iOS 26 adds new ‘Preview’ app on iPhone, here’s how I’m using it

Source: 9to5Mac

iOS 26 brought two brand‑new apps to the iPhone’s Home Screen, here’s how I’m using one of them: the Preview app.

Preview app expands beyond the Mac with iOS 26 and iPadOS 26

Apple adds new features to iOS all the time, but it’s not as common that we get brand‑new system apps. In iOS 26, there are two: Preview and Apple Games.

The Preview app is inspired by Preview on the Mac, offering a dedicated hub for PDF and image viewing and edits. It’s now available on both iPhone and iPad via iOS 26 and iPadOS 26.

Here’s how Apple describes the new app:

Preview comes to iPad, giving users a dedicated app for creating a quick sketch, as well as viewing, editing, and marking up PDFs and images with Apple Pencil or by touch. Users can access all of their PDFs and images in the Files app right from Preview, create an empty page, use Apple Pencil to draw and write on it, and use AutoFill to quickly fill out PDF forms.

I’ve been using Preview since the first iOS and iPadOS 26 betas last June. I initially wasn’t sure how much value could be added to what the Files app already offered, but I’ve grown to appreciate having Preview available as a standalone app.

What I’m using Preview for today

Before iOS 26, PDFs and images saved inside the Files app would launch right in that same app. Most other file types, however, open in separate dedicated apps. For example, documents for Pages, Keynote, and Numbers are all saved inside Files, but launch inside those separate apps.

I’ve found several advantages to using the separate Preview app in iOS 26:

• Easier document management – It’s simpler to manage multiple PDFs on your iPhone and iPad, especially during tasks like a home‑buying process where you juggle many documents.
• Quick Look integration – Even though a PDF now opens in Preview by default, you can still view it directly in Files via Quick Look.

This means if you have several PDFs you’re juggling, you can have one open in Preview and another open in Files, letting you quickly jump back and forth via the app switcher. It makes multitasking feel less slow and clunky.

On iPad, the new iPadOS 26 windowing system lets me keep Preview in a large window on the left side of the screen while Files lives in a narrow window on the right. This setup lets me view a PDF in Preview while navigating my Files database at the same time—a great workflow for hopping between documents quickly.

Preview also offers a more expansive and accessible set of tools for editing PDFs, feeling much closer to the Mac’s Preview app. I’ve been using features to add and remove pages, sign documents with Markup, fill out PDF forms, and more.

The greater flexibility of using Preview and Files in tandem, along with a beefed‑up toolset, has made Preview a welcome addition on both iPhone and iPad.

What’s your experience been like with Preview in iOS 26? Let us know in the comments.