iOS 18 featured a major redesign to the Calculator app, including fancy features like Math Notes. Those changes included adding a back button to the keypad, replacing the traditional C/AC button. This was so frustrating for some, the real hard-core Calculator users I guess, that The Atlantic published an entire column when iOS 18 shipped, decrying the button’s removal.

Apple has seemingly taken those complaints onboard. With iOS 26, the Calculator once again has a dedicated C/AC button.

Apple has actually tried to walk a middle ground here. In iOS 26, the Calculator now has both a backspace key and a C/AC key.

Here’s a reminder of what these buttons do:

The backspace key is persistent and sits in the top-left of the number keypad. Backspace simply deletes one digit at a time.

The second button across is what used to be the +/- key. In its place, we now have the C/AC button. When a number is being input as part of a calculation, pressing C removes that entire number.

So, for example, if you have entered 32 + 45 + 270, you can press C to quickly delete the last number and return to ’32 + 45 +’. This is useful if you accidentally mistype one number in a string of a large addition.

When there is no number typed (such as when the Calculator is showing zero), the button changes to AC; tapping AC is the most destructive action and clears all parts of the current computation. In the example above, all numbers are deleted and you are returned to the blank zero input state.

You may be wondering what happened to the +/- key, also known as the negation operator.

It has not actually been removed altogether. The key remains part of the default layout, but has been moved to the bottom left position.

That slot was previously taken up by a button to toggle between calculator modes (basic/scientific/maths notes). Consequently, the mode switcher function has been relocated as a new toolbar button found at the very top-right of the screen.

iOS 26 is currently in the developer beta and public beta testing phase. It will be released as a free software update in the fall, likely sometime next month.

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