iOS 26 Messages brings transformative new group chat features

When iOS 26 first released, there was a pretty significant group chat bug.

Some users complained that their messages in existing group chats were sent as individual chats instead of group-wide chats and did not appear in the group chat at all. One Reddit user said the bug was particularly striking with chats including numbers that weren’t linked to iPhones.

But over the next few weeks, that bug seemed to have been fixed, and users began to turn their attention away from the frustrations of a new iOS system and toward the fun new features. 9to5Mac wrote a review of the five most intriguing features, including the typing indicator, polls, Apple Cash, changing background, and adding contacts.

The typing indicator was once reserved for one-on-one conversations, but iOS 26 introduced the text bubble to group chats. Of course, not everyone is thrilled (one user wrote on Reddit looking for a way to remove it because they “really don’t want” the feature), but personally, I think it’s cool.

Group chats have also been the subject of polls, which Mashable’s Alex Perry called “one of my favorite new features” after trying it out in beta, saying it is “primarily a feature for deciding where to dine, but will actually be a feature used to settle incredibly obscure and absurd arguments between groups of friends.”

Groups can also send Apple Cash. I don’t personally know anyone who uses this form of money transfer before using Venmo, CashApp, Zelle, or, of course, literal cash, but I suppose if you want to settle money after a bachelorette party, I could see this being useful.

You can also change the background of a group chat. One of my group chats turned into a photo of my cat edited to look like he was wearing jeans.

Options, guys? They are infinite.