Hi, it’s Jacob here – both in emoji form and me on my phone – because I’m here to tell you all about how the Hold Assist feature works in iOS 26.

As you can see, there’s this handsome chap calling me, and he’s just told me that he has to go to the door to get a parcel. He’s going to be gone for a few minutes. Rather than hanging up the call, I’m going to enable Hold Assist. That means when he comes back to the phone, my iPhone will let me know, and I can pick the call back up again.

All I need to do is tap the More button in the bottom left-hand corner and choose the brand-new option called Hold Assist. What’s going to happen now is the phone call disappears from my screen, but you can see at the very top in the Dynamic Island that it’s still paused. I can’t hear the caller, I can’t hear any ringing, and I can use my iPhone as normal.

When Jacob comes back to the call and starts talking, expecting me to be there, I’m not actually there. On their phone, they’ll see a message saying that Hold Assist is active. On my phone, I’ll see the top of my screen light up because it starts ringing or vibrating. I’ll also see a transcript of what the other person is saying. Here, I can see that Jacob is ready to talk again, and I can simply answer the call as if it were brand new.

While I’m waiting, I can lock my phone, use other apps, or even put my AirPods in, because when the call comes back, it’s treated just like a new one.

Now you might be thinking: “This is great, but it’s a shame I have to press More and then Hold Assist.” Well, your phone can actually detect hold music automatically. So next time you’re calling the doctors or a utility provider, if iOS detects hold music, you’ll see a message pop up. Tap it, and it’ll activate Hold Assist automatically.

There are loads more new features in iOS 26 that make your iPhone better than ever. Check out the playlist at the end of this video, and make sure you subscribe. I’ll see you next time for more iPhone QuickTips.