This iOS 26 Feature Might Make Your iPhone Photos Look Much Better

With iOS 26, Apple is introducing a host of changes through the iPhone's operating system. There's the controversial Liquid Glass UI, which you can "fix" if you'd like; a redesigned Phone app, complete with Google-like call screening features; and a minimalist Camera app that hides most of your settings and tools until you need them. It's a sizable update to be sure.

But every year, there are features that don't make it into Apple's big keynote presentation. These smaller changes are sometimes my favorite, because while they aren't flashy enough to get a spotlight during the event, many are quirky, fun, or otherwise worth highlighting in their own right.

The Camera app has one such feature. Despite Apple's focus on the app during the keynote, this feature wasn't mentioned directly. Instead, Apple included it in a slide of 36 iOS 26 features they didn't have time to talk about. I'm not sure why they didn't take ten seconds to show it off during the Camera app segment, because not only is it a small change, it's a very helpful one at that. With iOS 26, the Camera app will now alert you when your camera lens is dirty.

You can see how this works in this Reddit post. When iOS 26 detects that the lens is smudged or otherwise obstructed, it'll display a small pop-up at the top of the viewfinder. In this case, it reads "Clean Back Camera," but I presume it will also issue a similar warning for the front camera when taking a selfie.

From various Reddit discussions, it does appear that this feature isn't available on all iPhones running iOS 26. While Apple supports devices as old as the iPhone 11 with this latest OS, the oldest iPhone I've seen mentioned that's compatible with this feature is the iPhone 15 Pro. That user suggests it might be an AI feature, which makes sense—Apple reserves Apple Intelligence features for iPhone 15 Pro and newer.

Again, this is an iOS 26 feature, which means you won't see it on your compatible iPhone until either Apple releases the OS in the fall, or you decide to install the iOS 26 beta on your device. I don't recommend the latter, though, as the current developer beta comes with too many risks that might result in a glitchy iPhone or even data loss. If you want to try out iOS 26 early, I recommend at least waiting until the public beta, which Apple says will launch next month.

How to turn lens cleaning hints on or off

While the alert has an X you can tap to dismiss it when it appears, Apple also has a new on/off toggle for this option if you'd prefer not to see it all. To find it, head to Settings > Camera, then scroll down until you see Lens Cleaning Hints. Tap the toggle to enable or disable the feature.