WWDC 2025: all the news from Apple’s annual developer conference
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Apple’s Liquid Glass was a wild change to my iPhone
Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge
After staring at, scrolling through, and puzzling over Apple’s new Liquid Glass design language on my iPhone for the better part of an afternoon, I don’t hate it. But I also think it needs a little more time in the kiln.
Apple announced Liquid Glass on Monday for all of its devices at WWDC 2025. Perhaps the most noticeable thing about it is that app icons, tab bars, and even the text magnifier you’ll see when you hover over words feel, well, liquid-y and glassy.
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DualSense controllers are getting improved pairing.
Apple, at WWDC: “This year, the frameworks that power input across iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Vision Pro are getting major upgrades, with easier pairing for PlayStation DualSense controllers across all of your devices.”
PlayStation, on X: “Want to pair your DualSense controller to multiple devices at once?An update planned for later this year enhances pairing functionality.”
Seems useful, whenever this rolls out.
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Apple WWDC 2025: the 13 biggest announcements
Apple packed a bunch of major updates into its annual Worldwide Developer Conference keynote. During the event, the company showed off the sleek design refresh coming to its operating systems, as well as a mix of new features for the iPhone, iPad, Mac, AirPods, and more.
Here’s a roundup of some of the most exciting changes Apple announced during the keynote — you can watch our edited version that cuts it down to under thirty minutes right here.
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Apple’s big updates for Intel-based Macs will end with Tahoe
Image: Apple
Macs equipped with an Intel chip will no longer receive major software updates after the release of macOS Tahoe this fall. During the WWDC Platforms State of the Union keynote, Matthew Firlik, Apple’s senior director of developer relations, announced that macOS Tahoe “will be the final release for Intel Macs.”
After launching its first in-house processor in 2020, Apple completed its transition away from Intel with the launch of the Mac Pro in 2023. Intel-based Macs compatible with macOS Tahoe, such as the 16-inch MacBook Pro released in 2019, will continue to receive security updates for three years, according to Apple spokesperson Lauren Klug.
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Apple punts on Siri updates as it struggles to keep up in the AI race
Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge
Apple’s WWDC 2025 had new software, Formula 1 references, and a piano man crooning the text of different app reviews. But one key feature got the short end of the stick: Siri.
Although the company continuously referenced Apple Intelligence and pushed new features like live translation for Messages, FaceTime, and phone calls, Apple’s AI assistant was barely mentioned. In fact, the most attention Siri got was when Apple explained that some of its previously promised features were running behind schedule.
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Cyberpunk 2077 needs a bit more time for Mac.
As of October 2024, it was set to launch “early next year,“ but now the Ultimate Edition of the game will launch on the Mac App Store “later this year,” according to a footnote at the end of Apple’s Platforms State of the Union video. At least the game is out on Switch 2.
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The biggest changes coming to your iPhone with iOS 26
Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge
Apple just announced the next major software update for iPhones: iOS 26 (a jump from what, until recently, was expected to be called iOS 19), and it’s packed with a whole bunch of new features for your phone. The biggest change is a new design, but there are lots of smaller improvements and additions as well that could make a difference in how you use your iPhone every day.
Here’s a bit more detail on what you can expect from iOS 26 when it releases for everyone this fall. If you want to try it early, Apple has already launched a developer beta, and it will offer a public beta sometime in July.
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Which WWDC 2025 announcement was our favorite?
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Apple’s Liquid Glass redesign doesn’t look like much
Image: Apple
Design, to quote a wildly overused Steve Jobs-ism, is how it works. And if that’s the case, Apple’s new design language, which the company is calling “Liquid Glass” and just announced at WWDC 2025, is really nothing new at all.
The Liquid Glass look comes largely from visionOS, which shipped with a particular constraint: it had to layer digital information over your physical world, without occluding that physical world. That’s why everything in visionOS is translucent and glassy, so you can both see it and see through it. Everything is layered and three-dimensional, an effort to make digital experiences feel more like objects in space than objects on a screen.
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The first developer betas for iOS 26, macOS Tahoe, iPadOS 26, and more are now available
The first developer betas for iOS 26, iPadOS 26, watchOS 26, tvOS 26, visionOS 26, and macOS Tahoe are now available if you’re eager to try the updates that Apple just announced.
Everyone will have early access to the new versions of the operating systems when the public betas are released next month, but only developers have access to the betas starting today. As of 2023, Apple no longer requires you to pay for Apple’s developer program to download and install them right away. You just need to enroll your devices in the Apple Beta Software Program by signing in with your Apple account.
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Apple’s Spotlight upgrades look like a power-user dream
Image: Apple
This year’s WWDC is shaping up to be surprisingly focused on power users. There are lots of new personalization ideas, plenty of new ways to move things around on your device, and some new ways to get things done. But Mac power users in particular are going to really fall for two things: the new Spotlight, and the new Shortcuts.
In macOS Tahoe, Spotlight, the universal search and launcher feature you open with Command+Space, can now do more than just open stuff. It can do stuff. Apps can provide access for Spotlight to execute all kinds of actions, from playing music and podcasts to creating notes or adding to files. You can find actions with search or with short keyboard shortcuts — onstage at WWDC, Apple’s Craig Federighi demonstrated using “sm” to quickly send a message.
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Apple’s new Games app lets you challenge your friends
Image: Apple
Apple is launching a new app that acts as a central hub for the games and gaming features across its platforms. The new Apple Games app combines Apple Arcade, App Store game recommendations, your App Store game library, and your friends list into a single location. Apple calls it an “all-in-one destination for games and playing with friends.”
The new app will be available on iPhones, iPads, and Macs, starting with versions coming out this fall. In addition to collecting your games, you’ll also be able to view leaderboards for supported titles and complete “challenges” set by developers. Apple sees it as a way to create multiplayer experiences out of single-player titles.
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Apple’s ChatGPT integration makes it easier to search for more context on images and shop for things they see.
Apple is pushing visual intelligence features that build on Apple Intelligence, allowing users to go beyond searching for context using their device’s camera and now also “search and take action on anything they’re viewing across their apps.” The feature can also recognize when a user is looking at something they may like to attend and pre-populate a calendar event with time and place.
“Users can ask ChatGPT questions about what they’re looking at on their screen to learn more, as well as search Google, Etsy, or other supported apps to find similar images and products,” according to Apple. To access the feature, a user can act like they’re taking a screenshot — they will then be prompted to either save the screenshot or search using Apple Intelligence.
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iOS 26 and macOS Tahoe are coming this fall
Image: Apple
Apple’s next major versions of iOS and macOS, iOS 26 and macOS Tahoe 26, are set to launch as free updates this fall, the company announced at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC).
One major feature across both updates is a new “Liquid Glass” software design that adds a lot of translucency across the operating systems, including inside apps and with small elements like buttons and sliders. Apple is also redesigning apps to incorporate the design. The new look is inspired by Apple’s visionOS software.
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Apple’s Image Playground now integrates with ChatGPT.
Apple is updating Genmoji and Image Playground with new styles, powered in part by ChatGPT. With Image Playground, users can now tap into ChatGPT to change a friend’s photo into the style of an oil painting, for instance.
Image Playground sends the description you write out, or your image, to ChatGPT to create the results, but “nothing is shared with ChatGPT without your permission,” according to Apple.
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Apple Intelligence takes on language barriers in messages and phone calls.
Apple announced at WWDC 2025 that it’s debuting live translation Apple Intelligence features that allow you to translate between languages in Messages, FaceTime, and phone calls.
For a phone call, that’ll mean live translation aloud as you talk, and with FaceTime, it means live captions displayed on the screen. It’s all powered via Apple-built models that run on-device.
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Typing indicators in group chats!
There’s a bunch of good new stuff in group messaging for Apple Messages — polls, better notification management for unknown senders, and more — but the best quality-of-life thing here is definitely typing indicators for group chats. This is going to make chaotic family messaging so much less chaotic.
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Apple announces iOS 26 with Liquid Glass redesign
Image: Apple
Apple has announced iOS 26, the next version of its iPhone operating system, as part of its suite of announcements at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). It features a complete redesign with Apple’s new “Liquid Glass” design language along with updates to apps across the platform.
The announcement also marks a change in how Apple signifies its major updates to iOS. Under the previous marketing scheme, this year’s major release would have been iOS 19 — the direct follow-up to iOS 18. But now, Apple’s big iOS updates will be numbered based on the year following their introduction, a little bit like carmakers do with new car releases.
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Apple gives developers access to its on-device Apple Intelligence model.
This year at WWDC, Apple announced it’s opening up access for any app to tap into the on-device large language model at the core of Apple Intelligence, giving developers direct access. It will “ignite a whole new wave of intelligence experiences” in the apps users frequent, per Apple, and it cuts out cloud API costs due to on-device access.
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Apple’s visionOS 26 adds PSVR2 controller support and spatial widgets to the Vision Pro
Apple announced the latest major update for its Vision Pro headset during the company’s WWDC 2025 keynote presentation on Monday. It’s now called visionOS 26 to match Apple’s new naming convention for its mobile and desktop operating systems.
One of the biggest additions is widgets that appear blended into physical environments, “integrating seamlessly into a user’s space and reappearing every time they put on Apple Vision Pro” in the exact same location. Users can customize a widget’s frame width, color, and depth, and visionOS 26 is introducing several new widgets, including a Clock, Weather, Music that provides quick access to playlists, and Photos that displays “stunning panoramas and spatial photos of their favorite memories.”
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A protester tried to interrupt Apple exec Craig Federighi at WWDC
Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge
A protester attempted to disrupt the beginning of Apple’s WWDC. At Apple’s in-person event, software chief Craig Federighi was onstage delivering opening remarks to attendees when the protester began shouting.
The protester marched in and unzipped his jacket to reveal a keffiyeh. He also held up a badge and appeared to say “I work at Apple,” though his remarks were hard to hear. The protester spoke for about 30 seconds before security walked him out. Throughout, Federighi continued talking.
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Apple tvOS 26 adds AirPlay speaker support, karaoke mode, and better user profiles
Image: Apple
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Apple launches iPadOS 26 with a new look and way better multitasking
Image: Apple
The iPad is getting a big refresh this year: Apple just announced the new version of iPadOS, its tablet operating system, at WWDC. (Apple dropped its press releases before they were technically announced in the virtual event.) The flagship feature is a new windowing system for multitasking across apps, but there’s also a new Files app, more Apple Intelligence features, and a Mac-like Preview app for looking at and editing PDFs.
As usual, the new iPadOS has a lot in common with the new iOS, including the new Vision Pro-inspired visual language called “Liquid Glass.” The updated name also follows Apple’s overall scheme, switching from version numbers to years. The iPad tends to differ in its approach to multitasking, how you move between apps, and around the operating system. With iPadOS 26, that difference is more stark than ever: Apple says it will let you “fluidly resize app windows” and place windows anywhere you want on the screen. The windowing system can be used inside of Stage Manager, too, and works across displays. Stage Manager has not always been the most intuitive of iPad software, but this looks like a solid next step toward proper multitasking.
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Apple announces watchOS 26 with a wrist flick gesture and AI ‘Workout Buddy’
Image: Apple
Apple just announced watchOS 26, the latest version of its Apple Watch operating system, at WWDC 2025. It’s been updated with Liquid Glass, Apple’s new transparent design language; a new wrist flick gesture to dismiss notifications; and an AI-powered “Workout Buddy” that gives you pep talks as you exercise.
watchOS 26 is the follow-up to last year’s watchOS 11 release, but Apple has jumped its numbering up to match the upcoming year in a bid to standardize its operating system names, so that the watchOS numbering now matches iOS, macOS, and Apple’s other software platforms. As in previous years, developer access starts today, with a public beta to follow next month. The full release is coming this fall alongside the new Apple Watches.
