Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) took place on June 9, 2025. Unlike previous years, this year’s keynote didn’t include any new hardware announcements. Instead, Apple chose to focus entirely on software, unveiling major updates across all its platforms — iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS.
One of the key takeaways? Apple is streamlining its version naming. All platforms now share a unified version number: 26. That includes iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 26, watchOS 26, tvOS 26, and visionOS 26.
Part 1：iOS 26
Apple officially moved to the “26” naming to reflect its intention to support this version well into 2026.
✨ Liquid Glass: A Stunning New Visual Style
iOS 26 debuts a brand-new design language called Liquid Glass, bringing a more translucent, layered, and dimensional interface across the system. Buttons, icons, and even the Control Center have been redesigned with this immersive aesthetic.
Photo credit: APPLE
Users can now customize app icons and widgets more deeply, including support for dark mode, light mode, and a fully transparent icon style.
The Camera and Photos apps have also received a major revamp, now reflecting the Liquid Glass design. The camera UI is more streamlined and intuitive:
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The main screen features just two modes at the bottom: Photo and Video
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A swipe up reveals advanced settings
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3D-like effects make your photos feel more dynamic and immersive
Apple Intelligence & Visual Intelligence
Apple Intelligence powers several major new experiences:
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Live Translation: Real-time voice translation in FaceTime, phone calls, and Messages
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Visual Intelligence: System-wide content recognition—your iPhone can now understand objects in screenshots or your camera view, extract dates, times, and locations, and suggest events or reminders
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Genmoji & Image Playground: Mix and match your favorite emojis and generate new ones using prompts, giving you creative ways to express yourself
Smarter Phone Calls
The Phone app in iOS 26 gets a full overhaul:
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Favorites, recent calls, and voicemail are now unified in a single view
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Improved Call Screening helps block spam calls
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A new Hold Assist feature makes waiting on hold more manageable
Messages Gets More Social
The Messages app continues to evolve with new features aimed at groups and social communication:
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Typing indicators in group chats
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Polls, bill-splitting, and Apple Cash transfers
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Custom chat backgrounds and isolation for messages from unknown senders
🧭 App & System-Wide Improvements
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Safari: Full-screen edge-to-edge browsing
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Maps: New features like Visited Places, flight tracking, and daily route suggestions
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Camera: Simplified UI with clearer navigation between photos and video
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New Games App: A standalone app combining Apple Arcade titles, friend challenges, and curated gaming content
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CarPlay: Multi-dashboard support, widget integration, and flight info display
Part 2 watchOS 26
With watchOS 26, Apple brings the Liquid Glass design language to the wrist, delivering a more dynamic and polished look across the entire interface. From Smart Stack to photo watch faces, from the Control Center to in-app browsing—everything feels more fluid and modern.
Powered by Apple Intelligence
watchOS 26 takes full advantage of Apple’s new AI features, delivering smarter fitness tracking and real-time assistance:
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Workout Buddy: Your new virtual coach. It analyzes heart rate, distance, pace, and your Activity Rings to provide voice-based encouragement, live feedback, and performance summaries after your workouts—including milestone achievements.
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Smarter Workout Integration: The built-in Workout app now includes context-aware music suggestions. Apple Music will intelligently curate playlists based on the type of workout and your music preferences. You can also manually select playlists or podcasts tailored to your routine.
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Smart Stack Suggestions: Based on location, time of day, and behavior, Smart Stack now proactively surfaces relevant apps and widgets. For example, arriving at a yoga studio may trigger a Pilates widget, or a hike in a remote area may prompt you to use Backtrack.
Photo credite: APPLE
Enhanced Gestures and Interaction
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Single-Hand Gestures: On Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10, and Ultra models, a simple flick of the wrist can now dismiss notifications, decline calls, stop timers or alarms, and return to the watch face—perfect for single-hand use.
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Adaptive Audio Volume: Your Apple Watch can now intelligently adjust audio levels for calls, Siri, and alerts based on ambient noise—making it more convenient in all kinds of environments.
Smarter Messaging on the Wrist
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Live Translation: On Series 9/10 and Ultra 2, Apple Intelligence enables real-time message translation and response suggestions. Supported languages include English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Portuguese, and Simplified Chinese.
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Smart Replies & Context-Aware Suggestions: watchOS 26 can now offer instant replies based on ongoing conversations, like triggering a Check-In, or surfacing polls, backgrounds, and other interactive elements.
🆕 Additional Features in watchOS 26
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Notes App on Apple Watch: You can now view, create, and check off to-do lists directly on your wrist.
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Hold Assist & Call Screening: The Phone app can detect when a support agent picks up, alerting you to hop on. It also improves spam filtering by showing caller origin and letting you block unknown numbers.
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Live Listen & Real-Time Captions: watchOS 26 supports controlling Live Listen remotely from the watch and now displays real-time captions from your iPhone directly on the watch face.
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New Watch Faces & Upgraded Gallery: The Photos face now supports highlighted slideshows, and the Watch Face Gallery is reorganized by collections for easier browsing.
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Part 3: tvOS 26
tvOS 26 introduces Apple’s new Liquid Glass design to the big screen, with a sleek, translucent look that reflects your surroundings and highlights your content.
Visual Upgrades
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Layered App Icons: Multi-layered icons with a glossy finish bring more depth to the Home screen.
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Multi-Poster Browsing: The Apple TV app now displays several content posters at once with a stylish glass effect for a richer viewing experience.
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Instant Profile on Wake: Apple TV shows your profile as soon as it wakes, giving quick access to personalized picks and Apple Music.
Music & Audio Features
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Apple Music Sing: Use your iPhone as a microphone for karaoke right on your Apple TV.
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Flexible AirPlay Output: Set any AirPlay-compatible speaker—not just HomePod—as your default audio output.
Part 4: macOS 26
Apple’s macOS 26, codenamed Tahoe, fully embraces the Liquid Glass design language. From the Dock to app icons and desktop widgets, everything features a sleek glass-like transparency.
The menu bar becomes completely clear, giving the impression of a larger, more immersive display. Users can now customize icons and folders with new colors and emoji support, adding a fresh layer of personalization.
Major Upgrades in macOS 26
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Spotlight Search Overhaul
Described as the “biggest upgrade ever,” Spotlight now offers smarter result ranking, expanded indexing of third-party cloud services, and improved retrieval of both web and local files. -
Native Phone App Comes to Mac
For the first time, macOS gains a native Phone app supporting call making and receiving, voicemail access, call screening, and Hold Assist functionality. -
Live Activities on Mac
Track real-time events—like deliveries, sports scores, and calendar reminders—directly in the menu bar without having to switch apps. -
Live Translation Across System
Real-time translation and live captions are now available in Messages, FaceTime, and phone calls, supporting text, video, and voice with seamless on-screen subtitles. -
New Game Center App
macOS 26 introduces a cross-platform Game Launcher that unifies Apple Arcade and App Store games, complete with friend leaderboards, achievements, and multiplayer invites. -
Accessibility Enhancements
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A system-wide Accessibility Reader mode for better content consumption
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Support for Magnifier paired with Continuity Camera
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New Braille Access interface for blind users
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Vehicle Motion Cues provide dynamic visual prompts to help reduce motion sickness while driving
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Improved Password Management
The Passwords app now tracks password history and change dates, helping users monitor account security and updates more effectively.
Photo credite: APPLE
Part 5: visionOS 26
In visionOS 26, widgets become fully spatial and highly customizable. Users can adjust frame width, color, and depth, allowing for a tailored 3D interface experience.
Apple also introduces Spatial Scenes and a Spatial Gallery feature that leverages the Vision Pro’s LiDAR sensors to create rich, immersive 3D environments. This gives users a strong sense of presence, as if truly inside the scene.
Shared spatial experiences have been greatly enhanced — not only can users share these environments with other Vision Pro users in the same room, but remote participants from around the world can also join via FaceTime, making collaboration and social interaction more natural and connected than ever.
Part 6：iPadOS 26
With iPadOS 26, Apple brings the Liquid Glass design language to the iPad lineup, aligning its aesthetics with iOS 26. From the redesigned Lock Screen and dynamic time display to refreshed app icons and widgets, the experience feels modern and cohesive. But beyond the look, Apple is doubling down on performance and productivity.
1. A More Powerful Multitasking and Windowing Experience
iPadOS 26 introduces a significantly upgraded multitasking system:
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Resizable and movable app windows, offering a desktop-class experience.
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Seamless integration with Stage Manager, allowing better control over app layouts.
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A new Mac-style menu bar, accessible via a downward swipe from the top edge, reveals app-specific options for quicker actions.
2. Files and Preview App Enhancements
File management gets a serious upgrade:
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The Files app now supports list view and adjustable column widths, bringing more control and clarity to file navigation.
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iPad finally gets a native Preview app, enabling users to view and annotate PDFs and images, with Apple Pencil compatibility for precision markup.
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Shop Now3. New Utility Apps: Journal, Apple Games, and Game Overlay
Apple is expanding the iPad's app ecosystem with several new additions:
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Journal comes to iPad with support for templates that accept typed text, handwriting, images, voice recordings, and even locations.
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Apple Games acts as a central hub to manage and access all your games in one place.
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Game Overlay allows players to adjust settings, chat, or invite friends—all without leaving the game screen.
4. Advanced Tools for Creators and Power Users
iPadOS 26 packs more creative and academic features:
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Mark-up tools introduce a new “reed pen”, optimized for Apple Pencil and supported across multiple apps.
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The Calculator app now supports 3-variable 3D graphing, perfect for advanced math and science users.
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Notes app gains Markdown import/export support, along with automatic transcription for phone call recordings, enhancing productivity.
5. Enhanced Accessibility Features
Apple continues to lead in accessibility:
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A new system-wide Reader Mode provides a focused reading experience.
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Braille Access gets smarter with better device integration.
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Users can now share accessibility settings across devices, simplifying setup for families or institutions.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
1. Should I upgrade now?
Since this is the first developer beta, bugs and system instability are expected. If your device is mission-critical, it’s best to hold off and wait for the public beta or official release.
2. Which iPhone models support iOS 26?
All iPhone 11 and newer models support iOS 26. This includes:
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iPhone 11 / 11 Pro / 11 Pro Max
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iPhone 12 series
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iPhone 13 series
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iPhone 14 series
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iPhone 15 series
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iPhone 16 series
Conclusion: The Future of Apple’s Ecosystem
As we’ve seen, WWDC 2025 marks a pivotal moment in Apple’s journey, with bold changes across all six platforms. From the sleek Liquid Glass design to groundbreaking features like Stage Manager and Game Overlay, Apple is clearly focused on pushing the boundaries of performance, multitasking, and user experience.
With the developer betas now available and the public beta just around the corner, it's an exciting time for Apple enthusiasts. Keep in mind, though, that early adoption comes with potential risks, so it’s wise to wait for the stable release if you rely heavily on your devices.
Expect more updates to come as we move closer to the official launch in the fall, but for now, it's safe to say Apple’s 2025 software will redefine how we interact with our iPhones, iPads, and Macs for years to come.
