Apple Is Quietly Giving Your iPhone a Simple Yet Useful New Feature

When Apple rolls out iOS 26 this fall, it’s going to bring some significant changes to some of your most-used iPhone apps — including Camera.

That’s right, your iPhone’s default camera app is getting quite the overhaul. The most significant thing is that it’ll have a redesigned interface that streamlines taking photos and videos.

When you open the Camera app, a lot of the more advanced capture modes (like Cinematic or Portrait) and adjustable settings (like Flash or Night Mode) will be hidden from view — but still easily accessible with a swipe. The idea is that Apple wants to remove clutter.

Aside from a new look, the Camera app is getting a simple but useful new feature … one that everyone with an iPhone can take advantage of. It’s called “Lens Cleaning Hint.”

A Lens Cleaning Hint

Photo by Tucker Bowe for Gear Patrol

Have you ever taken a photo (or video) on your iPhone and, after the fact, noticed that the lens wasn’t exactly clean? Maybe there was some dust or a finger smudge on the lens, causing the photo (or video) not to look as pristine as it could have.

Well, Lens Cleaning Hint aims to fix that.

When toggled on (via the Settings app), a message will appear when you open the Camera app suggesting that your iPhone’s camera lens might need to be cleaned. Presumably, it’ll work on both rear and selfie camera systems.

Apple

Admittedly, not much else is known about Lens Cleaning Hint because it wasn’t specifically mentioned during Apple’s keynote presentation, but it was shown at the end when Apple listed all of iOS 26’s upcoming features. (Also, those with the iOS 26 developer beta have access to it, too.

It’s also worth mentioning that while a feature that suggests cleaning your camera lens will be new to iPhone, it’s a feature that Android smartphones have had for years.

Photo by Tucker Bowe for Gear Patrol

When’s it coming?

At the time of writing, it’s unclear if Lens Cleaning Hint is a feature that depends on Apple Intelligence or not.

If it isn’t, then it could roll out to all iPhones that support iOS 26 (which is any iPhone 11 series or later). If it does rely on Apple Intelligence, then it’ll only work on new-ish iPhones (any iPhone 16 or iPhone 15 Pro/Max). We’ll update this post when we know more.

iOS 26 will officially roll out to the masses this fall when Apple reveals its next wave of iPhones.

To learn more about iOS 26, check out Apple’s blog post.

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