Live updates: Everything Apple announced at WWDC 2024, including iOS 18, Siri, AI, and more

Apple's 2024 Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) is already shaping up to be one of the company's biggest events in decades. The opening keynote, which is taking place right now, is focused almost entirely on the buzzword we can't stop talking about — artificial intelligence.

Trailing behind major players like OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft, Apple today is unveiling a slew of AI features spread across the company's most popular operating systems. While AI is the event's main focus, Apple executives are also expected to announce this year's software upgrades for the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac, and Vision Pro.

If you can't tune in for the two-hour-long event, ZDNET has you covered. Here's a complete breakdown of all the announcements at WWDC as they come.

VisionOS 2

• Apple unveiled the first major upgrade to its recently released VisionOS: VisionOS 2.

• In Vision OS 2, Photos gets an upgrade that allows users to create Spatial Photos with added depth from photos already in their camera rolls.

• Spatial Personas in the Photos app lets users view photos together, creating a more shared experience.

• VisionOS 2 also supports new hand motion commands, allowing users to access some settings more easily. For example, users can open their hands and tap to reach the home screen or turn their wrists to see the battery level.

• Users who mirror their MacOS to their Vision Pro will soon get new sizes, including ultrawide monitor view.

• The Vision Pro will also include train support for travel mode, making working during your commute easier.

• Developers will be able to create Spatial Apps with more ease due to new frameworks and APIs.

• Apple is partnering with Blackmagic to make it easier to make Immersive Videos.
  

iOS 18

• iPhone and iPad users will be able to customize their home screen further by placing apps wherever they'd like on the screen, as opposed to the usual fixed grid. App icon colors will also be customizable, allowing users to make apps any color they want or even match their home screen. Users can also change app icons to dark mode.

• After five years of remaining untouched, the Control Center received several upgrades, including the ability to customize its toggles, like for flashlight, screen recording, calculator, auto-rotate, screen mirroring, and more, by tapping, holding, and rearranging. The Control Center toggle will also feature different pages with completely customizable controls for users. Developers can also create controls for their apps.

• Apple also added privacy options, including the ability to lock an app, which requires users to authenticate with FaceID or passcode before accessing the app. Users can also hide an app, which makes it disappear from the home screen to a hidden part of their app library.

• Messages received several upgrades. Tapbacks, the feature that allows users to react to messages by holding them down, was upgraded to feature different colors and include emojis. Users can add text effects to specific phrases or words instead of the entire phrase. Lastly, users will be able to schedule messages.

• iPhone 14 and later models will have a new Messages via Satellite feature, which allows users to send messages via satellite when they don't have Wi-Fi or cellular service.

• The Mail app will automatically categorize emails, a feature that will be available later this year.

• The Wallet app now allows users to tap phones together to exchange Apple Cash without requiring them to exchange personal information like phone numbers.

• The Journal app will now show more statistics and insights, including how many entries you've had this year, how many days you journaled, and more.

• There is a new Game Mode for iPhone, meant to help gamers optimize their gaming experience. This includes minimizing background activity and using more responsive accessories, such as controllers.

• The Photos app got what Apple dubbed its "biggest redesign ever," featuring a cleaner design and an improved search.

• Apple reiterated that RCS support will be coming to the iPhone.

• The Calendar app can now pull from the Reminders app for a more seamless overview of your schedule.

AirPods

• AirPods Pro are getting voice isolation to enhance call quality in noisier environments.

• You can now nod or shake your head "yes" or "no" when responding to Siri.

• Apple is also releasing a Personalized Spatial Audio API for game developers to build around the AirPods' audio technology.

tvOS 18

• When you watch an Apple TV show or movie, the new Insights section on tvOS will include additional information such as actor names and music titles. You can then easily add those music titles to your Apple Music playlist.

• Apple added support for 21:9 formatting for viewing widescreen films.

• tvOS will also feature a redesigned Apple Fitness+ experience, with enhanced dialogue, improved subtitles, and new AppleTV screen savers.

WatchOS 11

• The new Training Mode allows users to get insights into how the intensity of their workouts is impacting their performance in the long run.

• The new Vitals app will give users a quick look at their most important health metrics. If something seems out of the ordinary, users will receive pings alerting them of the anomaly.

• Cycle tracking is getting upgraded to better suit pregnancy, showing gestational age, and more.

• Smart Stack is also getting more intelligent, now able to automatically add widgets when needed and more.

iPadOS 18

• The update will feature a redesigned tab bar and side bar, which users can customize to showcase their favorite apps and access the most important sections of an app. You can also long-tap the bar to move it around.

• Shareplay will allow users to remotely control someone else's iPad or iPhone and share drawings on their screens.

• In a long-awaited release, iPads will now have a calculator app for the first time, complete with the same interface as the one currently found on iPhones. Plus, you can use it with the Apple Pencil through a new Math Notes experience, which allows users to write expressions that the calculator app will solve for you once you type the equal sign.

• Handwriting in Notes also got an upgrade with Smart Script, which refines users' writing to make it more legible while keeping the authenticity of the user's handwriting style. The feature can even match copied and pasted text to the user's handwriting. Spell check is also still compatible with it.

• iPadOS 18 supports screen-sharing via SharePlay and the same Control Center customizations and emoji Tapbacks found in iOS 18.

MacOS 15/Sequoia

• Apple unveiled MacOS Sequoia, which will feature many of the new features that were added to iOS 18 and iPadOS 18.

• The new iPhone mirroring capability on Mac allows users to experience their phone almost entirely from their Mac. For example, iPhone notifications will now be available on Mac, allowing users to interact with them and open corresponding apps, though the iPhone itself will appear locked.

• Video meetings are also getting an upgrade, with new backgrounds and previews that allow you to see what you are about to share before sharing it.

• Apple launched its take on password management services with its own Passwords app.

• The AI summarization tool will live in Safari to help users process content like web pages and articles more efficiently. Safari will also assist users in discovering more helpful information about a page they are browsing when relevant, such as directions.

• Apple also launched a new Viewer experience, which does for video what Reader does for text.

Apple Intelligence

• Apple unveiled what it calls its new "personal intelligence" system under the name Apple Intelligence. The release puts generative models at the heart of the ecosystem of Apple devices.

• With Apple Intelligence, your iPhone can prioritize notifications to ensure you get notified only when it's crucial throughout your day.

• The release includes writing tools that leverage AI, including rewriting, proofreading, and summarizing text features available across mail, keynotes, third-party apps, and more.

• Users can now create personalized images in the photo library, including sketches, illustrations, and animations. This feature is available in Messages, Apps, Freeform, Keynote, and Pages.

• Apple Intelligence can tap into tools and carry out tasks on your behalf, such as "Show me all the photos," "Play the podcast," or "Pull the files that my coworker shared with me last week."

• Because it's grounded in your personal information and context, and can retrieve data from across your apps and reference the content on your screen, Apple Intelligence is positioned to be your personal assistant.

• Apple emphasized the safety and privacy precautions built into Apple Intelligence, particularly for on-device intelligence processing. The company touted the security of Apple's silicon, A17 Pro, and its M family of chips (M1, M2, M3, and M4).

• For tasks that are too large for on-device processing and need to be completed into the cloud, Apple unveiled Private Cloud Compute, which protects users' privacy by running on servers specially created using Apple Silicon. When users make requests, Apple Intelligence first tests on-device capability, but calls on Private Cloud Compute if the task requires more compute power. Apple reiterated that user data is never stored or sold to external parties.

• Siri finally got the AI makeover it deserves, first with a new look: when tapped, a light wraps around the edges of your screen. Siri can now better understand users, even if they stutter, due to more advanced natural language processing (NLP). It now has conversational context, remembering what you just said and using it to carry out the next task. Users can also type requests to Siri. Because it has in-depth product knowledge, Siri can answer questions about functionality on iPad, iPhone, and Mac. Siri will also have Apple Intelligence's on-screen awareness, allowing it to take action on what it is viewing. The voice assistant can also take actions across apps, including photo editing. With access to your personal context, Siri can understand and complete new commands, such as pulling your driver's license information from a photo and automatically inputting it into a form. The Siri updates are coming to iPad and Mac, too.

• Apple Intelligence also powers new features in Mail, including Rewrite, which offers users different versions of what they have already written. Suggestions are shown in-line, and Proofread edits forgrammar, word choice, and sentence structure. You can also use Summarize to convert your text into bullet points. Smart Reply identifies intelligent selections of an email and uses them to help craft a custom message. Browsing an inbox will also be easier with summaries populated at the top of emails. Apple Intelligence can even help prioritize your emails, placing what is most important at the top of your inbox.

• There is an all-new focus option: reduce interruptions. When in this setting, your phone will only show you what is most important based on your personal activity and context.

• Genmoji allows users to create AI-generated emojis based on what they type. You can also create a Genmoji based on a photo of a friend. Genmojis can be included in-line in Messages and even used for Tapbacks.

• Image Playground allows users to leverage AI on-device to create images from text prompts, which can be easily shared in iMessage and elsewhere. The feature is also available in Keynote, Pages, and Freeform, and as a stand-alone Image Playground app.

• Image Wand in the Notes app transforms a rough sketch into a polished image and is available directly in the tool palette. For example, you can circle a rough sketch in Notes and open Image Playground to transform your doodle into a fully-fledged image.

• Apple Intelligence will also upgrade the Photos app with a new clean-up tool that removes unwanted objects. Search in videos allows users to easily find specific snippets of content, and users can create Memories on-demand, using text to edit and organize photos into movies.

• In the Notes app, users can record and transcribe audio, which Apple Intelligence will generate a text summary of. This experience is also available in the Notes phone app.

• Apple Intelligence is free on iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and MacOS Sequoia, and will be available to try in English only this summer.

Partnership with OpenAI

• Apple also confirmed its partnership with OpenAI by integrating ChatGPT with Siri, which can send a request to ChatGPT for help with a user's permission. For example, if you ask Siri for assistance on a task it deems ChatGPT could answer better, Siri will suggest you use ChatGPT instead. ChatGPT's writing capabilities can also be leveraged within certain writing tasks.

• Users can access ChatGPT via this integration for free, and their data will not be logged by OpenAI. ChatGPT Plus users can connect their subscriptions to access more advanced features.

• The ChatGPT integration will be coming to iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and MacOS Sequoia later this year.

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