iOS 26 has a secret feature that might freeze your FaceTime video and audio
Child protection, now also for adults
Along with the iOS 26 announcement, Apple shared information about the many new tools and updated features meant to help parents protect their children online. Communication Safety was one of the updated features, which includes nudity detection in FaceTime video calls and Shared Albums in Photos. That feature is supposed to be only active on child accounts.
Image credit – iDeviceHelp on X, collage by PhoneArena
What about your privacy?
Naturally, a feature that could detect nudity during a video call might raise some privacy concerns among users. However, Apple has a good explanation of how the current Communication Safety features work:
Communication Safety uses on-device machine learning to analyze photo and video attachments and determine if a photo or video appears to contain nudity. Because the photos and videos are analyzed on your child’s device, Apple doesn’t receive an indication that nudity was detected and doesn’t get access to the photos or videos as a result.
—Apple Support, April 2025
In my opinion, this is the type of feature that should get much more attention than it currently does. It’s probably the best way to utilize the processing power of an iPhone and a meaningful application for on-device machine learning.
