Apple is putting the finishing touches on iOS 26, expected to debut next month alongside the iPhone 17 lineup. One of the most noticeable changes is surprisingly simple: faster animations.
By shaving roughly 150 milliseconds off transition times and adjusting pacing, Apple has made the interface feel snappier, even though actual performance remains the same.
This is more about perception than raw speed. Smoother, quicker animations trick the brain into thinking the whole system is faster. It’s a trick long familiar to Android users, who’ve had the option to tweak animation speeds for years through custom skins and developer settings-often running them faster than Apple’s defaults. With iOS 26, Apple finally joins the party, applying a subtle but effective UI tweak that changes how the OS feels without altering its hardware performance.
While it’s hardly a groundbreaking innovation, it’s another example of Apple refining the user experience in ways that, while small on paper, have a big impact in day-to-day use. And yes, Android fans may smirk, but this time Apple’s “new” idea is simply a well-polished version of something others have been doing for ages.