Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, which begins later on Monday, will do little to assuage fears that the iPhone maker is a laggard in AI. Instead, the event will focus on design and productivity enhancements for its long-established operating system franchises.
The company’s keynote address, which begins at 7pm SAST on Monday, will introduce redesigned software interfaces for the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV and Apple Watch, in addition to more minor tweaks to the Vision Pro headset.
Read: Sam Altman and Jony Ive’s big bet to out-Apple Apple
As part of the end-to-end overhaul, the company is also making a sweeping change to its software branding, which will shift from version numbers to a year-based system. That means Apple will introduce iOS 26, iPadOS 26, tvOS 26, visionOS 26, macOS 26 and watchOS 26 — named for 2026. Internally, the operating systems are known as Luck, Charisma, Discovery, Cheer and Nepali, respectively.
The Mac operating system will still retain its California landmark theme, with this year’s release known as macOS Tahoe. While the design changes will make up a notable portion of the keynote, the company will also discuss its Apple Intelligence AI strategy. On that front, Apple will let third-party developers begin tapping into its large language models — the underpinnings of generative artificial intelligence. The company also is introducing iPad enhancements that will make the device better suited for office work and unveiling significant new features for the Mac.
The AI changes will be surprisingly minor and are unlikely to impress industry watchers, especially considering the rapid pace of innovation by Google, Meta Platforms, Microsoft and OpenAI.
Apple was already slow to launch its AI platform last year and indefinitely delayed a revamp of the Siri voice assistant. In a symptom of its struggles, it recently shook up management of its AI operation by removing the Siri and robotics teams from the command of its artificial intelligence chief.
Everything to expect
Google last month, meanwhile, introduced more powerful models and additional AI search features at its developers conference last month. It also unveiled new AI subscription services and a way to make realistic videos with simple prompts.
Apple is facing potential competition from another source as well. Jony Ive, the company’s former design chief who helped create the original iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch, has teamed up with OpenAI’s Sam Altman to develop new hardware devices. Samsung Electronics is also moving deeper into AI, planning an extensive partnership with the start-up Perplexity.
Here is everything to expect from Apple’s WWDC event, including details that haven’t been reported until now:
Operating system design and features
- The standout announcement will be a brand-new interface for all of Apple’s operating systems, including CarPlay. The new look — code-named Solarium internally — is based on visionOS, the software on the Vision Pro headset. The main interface element will be digital glass. In a nod to the code name, which won’t be used externally, there will be more use of light and transparency throughout the operating systems. Tool and tab bars will look different, and there will be redesigned app icons and other buttons. There’s also a strong focus on the use of pop-out menus, meaning users can click a button to get a quick list of additional options. On the Mac, the menu bar and window buttons will also get fresh designs.
- While there has been speculation that the app icons will be round to match the style on the Apple Watch and Vision Pro, the shape is staying largely the same on the iPhone and iPad.
- Widgets for the iPhone, iPad and Mac — customisable views on the homescreen for weather data, stock tickers and appointments — have been redesigned to match the new interface. But they largely function the same way as they do today and aren’t a bigger piece of the user experience.
- Though most of the core apps on iOS and iPadOS won’t get overhauls beyond the design changes, three of them are due for significant revamps: the Phone, Safari and Camera apps.
- The Phone app hasn’t changed much since the original version of what was then called iPhone OS in 2007. For iOS 26, Apple is introducing a new view that combines favourite contacts, recent calls and voicemails into a single, scrollable window. This modernised approach is optional, and users can toggle to the legacy interface with a button in the Phone app itself.
- Safari is getting a significantly updated look, highlighted by a more transparent and glassy address bar.
- The Camera app will be revamped with a focus on simplicity. Apple has added several new photo and video-taking options in recent years — including spatial video, panorama and slow-motion recording — and that’s made today’s interface a bit clunky. In iOS 26 and iPadOS 26, Apple is rethinking the approach.
- Messages is getting a notable upgrade as well, with a focus on going after Meta’s WhatsApp and other modern messaging apps. The two main changes are the ability to create polls and set a background image. The backgrounds will sync between devices, including those of other users, meaning that you and the people you are chatting with have the same look.
- A00pple is bringing its longstanding Preview app from macOS to iPadOS and iOS for the first time, giving iPad and iPhone users an in-house solution to PDF management, annotation and editing. The software looks similar to the Mac version, and its launch screen is in the same style as apps like Pages and Keynote. It includes a big logo on the top portion of the screen advertising the Preview name and a gallery of document options below it. The app will be preinstalled rather than launch via the App Store.
- Another preinstalled app is Games. It puts game downloading and access to Apple’s Arcade platform in one place, looking like a games-centric version of the App Store. The app has five tabs: Home, Arcade, Play Together, Library and Search. On the heels of the Nintendo Switch 2 launch, Apple is hopeful that the new app can make its mobile devices a bigger part of the gaming industry. But this new app is unlikely to do the trick and is fairly underwhelming.
- The Apple Vision Pro will get support for eye scrolling — a new approach for moving up and down through documents and webpages, as well as within homegrown and third-party apps.
- Apple is also preparing to give so-called magic wand support to the Vision Pro. That means customers will be able to use third-party hand controllers, such as the ones sold by Sony Group for the PlayStation VR console. These hand controllers are distinct from standard game controllers and can be used to mimic specific hand movements. They’re ideal for gaming and creating a virtual wand for navigating visionOS.
- Apple is completely revamping multitasking features on the iPad to be more Mac-like. The new functionality may require a user to be hooked up to a keyboard and trackpad, such as the company’s Magic Keyboard.
- The Apple Pencil is getting an upgrade to include a digital reed calligraphy pen. The keyboard on iOS and iPadOS, meanwhile, will include a bidirectional mode to move between Arabic and English.
- The company is planning a feature to sync captive wireless network details across devices. This means if you log in at a gym, hotel or office building on one device, it will automatically log you in on other devices.
New AI-related features
- The most notable AI upgrade — that consumers can see — will be a systemwide push into translation. The company launched its Translate app a few years ago, and now the functionality is getting integrated across its operating systems as an Apple Intelligence feature. The main use will be live translation of phone calls and text messages. At the same time, the company is also preparing translations of live conversations for AirPods wearers. Google has offered many of these features on Android for several years.
- The biggest AI-related announcement for developers will be the company opening up its foundation models, the large language models that power Apple Intelligence, for the first time. This will let outside app creators build their own AI features using the same technology Apple relied on to make Writing Tools, Genmoji custom emoji and its summarisation technology.
- Genmoji, one of the more popular Apple Intelligence features, is getting a small upgrade. For the first time, users will be able to create a Genmoji by combining a pair of existing standard emoji (for instance, turning a basketball and a trash can into a basketball going into the can).
- The company will introduce an upgraded Shortcuts app, its software that allows users to create quick shortcuts for actions across its operating systems. It will use the Apple Intelligence models.
- Apple has also developed an upgraded version of its foundation models that it plans to announce for both on-device and cloud use. Developers will have access to the on-device version.
- Apple is preparing a battery optimisation mode that uses AI to save power on its iPhones. This functionality may come later, though, as it was developed in concert with the company’s slimmer iPhone 17 model, which isn’t slated for release until later this year. The technology is well-suited to that device since the phone is going to have a smaller battery.
- Apple has been working to add Google’s Gemini software as an alternative to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which works with Siri and the Writing Tools. Though Google CEO Sundar Pichai hinted that an accord was imminent, Apple has no current plan to announce such integration at WWDC (there likely won’t be any public movement on this front until the US justice department makes its ruling on Google’s search deal with Apple).
- The company’s delayed Siri upgrade will eventually offer the ability to tap into personal data and on-device content, as well as more precisely control applications and in-app features. It’s still far out, and the company isn’t planning to showcase any significant new Siri features at this year’s event. A further revamped voice assistant, dubbed LLM Siri internally, is still probably a year or two away — at minimum — from being introduced.
- Apple is working on a revamped Calendar app for release across its platforms. It originally planned to introduce the software this year, but it’s been delayed and is now slated for the subsequent set of operating systems. Likely to be dubbed iOS 27 and macOS 27, next year’s software is already in development. Those upgrades are internally dubbed Buttercup and Honeycrisp, respectively.
- Apple has also been working on an end-to-end revamp of its Health app tied to an AI doctor-based service code-named Mulberry. Neither will be shown at WWDC and, due to delays, likely won’t be released at full scale until the end of next year at the earliest, as part of Buttercup. There will be smaller changes this year.
- Last year, the company announced Swift Assist, a feature for Xcode that could use Apple Intelligence to complete lines of code. It never launched because of hallucinations — a problem where AI makes up information — and other snags. The solution: a new version of Xcode that taps into third-party LLMs, either remotely or stored locally on the Mac. Apple is already using this internally with Claude from start-up Anthropic. — (c) 2025 Bloomberg LP
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