Apple Notes gets more powerful every year, and iOS 26 adds its own batch of new features. With new capabilities comes the threat of feature bloat, but Notes has a clever solution that makes its ever-growing set of tools more easily accessible in iOS 26.
iOS 26 gives Apple Notes an ‘adaptive toolbar’
Notes was once an extremely simple iPhone app. Features were minimal, as Apple prioritized just making it a quick place to jot down notes.
But at some point, the company started aggressively building Apple Notes into a powerhouse tool. Today, it can compete with the best third-party apps out there.
Whenever you make a simple app more powerful though, there’s a risk of feature bloat. Notes, for its part, does a good job of keeping the app experience simple and intuitive despite a growing set of capabilities.
In iOS 26 though, there’s a new change coming on that front.
Notes now uses an adaptive toolbar, which puts the most relevant tools front and center.
How Notes’ new adaptive toolbar works
The current toolbar in iOS 18—which sits right above the software keyboard—features the following buttons:
Formatting menu
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