Apple WWDC 2025
58 points by calvin
58 points by calvin
The big rumour is a visual refresh of the OSes and new yearly versioning scheme.
New year, new dubdub. (Title is weird because apparently it’s shouting.)
Start?
Car driving. Craig’s in an F1 car, and Tim is pit crew. CarPlay? Loudness detection? It’s being done on the roof of the donut.
Tim here. F1 is an Apple original movie, comes out in theatres later this month. They seem to focus on quality over quantity in streaming. Thank you developers. Labs and sessions soon. Big announcements for all platforms.
Craig with weird green screening. Apple Intelligence. Recap of current capabilities. Don’t forget PCC. “This needed more time to meet our quality bar…” More languages supported soon, better models, more integration points. New Foundation Models framework to provide lower level access to the LLMs powering Apple Intelligence for third-party apps - this is still on-device.
New visual refresh of the UI, latest since iOS 7. Alan Dye to talk about it. New hardware advancements inform visual refreshes. Not quite skeueuo. Universal across all platforms. Inspired by the layered physical objects of visionOS. “Liquid Glass”. Refracts light, responds to content and movement with specular highlights. More rounded corners. Translucent. Controls. UI elements are grouped more densely, with toolbars replaced with the ornaments of visionOS. Overall looks pretty similar to how it is now, but with more layering and glass effects.
Craig back. Unified version numbers. OS 26 end of year. iOS. Refresh of many things, starting with lock and home screen. Liquid glass controls and text. App icons are multilayer like visionOS it seems? Light, dark, total transparent icon modes. Animated text scaling to adapt to subjects of lock screen photos, keeps subjects in view as notifications come in. Make 3D effects from 2D images for lock screen. Animated album art.
Camera redesign. Simplified photo and video modes, more sophisticated modes are hidden by a swipe or tap. (I keep using portrait mode by accident, so this is pretty welcome…). Photos has separate tabs for libraries and collections. 3D effects are also available from Photos.
Safari. The toolbar/ornaments are transparent and float above the page now. and dynamically shrink as you scroll.
FaceTime controls recede, and the FaceTime welcome screen has been revamped to show video messages in tiles.
Emily on CarPlay. New design extends to the car. Compact call notification that doesn’t hide navigation. Widgets and message previews. Live activities. Same API for iPhone versions of these work in CarPlay. Also in CarPlay Ultra, which controls and allows for customization the dashboard screens, as well as i.e. climate controls. Automakers working with Apple on this.
Back to you Craigy. Messages and phone app from Darin. New phone app layout to aggregate i.e. contacts, missed calls, and voicemail summaries. Unwanted call reduction - unknown numbers can be screened. It’ll automatically answer them, wait for a reason and name to be given, then ring to decide if you want to answer it. Hold Assist to have the phone wait for you until you’re out of the queue.
Messages. Message backgrounds. Precanned images, use your own, or make some slop. Group chats now have polls. Suggests to use a poll. Apple Cash in group chats. Typing indicators for group chats. Screening new message senders. Dedicated area to screen the calls to accept them, and they won’t ping you.
Lesie on Apple Intelligence in Messages. More image slop features, including using ChatGPT if you want. Image Playground APIs too. Translation features - line translation. Works in messages, FaceTime, and Phone. Models run on device. Translated as you type, you can send and receive in your/their preferred language. Translated live captions, or hear the translation afterward. Works even if they don’t have an iPhone. API available for call translation for third-party phone apps.
Back to Craig. Kathy on Wallet/Music/Maps. Music. Lyrics translation and pronunciation guides. AutoMix for smooth transitions between songs. Pinning in the library. Maps. Learns your routines and preferred routes, allowing you to use that instead of the recommended one. Proposes alternative routes in case of problems i.e. traffic. Visited Places so you can remember places you’ve been and recall them later. Easy to delete, E2EE protected. Wallet. Car keys in wallet, unlock your car with phone/watch. Automakers adopting it. Drivers licenses and IDs in nine states and Puerto Rico now, Digital ID for domestic travel - not a substitute for a real passport. Better airport integration - live activities for flights, better luggage tracking, better navigation in the airport. Redeem rewards or use instalments when paying in person. Track and aggregate non-Apple Pay orders and shipments for notifications.
Ann on gaming improvements. You got games on your phone? Half a billion do. New gaming destination - Games app. Keep track of game update and events. Dedicated tab for Apple Arcade, or see what games you own. Works with controller for navigation. See what friends are playing and compare or compete. Challenges in games, using scores. For developers, these use Game Center leaderboards.
Craig with one more thing in iOS. Visual Intelligence, the thing that looks up things by by sight. Works in all apps. Billy on that. Just make a screenshot, then use the VI tools on the bottom of the screenshot page to do. Is this guy using Mastodon? Also does things like i.e. extracting calendar entries from event promo pictures.
Back to Craig. Intents make it easy to provide structured data for Apple Intelligence to do things with; an existing API, integrated with it. That’s iOS 26.
David on watchOS…. 26. It also gets the redesign. More intelligence features in watch apps.
Stephanie on Workout Buddy. Makes insight based on fitness history, then TTSes it, pick the voice you want to yell at you (or give a pep talk) about your current workout state. Workout app has a refreshed layout. After-action report. English and only a few different workout types at first. Custom routes and other features are less buried. Music autoplay for workouts, or pick music/podcasts explicitly more easily.
Back to David. Smart stack improvements. Improved predictions and suggestions based on things you do. Notification improvements. Detect ambient noise and adjust notification volume accordingly. Wrist flick to defer notifications. Messages improvements in iOS are also available on watchOS. Suggests actions for quick replies. Notes app is now on watchOS. New APIs for smart stacks. Skiing suggestions on the slopes. Suggests soundscapes when you’re at bed.
Justin on tvOS… 26. New design too. Have you watched Stick yet? Have you? TV and Music apps have more subtle controls, as does Control Centre, making the video more visible when controls are shown. Even the TV+ logo is glass now. New TV+ originals. Profiles to select users on wakeup, who can have their own recommendations. New API for easier sign-in for streaming service apps. Use the iPhone for karaoke shown on the TV.
Craig on macOS. In the golf cart. Crack marketing team selecting a new name. macOS Tahoe. Not a 4.3BSD! Many of the iOS features in there too. Visual design obviously. Sidebars float over content. Menu bar is transparent. Customizable control centre and menu bar. Widgets in control centre? Change the colour of a folder, or add a symbol like an emoji on top. Continuity improvements. Live Activities on macOS. Live Activities from iPhone show in the Mac menu bar. Phone app on Mac, synced from your iPhone, including all the iOS features.
Raja on Shortcuts improvements on Mac. Run Shortcuts automatically, like on a schedule or a triggered external event. “Intelligent Actions” to access Apple Intelligence. Run on-device, PCC, or ChatGPT models directly from shortcuts. Spotlight improvements. More easily browse things from Spotlight, including suggestions from what you do and across devices. Do more actions from Spotlight, including more complicated ones that need parameters. Search menu bar features in apps from Spotlight. Quick keys, i.e. “send message” bound to “sm”. Automatically provided for system and app actions, or assign your own quick keys. Demo of the new Spotlight features. Spotlight can pull clipboard history. Anticipates actions. For developers, use the existing Intents API for fancier Spotlight integration. No mention of Siri though?
Back to Craig. Games app on Mac too. Overlay like Steam’s. Metal 4. Frame interpolation, denoising, etc. More games coming to Mac, some same-day launch with other platforms.
Mike on visionOS. More experiences/content, and enterprise features. Widgets on visionOS. Can be placed into your environment, and are persistent and customizable. WidgetKit supports this. App placement is persistent across usage.
3D spatial images from 2D ones in visionOS too. Haley on that. Uses an ML model to create them, of course. Spatial gallery to demo spatial images. Spatial reader mode in Safari. Third-party apps can use spatial images as well. Persona improvements. For example, hair and lashes look more realistic. Still on-device. Sharing spatial space with Personas, locally and remotely.
Mike on enterprise features. Share devices between employees. Save your personal properties on your phone to use with a shared Vision Pro. Protected Content API, intended for i.e. medical records. Spatial accessories for 6DOF input. Logitech has a 3D pen input device, for instance. PSVR controllers can be used now, for motion tracking controllers. Immersive content, like… a Metallica concert? Immersive content production. Adobe has an app to make it, directly in visionOS. Fisheye 180/360 degree video looks bad on flat displays, but can be made better viewed in visionOS. Embed 3D models directly on web pages and pull them into your space. New Jupiter immersive environment.
Craig on iPadOS. Yeah, new design, same iOS improvements. Multitasking, file, and A/V improvements. Mac style windows on iPad, with the traffic lights and unified toolbars.
Cindy on that. Apps start fullscreen. Grab handle to make them into windows. They remember their position. No snapping to fixed positions like in Stage Manager or the previous iPad cursor control. The cursor is pointy. Tiling, do a flick to start filing. or you can do corner tiling, and apps that float on top. Exposé. Workspaces too maybe? Apps can have menu bars too. They’re centred and a little simplified from a Mac one, including icons.
Back to Craig. Works on all supported iPads, not just iPad Air or Pro. Works with Stage Manager and external displays too.
Tonna on the rest of the it. Files. Many of the Finder improvements coming to it. Resizable columns and collapsible folders, as well as folder customization. “Open With” menu. Folders in the dock - OS X 10.5 is back. Drag and drop. Preview.app now on iPad and iPhone, with seemingly all of the features for i.e. editing present. Better audio input controls, specify with microphone is in use, can be per-app. Voice Isolation in all apps. Higher quality audio recording with AirPods. Press and hold to stop and start recording. Local capture of calls, works with any conferencing app, controlled via CC. Echo cancellation for other people on the call. Easily share the resulting files. Background tasks on iPad, ideal for i.e. long export tasks, which such up as live activities for visibility and control. Third-party apps can use this with a Background Tasks API.
Back to Craig. Many more they didn’t cover, like better math graphing, calligraphy, and Journal on iPad. Those are the updates to the platforms. Apple Intelligence is totally shipping guys! Honest! Big day for developers with the new APIs. Get back LLM data as structured data. Intents integrates into Shortcuts more. Swift and SwiftUI improvements. Liquid Glass will probably make some work for developers. Dedicated sessions on this. Icon Composer app to help make layered icons. More AI completion stuff in Xcode, use other models. Platforms State of the Union incoming.
Back to Tim. Thanks all! Developer betas today, public beta July, finished release in autumn. App store reviews in a music presentation at the end?
I really appreciate just calling it slop, I’ve been saying “AI BS” but slop is much more accurate in that it’s describing the result rather than the cause.
macOS Tahoe. Not a 4.3BSD!
This stuck out to me. I can’t (yet?) find any information in textual form online. In fact, I can’t find anyone referencing this in other WWDC coverage.
I think this was an oblique joke to the 4.3BSD “Tahoe” release: https://gunkies.org/wiki/4.3_BSD_Tahoe
More languages supported soon
I’m fine if it doesn’t speak Polish, but I beg make it work of my whole OS isn’t set to US English.
Share devices between employees. Save your personal properties on your phone to use with a shared Vision Pro
This, but for an iMac please! Would be lovely to have a family computer that way, which we don’t have to have separate logins for.
“Live Translation” sounds simultaneously very useful and potentially terrifying.
The Star Trek future at last!
Only with technology that demonstrably produces false nonsense.
Seeing the iPad menu bar made me think a little; thoughts on that here. I’m sure it’ll work out fine, it’s just disappointing to see.
It seems like they will try everything except letting people install the OS of their choice on their iPad. It’s really frustrating to see hardware with a lot of potential being held back by whatever it is that they’re doing here.
It annoys me because iOS (likely unintentionally) had working hypervisor support pre-16.4. I like my iPad and I like that it doesn’t try to be a full time computer, but when traveling or in the field, I really wish it could do full time computer things.
(and it especially stings with Android 16 adding support for running Linux VMs a la ChromeOS)
If it could run Linux, I would much buy one to use as a full time computer. When I’m doing work, I’m on a desk so it could be docked and used as a second monitor. When I’m not at my desk, it’s to read things or watch videos — the tablet format is great for this. Overall, it would be the perfect form factor for me.
(and it especially stings with Android 16 adding support for running Linux VMs a la ChromeOS)
The pKVM support looks promising, though, it’s only on Pixels as far as I can tell. Given that the kernel runs on EL2, for the virtualization to work, it needs support in the bootloader — it can’t easily be added without manufacturer support.
Google has announced a desktop mode (à la Samsung Dex) in Android 16 but I’m not interested in running Android apps with a weird half baked windowing system. I’d rather have a fully virtualized OS instead but for it to be decent it needs good support for hardware acceleration (GPU, video decoding…).
And what about the end users? Don’t like the new Liquid Glass UI? Can’t work with it because its visuals are all over the place, it’s more difficult to parse, etc.? Well, it sucks to be you seems to be the attitude of Apple’s designers. They’re evidently all in their 20s and 30s, with perfect vision, and yet can’t see past it — ironically enough.
I’m 21, have perfect vision, and think this design sucks ass. It looks both uglier and less functional than even Windows 11. (Which I have a special grudge about right now because I was forced to update yesterday.)
How could they stoop so low as to lose to their biggest competitor in the desktop OS space?
And Apple’s response has been to rebrand all their platforms’ versions so that they’ll be identified by year, to reflect their yearly releases. Sigh.
I’m sure they could release version 25.1 or whatever too with bug fixes.
I’ve had a lot of pain with the apple version names. People would be like “you need at least mac os maverick” and them im like “but i have mac os goose and my user has mac os iceman….” at least numbers make “at least” meaningful at a glance.
Similarly, apples policy seems to be (I don’t even know for sure) to forcibly retire their hardware after a number of years. So if you have one of their things released in 2014, it might take the 2022 software, but not the 2025 software. So since they integrate the hardware and software stuff, and the hardware is identified by year, making the software by year makes sense to me too.
I’m basically an outsider to the Apple world since I only use it to support my programs run by other people on it, I’m sure there’s people who can gun off the marketing names off the top of their heads, but to someone like me who isn’t a top gun, the years are a lot easier to meaningfully apply.
…part of the reason why i don’t use Apple’s stuff myself is that the UI is abysmal. every time i try to use the mac, i see where so many of the bad ideas i loathe in recent windows and gnome come from. I don’t know if this is a recent thing, but it has been utterly awful the whole time I’ve known it. So I’m biased toward generally agreeing with and enjoying a take-down article of it. But, on the other hand, that also triggers some automatic skepticism to counter the confirmation bias - do I only like most the rest of the article because it confirms my preconceived notions? Do I loathe Apple’s godawful UI (the U stands for “unusable”) because it is worse, or just because it is different than the thing I’ve been used to for twenty years? Similarly, is this new thing the link author is talking about actually worse, or just different than what he’s known but it’ll be fine once you get used to it?
To circle back to the version number thing, to me, the new year-based numbering system seems better. Yeah, when I first saw someone talking about iOS 25 I thought it was a joke article, a parody extrapolation saying like “this is the extreme trajectory they’re on”. But now that I know they just realigned with the year, i’m like, ok yeah, good, i don’t need to open Wikipedia to see how recent a thing is anymore. Yet the author here said “Sigh” implying discomfort. Is it the same phenomenon with the new ui?
I’m inclined to agree with almost every other key point in this article…. but it all also sounds very familiar to me. I’d probably say that’s because UI designers are legitimately going from bad to worse across the board - I’d take Windows Vista over Windows 11, and GNOME 2 over GNOME 3 (though let’s be honest, I run the blackbox window manager so my real answer is “none of the above” lol) - but it still makes me wonder if it is just an “old man shakes fist at clouds” aspect too.
Somehow, the Liquid Glass stuff reminds me a lot of Windows Vista. Weren’t they big on advertising their Aero stuff, that was basically the same?
What sort of thing does Apple announce at WWDC? Migrating to GNU Hurd and ZFS? Or is it usually more consumer-focused stuff like new apps and features?
Swift, ARM transition, and Vision Pro were all announced at WWDC, along with Pro desktops (M2 Studio, trash can Mac, big ass XDR display) and major OS versions.
Migrating to GNU Hurd
Nah, they’ve already got their own Mach variant.
and ZFS?
At one point that was a possibility…
Or is it usually more consumer-focused stuff like new apps and features?
It’s a bit of a mix, but these days IMO leans towards that. Developer-oriented topics are often discussed at a relatively high-level without getting into too much detail, but it’s often used to showcase new apps/operating system features (with the APIs related to those features being mentioned but not delved into). You will often see hardware announcements as well, for example the ARM transition.
It’s worth saying that WWDC is much more than just the keynote that announces major new stuff; it also includes hands-on experiences with new products and a lot of developer sessions to teach devs for Apple platforms about new things that impact them like API changes or how to work with new platforms.
And with the incredibly sad state of Apple documentation, it seems like often a WWDC presentation and/or (if you’re lucky) engineer session is the only way to know how to use the new APIs.
Yeah, I was looking at the docs recently, it’s a really good example of documentation that is technically “good” (it’s seemingly complete documentation of all the api interfaces, etc), but is not useful.
It doesn’t matter how complete the documentation for each class, function, etc is in some API/framework if there’s no documentation on how you actually use link the myriad classes, functions, etc together to actually do something.
I feel like there’s a place for documentation other than “tutorial by someone on the internet who managed to work out how to get something to work” and “api docs” :-/
Apple documentation used to be fantastic, with high-level overviews of how things fit together and how to use them. That was so long ago now that I think people have just forgotten what it was like. There was some kind of disaster several years ago where somebody seems to have just decided documentation is too much work, or something.
BTW, even the crappy documentation isn’t complete. See No Overview Available.
That’s a good point. I should’ve made that distinction. They do go into a lot more depth in the dev sessions.
It was ages ago, so I might be mixing up my history, but there used to be two big events in the Apple calendar:
A lot of things at WWDC were a bit consumer facing, because much of the OS X marketing push was around how Apple’s technology was new and exciting.
Around 2009 there was some disagreement between Steve Jobs / Apple and the MacWorld organisers and Apple shifted to treating WWDC as their one big regular showcase of everything. Journalists were already going to WWDC, and the even was completely under Apple’s control. They added other ‘special events’ that were basically press briefings for things that didn’t line up with the WWDC timeline.
You’re omitting a third big event that used to be on the calendar: Seybold. They’d announce significant new things there, too. IIRC they consolidated to MacWorld circa 2003. I think they announced computers that would use the PPC G4 chips there. I seem to remember the Cinema display making its debut at one of those too. I was in awe of that, because at that time I used to help offer kind of a white glove setup service for ad agencies and designers, and lugging 21” CRTs around was the worst part of that job.
It varies, but this year they are expected to announce a large overhaul of their operating systems
Not to defend Windows Vista, but modern displays have way higher pixel density and better color range. I’m curious to see if it doesn’t look quite so bad as Vista did, given that. I still don’t like it but maybe it won’t be as bad as I’m expecting.
I thought Vista looked good. lol i guess im the weirdo, i generally like vista in a lot of ways.