Major iPhone updates like iOS 26 typically come with hundreds of new features and changes, but a much smaller subset that become daily go-tos. Here are four new iOS 26 features I’ve found myself using just about every day.
#1: Adaptive Toolbar in Notes
I love Apple Notes and use it in a wide variety of ways—as evidenced by my 2,600+ note library.
Among the new features for Notes in iOS 26, my favorite is the Adaptive Toolbar.
Notes has steadily added new features every year for a while now. But for many apps, constant additions can create an issue with feature bloat, or simply the inability to discover everything the app can do.
The Adaptive Toolbar does a great job of mitigating those problems.
When writing or editing text in a note, the toolbar just above the keyboard now automatically changes to show you the most relevant tools at any given time. For example:
When editing standard text, you’ll see bold, italics, underline, and highlight tools
If you have multiple text lines selected, you’ll see list options, indent, outdent, block quote tools, and more
You can still get to the full tool list with a swipe, but you shouldn’t have to switch too often.
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