What Apple’s New iOS Means for Digital Outreach

Apple is slated to roll out a suite of new features for iPhone users later this year that could mean big changes – and challenges – for political outreach.

The tech giant announced the coming release of iOS 26 earlier this month, introducing a slew of upgrades and changes to everything from the platform’s functionality to its basic design. A large swath of the new features are AI-focused, like live text and audio translations on its Messages and Facetime apps.

But the changes also threaten to upend the world of digital outreach. A new call screening feature  will field phone calls from numbers not in a users’ contacts by collecting the caller’s name and the reason for the call. At that point, it’ll be up to the user to decide whether or not to take the call. 

Meanwhile, text messages from numbers not in a users’ contacts will be filtered into a separate folder for unknown senders – similar to how email providers like Gmail sort different kinds of emails into separate tabs. iPhone users will then have the chance to mark the number as known, ask for more information or delete the message. 

There are already apps on the market for call and text filtering, and Google Voice users have had call screening for years. But having that technology baked into iOS is a game changer for political outreach, one Republican digital fundraising practitioner said.