WWDC 2025 Keynote: The AppleVis Recap

Welcome to WWDC 2025

As has been the case for many years now, Apple kicked off this year's Worldwide Developers Conference by announcing all the major software changes coming to all your favorite devices later this year. We got a look at everything we can expect in iOS 19, watchOS 12, and... No, wait, that's not right--they changed the name!

For the first time in the history of iOS and watchOS, and (arguably) the second time since macOS came out, we have new numbers. All of Apple's software is now numbered like a car: the year after the first release. This fall, we will get iOS 26, watchOS 26, tvOS 26, and so on. Let's explore what version 26 will bring us when it comes out this fall.

Shared Experiences

There are a few things that are coming to most or all of Apple's products, so let's cover those first.

Messages: Translations, Screening, and More

Messages on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch will gain several new abilities. I hope you don't mind if I skip over the ability to combine emojis and use AI to alter Genmoji, locally or with ChatGPT. I'll also not mention the ability to add custom backgrounds to your messages.

If you correspond with someone who speaks another language, you'll be happy to hear that Messages can now translate. If you type a message in English, someone who uses Spanish on their phone will see a translation. They can respond in Spanish, and you'll get an English translation. This is all done right on your devices, with no cloud service seeing the text of your messages.

Group messages have been improved. Typing indicators for each participant, support for Apple Cash, and polls are all coming. Of the three, polls might be the most intriguing.

Say you're in a chat with four of your friends, and you decide to meet for lunch. As of now, you have to sort through a bunch of messages from everyone to try to work out what people are suggesting and what everyone would prefer. In this update, though, any of you can simply create a poll. Or, Apple Intelligence will notice that a group decision is being worked on and suggest that a poll be made. Either way, you get a poll for where to go to lunch. All five of you can vote as well as add choices. Once everyone votes, you know where everyone wants to eat. Plus, after lunch, you can use Apple Cash right in that group conversation to send money around as necessary.

Finally, messages from unknown numbers are treated a bit differently now. They are held in their own area, with special options. You can get more details, mark a number/email address as "known" (thus treating the message like a normal one), or delete them.

Phone: New Design, New Call Features

The Phone app has a new, simpler interface. As of now, it seems that you can choose whether to actually use it. If you do, you'll find a single screen combining your favorite contacts, recent calls, and voicemails. A button below all this will bring up the keypad. If you turn this new feature off, the app will stay how you're used to.

Another improvement should be a welcome one for VoiceOver users. As of now, in order to get to a voicemail's transcription when in the Phone app, you have to play the voicemail. This drops VoiceOver's audio quality and makes it very annoying to find the pause button or review the text. In version 26, a summary will appear next to each voicemail, with no need to play it. We can only hope that there will be an option to read the full transcription, also without playing anything.

There are two more new features in the Phone app which, if they work, will make a lot of people very happy.

First, call screening has been improved. Now, if you turn this on, unknown numbers will be prompted to leave a message and explain why they are calling. Only after they have done so will your phone actually ring. When it rings, you will see a transcription of the message the caller left.

Second, waiting on hold just got a whole lot nicer. Your iPhone, iPad, or Mac will listen for hold music and ask if you want to enable Hold Assist. You can also trigger it manually. With this on, the call remains connected, but you don't need to listen to it. You can keep using your device as normal. When the voice of a human on the other end of the call is detected, a message is spoken asking them to wait a moment, and you are sent a notification. You can resume the call, having avoided waiting for minutes or hours on hold.

Why is all this about phone calls in the "shared experiences" section? Because, at long last, iPad and Mac are getting a Phone app. No longer do you have to use FaceTime to make a phone call from one of these devices; you can open the Phone app to make a phone call, and your call history will sync between devices.

Live Translation

Messages isn't the only app that can speak multiple languages in these upcoming updates. Phone, FaceTime, and any other audio/video calling apps that use the right APIs can do the same trick. Best of all, it's all local, so Apple isn't sending your recordings to a server somewhere. You also don't need internet access for this to work.

For video calls or chat apps, the translation appears in text form. For audio-only apps, like Phone, a voice will speak the translation. Voice translations seem to work in chunks. Speak a sentence or two, pause to let the synthesized voice repeat your words in the other language, then continue.

Apple Music: Lyrics, Pins, and AutoMix

There are only three new Apple Music features this year. Well, four, but karaoke mode is exclusive to Apple TV. The three features available on iPhone, iPad, and Mac are the following.

First, you can pin artists, albums, and playlists. Pinned items will always be at the top of your homepage, ready to listen to.

Second, lyrics have translations and pronunciations available. No longer do you have to wonder what that K-Pop song actually means.

Third, Apple Music can now transition between songs much more seamlessly with something called Automix. It can adjust the speed of the current song as it ends, matching the beat of the song about to play, then fade the first out as the second starts. This provides a much smoother listening experience, if you prefer it.

Apple Intelligence

I've mentioned it already, and you knew it was coming. I'll keep this short.

Apple Intelligence continues to improve, with a better model now backing it. It is also expanding to both offer and do more, as you've already read. Voicemail summaries, Visual Intelligence features, live translations, and a lot more are all powered by Apple Intelligence. It runs locally, and is even available for app developers. Apps can use the local AI model to crunch their own data, without the user needing to be online and with no risk of sensitive data leaving the device.

Liquid Glass

The last feature shared by all the updates this year is Liquid Glass. I won't spend much time on this, because most of you reading this can't see it, and the changes seem to be entirely visual. I can't see it, either, so I'm only able to parrot Apple's description.

Liquid Glass is a common theme from Apple Watch up to the largest Mac. It turns interface controls, like buttons and tab bars, translucent. They refract and reflect light like real glass, or so Apple designers claim. The glass-like interface reacts to device movement, on-screen colors, ambient light, and more. Some elements, like the address bar in Safari, will shrink out of the way as you scroll toward them, making more room for the content. Some elements will unfold out of others, instead of appearing elsewhere on the screen.

The point is, it's pretty, it's new, it's unlikely to make much difference to VoiceOver users. Low vision users may be very concerned about legibility. The good news is that it seems like you can customize this new look, either turning it down or turning it off completely. While low vision people should remain wary, and maybe test the betas on non-essential devices so they can offer feedback, I think it's fair to say Apple has a good track record for keeping things usable for as many people as they can. If we can't tone down the glass-like appearance enough for low vision users to still use their devices, I'll be very surprised. Now, Apple, please don't prove me wrong!

iOS 26

Liquid Glass, changes to Phone and Messages, and live translations are all part of this iOS update. There's still a whole lot more to talk about, though.

Maps: Visited Locations and Common Routes

Maps can now take note of where you go and how you get there. Don't worry, it's fully encrypted, and you can turn it off. If you leave it on, though, you get some pretty cool features.

Maps will remember where you visit, and add it to a list of visited locations. If you can't remember the name of that restaurant you visited on vacation last summer, just look back at your visited places. You can delete individual places if you want to, or opt out entirely.

Maps can also learn your common routes over time. This lets your phone do some interesting things, such as automatically estimate how long a route will take, or alert you ahead of time if there is a delay on your normal route. You can then have it plot you an alternative.

Camera and Safari Have New Designs

The Camera app has been reworked to be more intuitive and less cluttered. The only modes available by default are photo and video; you can access more by swiping to the right. The extra camera controls are hidden and can be accessed with a swipe up. There's no word on customization, but we'll discover that once people get their hands on the betas.

Safari also got a makeover, though not to the same degree as Phone and Camera. The bottom bar now holds controls that are most often used, though it's not clear if that means the controls change over time or are static. The overall goal is to have fewer things on the screen to make more room for the content of the webpage.

Wallet: SmartOrders, Boarding Pass Notifications, and Digital Passports

Wallet lets U.S. citizens store a digital version of their passport. While this is very much not a replacement for a physical passport, it can be accepted at certain TSA and other checks. The details of this program were left somewhat vague during the presentation.

Wallet now also offers deeper integration with boarding passes. For instance, it can offer to send someone a message when your plane lands.

Speaking of integration, Wallet's order tracking feature will pull in data from messages, emails, and other sources. It aims to give you a better overview of your order. For instance, it might have a link back to the store where you made the purchase, or notice an email with updated tracking and automatically update the order to have the new tracking number.

Games

Apple has a new central hub for all things gaming, and I'll bet you can guess what the app is called. Yep, it's called Games.

The Games app has a home tab where new activity, updates, and recommendations for games you're playing will appear. It's a collection of information on your games as well as things you might want to do or know about those games.

Another tab shows you every game you've ever downloaded, so you can dive straight into a favorite, or find one you haven't played in a while and give it another shot.

The goal is similar to what Game Center was many years ago: a gaming hub for challenges, leaderboards, how your friends are doing, and more.

Visual Intelligence Works with Screenshots

This isn't new, but it's been improved. Last year, Visual Intelligence could analyze a picture you took with your phone and give you related information. A restaurant's menu and reviews, where to buy a pair of shoes, that sort of thing.

This year, iOS 26 expands this ability to screenshots. When you take a screenshot, there will be a new row of AI-related buttons at the bottom of the screen. You can search for similar images, extract text to add an event to your calendar, ask ChatGPT about the image, and more.

watchOS 26

Let's talk about Apple Watch next. The updates aren't as extensive, but they're still very intriguing. Mostly.

Workout Buddy, Your AI Trainer

Yes, you read that right. Apple cloned the voices of several Apple Fitness Plus instructors, and uses your preferred voice to motivate you during workouts. A "you can do it" when you start a run, or an encouraging summary, or an excited note that you just beat a personal record. Workout Buddy (that's the official name) pulls your entire workout history--zones, pace, workout frequency, preferred activities, and more--to customize itself to you. It not only motivates, but it seems like a good way to get summaries or milestone updates. Things like a note that you just ran your fastest mile, or you only have eighteen minutes until you fill your exercise ring.

This won't be for everyone, but if you get motivation from having someone give you this sort of encouragement, turn this feature on and see what you think. I say that anything that gets people to exercise is great, so I'm happy to have one more tool someone can try. Plus, it seems very useful to have information about records and goals neatly summarized and spoken aloud. Note that you need to have an iPhone nearby that supports Apple Intelligence for this to work.

Other Workout Features: New Design, New Music

The Workout app has been updated. It's easier to make a customized workout, or try to beat your own records.

You can also now choose music in a few ways, all of which require Apple Music. You can let Apple choose for you, you can select a playlist manually, or you can accept a suggestion. The latter changes as you use it, recommending music you often listen to during similar workouts.

Smart Stack and Notifications

Apple says that a new and improved algorithm powers the Smart Stack in watchOS 26, which should cause suggested widgets to be more relevant. Smart Stack also has a new power: it can suggest things.

An indicator will appear when there's a suggested action, called a hint. Open the Smart Stack or tap the indicator to see what Apple Intelligence thinks you might want to do. Maybe it offers to start a strength training workout when you get to the gym, or run your "good night" scene when it gets late enough.

Notifications are nicer, at least in theory. Apple Watch will lower the volume of notification sounds if you're in a quiet area, making those random dings and chimes less intrusive. If you raise your wrist and find you want to dismiss a notification, perform the new wrist flick gesture by turning your wrist away from you until the watch is facing the ground, then bring your wrist back up. For now, this only works on Series 9, Series 10, and Ultra 2.

Other Changes: Messages, Notes, Third-Party Widgets

Most of the features coming to Messages on other platforms are coming to watchOS--backgrounds, translation, and more.

There is now a Notes app on Apple Watch. I don't yet know which features it will have, but it's there.

Developers can now make custom widgets for the Smart Stack and Control Center. Even better, these widgets can trigger based on your location and other data. For instance, the Slopes app might add itself to the Smart Stack when you arrive at a ski lodge.

tvOS 26

There's not nearly as much in this update, but if you're a singer, or like to pretend you are, keep reading.

Single sign-on makes setting up a new Apple TV far easier. No longer do you need to sign into every streaming app. If this works how Apple says, you can just sign in automatically using your iPhone.

Now for the fun one: karaoke. The feature is actually called Apple Music Sing, and it--of course--requires Apple Music. Using your iPhone as a microphone, you can sing along to any song you want. Apple TV will play the backing track and your voice, and will show you both the lyrics and their pronunciation. There's not yet information on how to immortalize your epic singing sessions, but I'm sure that'll be supported.

macOS 26 Tahoe

They may have changed the number, but they didn't drop the naming tradition. Tahoe includes all the same features and design changes for Messages and phone, automatic translation, Liquid Glass across the whole system, and more. But it has some seriously powerful features all its own.

Supercharged Spotlight

Spotlight gains superpowers in macOS 26. With the new support for shortcut actions to tap into Apple Intelligence, and Spotlight's ability to let you run those actions just by starting to type what you want, you can get a lot done quickly. The demo today showed someone dropping an image into Pages, then starting to type "background removal" into Spotlight. As soon as there was a match, he pressed enter and the image's background was gone. Actions, items in the current app's menu, recent files, frequently accessed files, even apps on your iPhone are all fair game for Spotlight.

But that's not all. You can use letter sequences to perform actions. Tahoe comes with a few, and you can make your own. For example, type "sm", then a message, and macOS will send the message. Or, maybe you message a certain group a lot. Make a shortcut that sends your input to that group, and give it a key sequence. Type your assigned letters, then your message, and hit enter. Your message is sent to the group.

iPhone Integrations: Live Activities, Apps, Phone

As mentioned, macOS 26 gains its very own Phone app, which syncs your call history and voicemails. If you want to open other apps that are stored on your phone with Spotlight on your Mac, you can. Doing so will immediately launch the app in mirror mode on macOS.

Live activities on your phone will now appear on your Mac. Activating one will, as you probably guessed, open that app in mirror mode. You can set up a grocery order on your phone, then watch its progress on your Mac via the live activity. If you want to make a change to it, just open the activity and the app will be there, mirrored on your Mac, ready to go.

Customizing Everything

Tahoe lets you customize even more than before. You can change how Liquid Glass looks. You can change the layout of your menus. You can change your Control Center. You can even add custom icons and colors to folders, and, for iCloud Drive folders, those icons will sync to your other devices.

visionOS 26

I realize how few of you care about visionOS, so I'll keep this short. It was a section in the announcements, so I feel like I have to at least hit the highlights. Just move to the next heading if you don't care.

• This visionOS update gains more customization options, with new widgets you can pin in space.
• Personas look even more life-like.
• Two users can sync their experience so they can watch the same content together, each on their own headset.
• Sharing a Vision Pro is easier, since the headset can use an iPhone to authenticate a user and load their saved settings.
• The owner of a Vision Pro can lock certain content away so no one else borrowing their headset can see it.
• visionOS supports spacial video formats from Canon, Insta360, and Go Pro. It also supports third-party spacial input controllers.
• Normal photos can now be algorithmically converted to spacial ones.

There, we're done with visionOS.

iPadOS 26

By now, you know how this starts--iPadOS gains translations, the new Phone and Messages apps, all that stuff. You read the part about shared experiences. Let's get to the stuff specific to iPad.

New Window Manager

Apple is fixing the multi-tasking experience on iPad, bringing what a lot of power users have been asking for over the last several years. Instead of opening two windows side by side with an optional floating window in front, you can now treat apps on iPad a lot like you would on Mac.

When you open an app, it opens to fill the screen, as usual. But now there's a small handle in the corner. Use this to change the window's size and location. Then, go to the dock or home screen and open another app, repeating the process. Swipe apps to the edges of the screen to tile them. Use the new Exposé feature to get an overview of everything you have open and manage it all.

In short, window management is extremely flexible and powerful, or so it seems from the demos. We don't know details like limits on the number of open windows yet. Still, it's a huge improvement over what we had before, and a lot of people will be thrilled to get their hands on this.

New and Improved Apps: Preview, Journal, and Files

The Journal app is coming to iPad, as is Preview. The latter will make dealing with PDFs on iPad a whole lot easier.

The Files app isn't new, but it gains some very nice features. Folders can be added to the dock, folder icons and colors sync from your Mac, you can re-size the columns of information, expanding and collapsing folders now works much better, and you can drag files between folders in the dock.

Other Changes

Here are the other features and changes that aren't really enough to have their own sections.

• iPad now has a menu bar, similar to the File, Edit, View, and other menus on macOS
• you can choose iPad's default audio input, making it simpler to deal with external microphones
• AirPods can be used to start and stop video recording, and gain a new enhanced audio mode that Apple claims is good enough for high-quality voice recordings
• apps can handle long-running tasks (video exports, uploads, that sort of thing) in the background, with live activities showing their progress
• everyone on a video or audio call can record just themselves, sending all the files to one person for editing into a final product

That's It

Those are the highlights. Of course, there are more details on Apple's announcement pages, and people are already finding things in the betas. Speaking of which, the release schedule is the usual: developer betas today, public betas in July, public release sometime this fall. As always, do not install betas on devices you can't afford to wipe and/or be without. They are betas for a reason.

What are you looking forward to the most? I like a lot of things in macOS Tahoe, and the Workout Buddy thing might be fun. If developers get on board, custom Smart Stack hints and widgets could be very powerful. It will also be fun to see how helpful the new Visual Intelligence on iPhone is with inaccessible social media posts and the like.

Tell me what piqued your interest, or what disappointed you. And remember, be careful with those betas!