WWDC25 Recap

1. Liquid Glass: The New Design Language

One of the most eye-catching announcements at WWDC 25 was Liquid Glass, Apple’s bold new design language now rolling out across all of it's platforms. This cohesive, translucent interface brings a unified visual identity to the entire Apple ecosystem—marking the company’s most significant design overhaul since iOS 7.

Inspired heavily by the aesthetics first introduced in visionOS, Liquid Glass features:

1. Softly rounded UI elements that feel more organic and tactile
2. Glossy, semi-transparent layers that create a sense of depth and dimensionality
3. Subtle refraction and motion effects that respond dynamically to user interaction and ambient content

The result is an interface that feels futuristic yet familiar—balancing elegance with clarity. Controls float over blurred backgrounds, windows reflect context-aware light, and transitions are smoother and more fluid across devices. Importantly, this isn’t just a coat of paint: Apple has rebuilt many core apps and system interfaces to fully embrace the new design language.

2. Unified System Naming Scheme

Gone are the days of staggered and sometimes confusing version numbers across Apple’s operating systems. Starting this year, Apple is introducing a unified, year-based versioning system for all its platforms. That means instead of iOS 19, macOS 16, or watchOS 12, everything is now aligned under a single version number tied to the upcoming calendar year: 2026.

As a result, Apple is rolling out iOS 26, macOS Tahoe 26, visionOS 26, watchOS 26, and iPadOS 26, creating a consistent and synchronized versioning structure across the ecosystem.

It’s a subtle but significant change that reinforces Apple’s push toward a more tightly integrated and intuitive cross-device experience—especially as features like Apple Intelligence and Liquid Glass design now span the entire Apple ecosystem.

3. Core App Revamps & New Features

Phone

Apple continues to enhance the phone experience with practical, AI-powered features that improve everyday communication. With iOS 26, the Phone app is getting two major upgrades: Call Screening and Live Call Translation.

1. Call Screening now automatically answers calls from unknown numbers on your behalf, using on-device intelligence to provide a live, real-time transcript of what the caller is saying. You can read along as they speak and decide whether to pick up, ignore, or block the call. No awkward interruptions, no guesswork.
2. Live Call Translation takes it a step further, offering real-time audio translation during phone calls, even if the person on the other end isn’t using an iPhone. It supports multiple languages, and the translation appears onscreen as subtitles, enabling fluid cross-language conversations in business, travel, and daily life.

These features not only boost accessibility but also reflect Apple’s broader push into Apple Intelligence—where AI serves a clear purpose, respects privacy, and enhances utility without overwhelming users.

Messages

The Messages app in iOS 26 is getting a social and expressive upgrade, making conversations more dynamic, collaborative, and fun—especially in group chats.

1. Custom Chat Backgrounds let users personalize conversations with unique wallpapers, gradient themes, or even shared photos. Each group can have its own visual identity, adding a personal touch to every thread.
2. Group Polls make planning easier than ever. Whether you’re organizing a dinner, choosing a movie, or voting on a team decision, participants can create polls directly within the chat and watch results update in real time.
3. Emoji Mash-Ups (or “Genmoji”) allow you to combine emojis into custom expressions—perfect for capturing specific moods, inside jokes, or reactions that standard emojis can’t convey. They’re fun, expressive, and uniquely Apple.
4. Typing Indicators for Group Chats are finally here. Now, you’ll see who’s responding in a group conversation, with real-time typing bubbles for multiple participants—just like in one-on-one chats.

Together, these updates turn Messages into a more modern, expressive, and collaborative messaging platform, built not just for communication, but for connection.

4. iPadOS, more macOS like than ever

Apple continues to blur the line between tablet and laptop with iPadOS 26, introducing new features that bring the iPad closer to being a true productivity powerhouse—while retaining the intuitive touch, first experience that makes it so versatile.

Smarter multitasking

Multitasking gets a meaningful upgrade with enhanced Stage Manager controls, allowing users to:

1. Resize and arrange windows with greater flexibility
2. Save custom workspace layouts
3. Use external displays more seamlessly, now with drag-and-drop support between screens
4. Access a new “Mission Control” style overview of all open apps and spaces

This makes juggling multiple apps smoother and more desktop-like—especially for power users.

Notes App: Local Capture & Smart Annotation

A standout new feature is Local Capture, which lets users grab and annotate content from any app, web pages, PDFs, email, video frames—and pin it directly into a note, with deep links back to the source.

The Apple Pencil experience also improves with more responsive inking, AI-powered shape recognition, and new collaboration tools for shared note sessions.

Together, these updates move the iPad further into hybrid territory. Ideal for creative professionals, students, and mobile-first workers. With deeper multitasking, smarter tools, and system-wide intelligence, iPadOS 26 positions the iPad as Apple’s most flexible and powerful canvas yet.

5. Spotlight, the new superpower of the Max

In macOS Tahoe 26, Apple is giving Spotlight its most significant upgrade in years, transforming it from a simple search bar into a powerful, AI-enhanced assistant that helps you find, understand, and act on information faster than ever.

Faster & More Fluid

Spotlight is now dramatically quicker, delivering near-instant results thanks to improved indexing and Apple silicon optimization. It features a more refined, compact interface that adapts to your workflow, offering suggestions as you type and previewing content inline without opening a separate window.

Apple Intelligence Integratio

Leveraging Apple’s on-device AI, Spotlight can now:

1. Summarize documents, emails, and web pages directly in the search results
2. Understand natural language queries, like “Find the spreadsheet Jenny sent last week about Q2 budgets”
3. Generate answers to quick questions, such as “What’s the weather in Rome this weekend?” or “Convert 42 ounces to grams”
4. Suggest next actions based on context, such as opening an app, replying to a message, or starting a calendar invite

While some of these were already possible with spotlight, the integration of apple inteligence really unlocks the full potential of the tool that was limited before by the patters Apple could possible support in code

Richer Previews and Inline Actions

Search results now include richer previews with images, text snippets, document highlights, and interactive elements. You can play videos, view attachments, or even take notes—all from within the Spotlight window.

Apple has also added inline Quick Actions, like:

1. Renaming files
2. Sending attachments
3. Opening app-specific features (e.g., composing a new email in Mail or creating a task in Reminders)

Clipboard history

One of the most requested features by users for years is finally here: Spotlight in macOS Tahoe 26 now includes access to your recently copied content. Whether it’s text snippets, links, images, or files, you can now press Command + Space and instantly view a history of your recent clipboard items right within the Spotlight interface.

6. The developers

As you’d expect, WWDC 2025 isn’t just about user-facing features, it’s also a treasure trove of powerful new tools and APIs for developers. From deeper integration with Apple Intelligence to updates in Swift, Xcode, and the latest SDKs, Apple is opening up more ways than ever to build richer, smarter, and more immersive apps across all its platforms.

We’ll be breaking down these developer-focused updates in detail over the next few days, with hands-on articles, deep dives, and sample code to help you explore everything new in Apple’s developer ecosystem.

Stay tuned, exciting things are coming!