![\"Apple](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1764574803_665_0x0.jpg\")
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When is this update coming to your iPhone?<\/p>\n
NurPhoto via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Here we go again? Apple\u2019s next iPhone update, which brings new emergency alerts and a game-changing AirDrop upgrade, is expected within days. But speculation<\/a> has already started that it might already be running late. Just like Apple\u2019s last update<\/a>.<\/p>\n This speculation is not a surprise. iOS 26.1<\/a> was released in early November but had been expected in late October. This very unApple-like delay broke a multi-year streak of the first material update post a new iOS release releasing in October.<\/p>\n ForbesMicrosoft Will Tell Your Boss When You\u2019re Not At Work\u2014\u2018Starts January\u2019By Zak Doffman<\/a><\/p>\n That last update brought a radical new security process<\/a> to iPhones, with background updates enabling emergency patching without any user action or maybe even a restart. Ironically, the update bringing a more efficient update process was inefficiently late.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no fixed date for iOS 26.2 yet \u2014 mid-December is the target. And there\u2019s no reason to believe it\u2019s running late. At least not yet. But iOS 26.1\u2019s release delay will have had a knock-on effect. Delaying betas and consuming resource longer than expected.<\/p>\n The next update brings a new localized emergency update platform<\/a> to iPhone, which will ask to use your location to ensure the updates you receive are relevant. This piggybacks on Apple\u2019s shadow FindMy network, which raises another security and privacy question, but which is fine on the basis that you trust Apple with your data.<\/p>\n The second key security update is now more topical. Apple is adding a PIN code to AirDrop<\/a>, ostensibly to enable you to share files with Apple users not in your contacts and without having to open sharing to \u201ceveryone.\u201d <\/p>\n Instead a PIN can be shared and will open a secure sharing tunnel for 30 days. It was unlikely planned this way, but this now comes just weeks after Google broke into AirDrop\u2019s walled garden to enable sharing between iPhones and Androids. <\/p>\n ForbesWhatsApp Attacks Confirmed\u2014Do Not Lose Your AccountBy Zak Doffman<\/a><\/p>\n