Throughout Apple’s WWDC 2025 keynote at the moment, the corporate revealed iOS 26 and the brand new, unified working system naming construction, launched a framework permitting any app on iOS to make use of Apple Intelligence, and extra.
The brand new working system will likely be accessible for obtain at no cost on relevant gadgets this fall.
“This 12 months’s occasion was not about disruptive innovation, however reasonably cautious calibration, platform refinement and developer enablement – positioning itself for future strikes reasonably than unveiling game-changing applied sciences within the current,” stated Francisco Jeronimo, vp of analyst agency IDC, in an electronic mail to TechRepublic.
Apple emphasizes translucent design with Liquid Glass
Apple is standardizing its working system naming throughout gadgets and tying the names to the discharge 12 months, with 2026 bringing the brand new design language to iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS. iOS additionally comes with a brand new design language, which Apple calls Liquid Glass. It’s the largest redesign since iOS 7, stated Craig Federighi, Apple SVP Software program Engineering.
On macOS, the subsequent working system will likely be macOS Tahoe 26. The Liquid Glass design makes app icons and widgets look clear, and refracts photographs behind UI components.
Liquid Glass modifications the looks of floating design components relying on context and content material. Extra design components now characteristic rounded edges to echo the rounded edges of the {hardware}. The colour of components morphs with the content material and seems to drift above apps, altering between views. The lock display screen, dock, and cellular notifications will likely be clear and seem to drift above content material.
iOS 26 brings barely expanded generative AI options and Cellphone high quality of life updates
The Cellphone app may have a brand new format, with Favorites on the high of a consolidated menu. iOS 26 will display screen incoming calls, routinely answering calls from unknown numbers with out notifying the person. If the caller shares their identify and motive for calling, the cellphone will show a transcript of the greeting and the person can decide up. One other new characteristic, Maintain Help, routinely detects maintain music and listens for a reside agent, ringing once more when the cellphone assistant hears an actual particular person.
Equally, Messages will display screen for spam and unknown numbers and routinely exile unknown senders to a spam folder. They received’t seem as notifications. Alternatively, the cellphone can detect time-sensitive messages from unknown numbers, like alerts from eating places {that a} desk is prepared.
Genmoji in Picture Playground is getting a slight improve, with the power to mix emoji. It has ChatGPT integration with its personal inventive kinds, too. Primarily, AI-generated photographs will likely be extra broadly accessible in Picture Playground. Builders can add the characteristic with the Picture Playground API.
In Messages, Apple is including background colours and designs which are shared with each folks within the name. Because of Apple Intelligence’s picture creation, customers can generate a background, too. Customers may even be capable to add polls and Apple Money requests in chats. Plus, typing indicators will now work in group chats. Apple Intelligence will be capable to carry out reside translation in Messages, too, and builders can hyperlink to reside translation via an API.
Basis Fashions framework lets app builders reap the benefits of on-device AI
Apple workers allegedly noticed the AI information that may be introduced at WWDC 2025 as a “letdown,” with few main modifications. As revealed on June 9, most modifications to Apple Intelligence are certainly small, with one exception: a framework permitting any app developer so as to add Apple Intelligence to what they create.
The key additions to Apple Intelligence throughout gadgets are:
- Dwell Translation in Messages, FaceTime, and Cellphone.
- Combine emoji collectively or apply a definite artwork type to Picture Playground photos with ChatGPT.
- Visible Intelligence now applies to any content material displayed on the iPhone display screen.
- Exercise Buddy on Apple Watch makes use of AI to investigate bodily efficiency.
Maybe most significantly, builders can now hook their apps to the on-device basis mannequin powering Apple Intelligence. Utilizing the Basis Fashions framework, app builders can add AI options with no price for cloud API.
“We predict this may ignite a complete new wave of intelligence experiences within the apps you employ day-after-day,” stated Federighi.
Members of the Apple Developer Program can begin testing out these new options at the moment. A public beta will open in July. Apple Intelligence is on the market on iPhone 15 Professional and later and iPad and Mac fashions with M1 and later, in choose languages.
One factor Apple by no means introduced? The revamped Siri that was alleged to carry the digital assistant into the generative AI period.
MacOS Tahoe 26 comes with Liquid Glass look and slight AI upgrades
macOS Tahoe 26, accessible this fall, brings the Liquid Glass aesthetic to the desktop and laptop computer. Together with Apple Intelligence options detailed beneath, macOS Tahoe has a redesigned Highlight search bar with AI aptitude. Highlight can counsel actions primarily based on the person’s traditional actions, or run shortcuts which customers can set utilizing pure language. For instance, a shortcut might allow a person to check the content material of a recording with notes from the identical occasion, with one button, utilizing the onboard AI.
As well as:
- The Cellphone app will reside in macOS Tahoe.
- Folder colours might be modified.
- A devoted Apple Video games app will sit inside macOS Tahoe.
VisionOS 26 lets Imaginative and prescient Professional customers work collectively extra simply
Modifications coming to the Imaginative and prescient Professional headset embody:
- Spacial widgets let customers pin objects like clocks or climate shows of their bodily setting.
- Shared Spatial Experiences let customers watch motion pictures collectively or work on the identical undertaking.
- Personas, Imaginative and prescient Professional’s avatars, have been polished for extra correct hair, lashes, and complexions. Customers can select from a choice of glasses for his or her Persona.
- Spatial Scenes add a three-dimensional look to two-dimensional photos. Some companies, like Zillow, have already utilized this impact to some photographs on their websites via the Spatial Scene API.
New iPadOS lets customers resize home windows
On the pill entrance, iPadOS 26 brings the identical Liquid Glass design language and Apple Intelligence options as on different gadgets. Another high quality of life upgrades have been designed to make engaged on collaborative initiatives simpler:
- Simply resize app home windows and open a number of home windows without delay.
- See Information within the Information app in additional element with extra customization and a collapsible or expandable Listing view.
- Run time-consuming processes within the background whereas the Background Duties alert retains you up to date on their progress.
As well as, builders can now customise how the menu bar seems in their very own apps for iPadOS.
Developer options will likely be in beta within the fall
Builders making apps for iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS Tahoe 26, watchOS 26, and tvOS 26 may have some new choices. Foremost is the Basis Fashions framework talked about above, which might rapidly hook builders as much as Apple Intelligence utilizing Swift.
Xcode 26 provides LLM connections
Xcode 26 connects on to giant language fashions (if the developer chooses to take action), enabling them to code, take a look at, and write documentation. It really works with ChatGPT, native fashions (if used on a Mac with Apple silicon), or any fashions for which builders have API keys. Coding Instruments in Xcode 26 reply to pure language prompts, in addition to suggesting actions primarily based on exercise.
App Intents helps visible intelligence
App Intents is Apple’s portal for integrating content material into particular options like Siri, Highlight, widgets, or controls. Now, App Intents helps visible intelligence, increasing the AI querying characteristic to any picture an app can show.
Declared Age Vary API provides builders an choice to reasonable content material
One other new characteristic, the Declared Age Vary API, lets builders immediate customers to share their age vary, enabling app makers to partition content material that might not be appropriate for youthful youngsters.
Swift 6.2 consists of assist for WebAssembly and extra
Lastly, Apple’s app-building programming language Swift has reached model 6.2. The brand new model provides:
- Assist for WebAssembly.
- Improved interoperability with different languages, resembling C++ and Java.
Swift 6.2 additionally permits builders to configure modules or particular person information to run on the primary actor by default, leading to extra seamless compilation of single-threaded code.
All of those developer choices can be found for testing now, with a public beta coming in July.