Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) 2025, which concluded yesterday, June 9, has unveiled a suite of significant updates primarily focused on a new visual design language, a streamlined naming convention for its operating systems, and a more pragmatic approach to Artificial Intelligence. The keynote, attended by over 1,000 developers at Apple Park, underscored a commitment to platform refinement and empowering developers.
The ‘Liquid Glass’ Era: A Unified Aesthetic Across All Apple OSes
The most prominent announcement from WWDC 2025 was the introduction of “Liquid Glass,” a groundbreaking design language set to redefine the visual experience across iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS. This translucent, shimmering aesthetic, drawing inspiration from the Vision Pro’s interface, will unify the appearance of app icons, buttons, media controls, and various user interface elements.
Craig Federighi, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Software Engineering, highlighted that this new design not only fosters greater consistency but also paves the way for a unified version numbering system. Moving forward, all of Apple’s operating systems will adopt a year-based naming convention, dropping previous numerical versions. This means the new iPhone operating system, slated for release this autumn, will be known as iOS 26, followed by iPadOS 26, macOS Tahoe 26, watchOS 26, tvOS 26, and visionOS 26. This marks the first major iOS design overhaul since iOS 7 in 2013, aiming for a fresh and modern feel across the entire system.
Apple Intelligence: A Focus on Practical, On-Device AI
Building on previous AI ventures, Apple adopted a more grounded strategy for Artificial Intelligence at WWDC 2025, emphasizing practical, user-centric enhancements under the Apple Intelligence umbrella. The company prioritized on-device processing for privacy and efficiency.
Key AI features introduced include:
- Live Translation: Seamlessly integrated into Messages, FaceTime, and Phone apps, this feature enables automatic translation of text messages, live captioning on FaceTime calls, and real-time spoken translations during phone conversations, effectively breaking down language barriers.
- Visual Intelligence Upgrade: Expanding beyond basic camera recognition, Visual Intelligence in iOS 26 can now analyze content directly on the iPhone screen. Users can search for items spotted in chat apps, automatically add event details from an image to their calendar, or even ask questions about on-screen content, with options to leverage ChatGPT for broader queries (with explicit user permission).
- Workout Buddy (watchOS 26): For Apple Watch users, this AI-powered fitness coach provides personalized motivational insights, workout summaries, and encouraging voice prompts based on individual training data and health history.
- Smarter Spotlight (macOS Tahoe 26): Spotlight search receives significant AI enhancements, offering more personalized results, summarizing text, comparing items, and enabling quick actions through short key commands and “quick keys” for rapid task execution. It also now includes a clipboard history.
🚨 iOS 26 Unveiled at WWDC 2025!
– Liquid Glass design with translucent UI and new cursor
– Customizable Home Screen folders with emojis/colors
– Live Activities for real-time app updates
– New Phone and Journal apps via Continuity
– Intelligent Shortcuts with automation… pic.twitter.com/5DGw1KkcD3— Autonomics Web (@AutonomicsWeb) June 10, 2025
- Call Screening & Hold Assist (iOS 26): These new features assist users with incoming calls. Call Screening provides information about the caller and their reason for calling, allowing users to decide whether to answer. Hold Assist allows users to ignore hold music and be notified when a live agent becomes available.
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A significant move for developers is the introduction of the Foundation Models framework. This grants developers direct access to Apple’s on-device foundation models that power Apple Intelligence, enabling them to build powerful, private, and offline AI-powered features directly into their applications with minimal coding.
iPadOS 26 and Gaming: Enhanced Productivity and Immersive Experiences
iPad users can look forward to substantial improvements in multitasking with iPadOS 26. A new windowing system offers greater flexibility for resizing and arranging app windows, alongside a Mac-like menu bar and an enhanced Files app, bringing the iPad closer to a desktop-class experience. The new Exposé feature allows for quick overviews of all open windows.
For gamers, Apple unveiled a new Games app, a centralized hub for discovering and launching Arcade games, tracking achievements, viewing leaderboards, and connecting with friends for multiplayer challenges across Mac, iPhone, and iPad. This app aims to streamline the gaming experience on Apple devices. The conference also saw the exciting announcement of PlayStation VR2 Sense controllers support for visionOS 26, expanding gaming possibilities for the Apple Vision Pro headset, offering 6DoF positional tracking, finger touch detection, and vibration support.
Other notable announcements include updates to CarPlay with the “Liquid Glass” aesthetic and new widgets, “Intelligent actions” for Shortcuts, enhanced Genmoji (allowing users to combine emojis and descriptions to create new ones, and modify personal attributes like hairstyles) and Image Playground for creative expression (now with new artistic styles and ChatGPT integration for image generation), and upgrades to Personas in visionOS 26 for more realistic digital representations. The Journal app also makes its debut on macOS Tahoe 26, offering cross-device syncing.
WWDC 2025 underscored Apple’s strategic direction: a unified, visually appealing user experience, coupled with practical, privacy-centric AI integrations designed to make daily tasks more efficient and enjoyable. Developer betas for the new operating systems are available now, with public betas anticipated in July, and the final widespread releases expected in the fall.
