I am experiencing the same issue on iOS 26 as well, including iOS 26.5.2. Even when the user selects Don’t Allow for Local Network access, and the permission remains disabled under the app’s Settings, the app can still communicate successfully with a device on the local network using its local IP address. Our flow is similar: The app requests Local Network permission. The user denies the permission. The iPhone connects to the IoT device’s Wi-Fi hotspot. The app sends API requests directly to the device’s local IP address. The requests still succeed. Based on the expected Local Network privacy behaviour, the requests should fail when permission is denied. However, the permission currently does not appear to prevent direct local network communication. This suggests that the issue reported for iOS 18 may still be present in iOS 26.