iOS 26.6 brings a host of important changes – but they are not obvious
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Apple has released new software updates for all of its main products – and they include a host of very important, very hidden changes.
iOS 26.6 is available to download now, through the Settings app, and users have been advised to install it as soon as possible. But when they do, they might not notice anything different.
That’s partly because the most substantial change isn’t actually to do with the new update at all. The new update brings important changes that get the phone ready for the next major software version, iOS 27.
When someone downloads iOS 26.6, the phone begins indexing all of the content that is on it. That is important because the central feature of iOS 27 is a new version of its digital assistant, named Siri AI, that is able to use all of that data in answering its queries.
Some users of the early version of iOS 27, which is now available in a public beta, reported that indexing process took multiple days, meaning they were unable to use the new features even once their phone was updated. Doing that work now means that devices should be ready to start accessing the new Siri much more quickly.
iOS 26.6 also includes a host of important security fixes. Apple’s release notes say that 75 vulnerabilities in the iPhone have been fixed, as well as more than 150 in the Mac.
Some of those vulnerabilities could be incredibly powerful, allowing hackers access to the phone and the important data contained on it. While Apple has not said that any of them have yet been exploited, any device not running the latest update could be liable to such an attack.
Unusually, Apple credit a range of AI tools in those security updates. It points specifically to Anthropic’s Claude and OpenAI’s Codex Security, alongside other AI companies and tools, highlighting the increased role that such systems are playing in finding and fixing potentially disastrous bugs.
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The new update will also tell users when they have reached the limit of blocked numbers that the phone is able to store. While that cap has always existed – and it is not clear exactly how many numbers can be blocked – the phone previously had no way of warning users that they had reached it.
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