fact the whole system seems deliberately designed to make you hang up and never call back.
Pixel users can get round this problem with the "Hold for Me" feature, which sits through all the annoying hold music and notifies you when a real human being is waiting on the other end of the line. It can be an absolute lifesaver, I tell you, especially if you're calling a company that may have you on hold for 20 minutes or more.
iOS 26's Hold Assist sounds like the exact same thing. This means that iPhone users won't be subjected to those hair-wrenchingly awful hold sessions — a robot inside your phone does it all for you. Like Pixel, once a real person is available on the other end of the line, you'll be notified that they're waiting.
CarPlay Widgets
If you paid attention to Google I/O back in 2023, you may remember that Google announced a design overhaul for Android Auto — the Google equivalent to Apple's CarPlay.
Part of that update involved a new home screen, which had a level of contextual awareness, and showed a bunch of different widgets depending on what's been going on.
The primary one was always navigation, but you'd also see boxes for apps like your music player, messaging apps and even the phone. iOS 26 is going to offer something similar for CarPlay, with the added benefit of showing Live Activities as well.
It's not clear whether CarPlay will let you customize the widgets on your car display. If it did that would certainly give it an advantage over Google's version. Likewise, considering the Android version of Live Activities isn't coming until Android 16 rolls out, it's another extra feature iPhone users will be able to enjoy in the car.
But if you want to see what the new CarPlay experience might be like—minus the translucent Liquid Glass design—just fine an Android owner with a semi-recent car.
