Having slightly "digested" the rather weak first impressions from the WWDC 2025 presentation, I still want to return to what awaits Apple technology users in the fall. Anyone who can update the OS of any compatible device will find certain updates in one way or another. Some of them will be quite large-scale, some will simply be refinements... But no matter what, there will be quite a lot of them this year.
Interestingly, Apple is not trying to catch up and get ahead of its competitors in the AI section. Yes, Apple Intelligence continues to increase the number of capabilities, and we will recall one of them in more detail today. But, in my opinion, Apple has finally come to terms with the fact that the company is very late to this party, so there is no point in running. Instead, as was noted, somewhere the company is preparing serious upgrades, but we need to wait until the product meets "high standards." That's how simple and without loud promises, Siri updates were left for an indefinite "later."
Therefore, at the very beginning of the developer conference, Apple paid much more attention to design and convenience. At the same time, the systems are becoming more similar to each other. The same often-mentioned "Apple ecosystem" will once again put a more serious emphasis on this. And this makes sense: a user who has at least an iPhone and a Mac already feels a kind of kinship between the gadgets, because they complement each other in a certain way and "communicate" with each other all the time (AirDrop, notifications and iPhone Mirroring, synchronization of almost everything that is possible, etc.).
And as the WWDC 2025 presentation showed, they plan to further enhance this feeling for the user. Actually, that's where we'll start.
Liquid Glass design. Everywhere!
I heard an opinion on social media, presented in the best traditions of "conspiracy theories." It was said that with the new Liquid Glass design, Apple is preparing users for its future augmented reality glasses. The girl talked about it so passionately in Reels that I almost started to agree with it myself.
However, such a design is not something conceptually new. At one time, the iOS 7 operating system became the biggest redesign of iOS since the release of the iPhone. Before that, the company supported skeuomorphism (in fact, so many people have even heard of this term), repeating the design of real objects in the virtual plane of interfaces. And, to be honest, I remember with pleasant nostalgia exactly that appearance of applications.
Actually, iOS 7 has changed everything radically. The iPhone interface has many translucent elements. Liquid Glass is even more radical in this regard. And after the presentation, many technology fans remembered Windows Vista. We have a separate article on this topic from Taras Mishchenko.
However, Liquid Glass, in addition to general interface changes, has another important goal - greater unification. Similar changes will be made to the interfaces of all Apple devices. Thus, one would like to believe that there will be no repetition of the story with the dark theme, which first appeared on the iPhone, and the Mac had to wait. Theoretically, now the company will make more efforts for such "design synchronization", users will only benefit from this (and it will be easier for the company to "keep the latter on the hook").
The reviews on the Web are currently very mixed. Some people like the "glass" approach, while others don't have any positive emotions at all. Design has always been a very subjective issue, so it's no wonder that reactions vary so dramatically. I would still wait for the final release, or at least skip a couple of public betas, when the "sharpest corners" will be fixed and it will become clearer how easy the changes are to accept.
iPad has never been so close to a computer
Windows tablets are no longer a novelty. But Apple is still going the other way. Even with all the capabilities of the new chips in the iPad (especially the Pro), which can easily compete in performance with ultrabooks, Apple tablets still felt quite limited, and solely because of the capabilities of iPadOS.
Its next version was given almost four times less time at the presentation than iOS. And this is understandable, because the iPhone remains Apple's flagship product, and there are much more smartphone users than tablet owners. But let's leave business and return to the updates, the most significant of which are in the iPad.
For starters, the iPad has learned to work with windows. And it's not about splitting the screen into a couple of applications or Stage Manager... Users will now be able to open applications in a window that can be given the desired size. Another window on the side? - No question. Another one on top of them? - Yes, please. It's funny that this happened on the iPad after so many years of "bullying", but everyone who wanted it waited. And how much more sense will it now make in the 13-inch iPad Pro and iPad Air.
The red, yellow, and green "dots" in the upper left corner of the window have moved from macOS to iPadOS, and now they will also help close-minimize-expand the application, and also neatly organize the space. That is, again, the promised approach of iPadOS to something similar to macOS by insiders is still happening. They added a cursor, as in a desktop system - in general, another "amazing". A few more years of such practice, and I wouldn't be surprised if certain elements of the iPadOS interfaces will be practiced in macOS, but already in a model with a touch display.
The Files improvements may not yet make the app a full-fledged Finder, but working with files on the iPad will also be much easier. You can also place a folder in the Dock that will open as a Stack in macOS.
And another important moment for the iPad was better support for multitasking. For example, you start a video render and… now you can minimize it and open, say, the "Limits" ribbon, while the tablet is processing the recording in the background. It is not surprising that the word amazing was replaced with gamechanger this time. Actually, iPadOS 26 will really be exactly that for Apple tablets. And, perhaps, in some cases, certain everyday tasks will really be much easier to entrust to the tablet than it was before. It remains to be seen how ordinary users will cope with this.
Phone.app everywhere
One of the highlights was the Phone app. It got a visual makeover on the iPhone, and it's now available on iPadOS and macOS. Apple has been pushing Continuity for years, allowing you to pick up tasks across devices. And now calls will be one of them.
Globally, you can still perform similar operations through FaceTime and Contacts. However, with the update of operating systems, the user will finally have a more convenient "hub" that will combine both contacts and a list of all recent calls. Quite a convenient thing.
Perhaps, in our time, third-wave hipsters communicate exclusively by voice messages and "circles" in instant messengers. However, one way or another, the average person still has to use good old phone calls. And just in case, so as not to reach for a smartphone (which may be charging at this moment, for example), a call can be made from a Mac or iPad.
Phone was also taught to answer calls from unknown numbers for the owner and issue a short message about who is calling and why, after which the user can choose whether to answer. The same bot can "hang" on the line and listen to "elevator music", say, from the support service, until it is time to talk to the operator. This, for example, has long been implemented in Android.
By the way, one of the new unified applications will be Games. This is a kind of hub that will bring together games from Apple Arcade, friends, various challenges, etc. And it will now be available on smartphones, tablets, and computers.
Live Activity in macOS
Another nice bonus for Continuity functionality will be support for Live Activities in macOS. Despite all the convenience of iPhone Mirroring, it is currently impossible to see the iPhone lock screen through this application (or at least I haven’t figured it out in all the time I’ve been using it). Accordingly, you can’t look at the Live Activities widget from a Mac. Therefore, to see the current status, for example, delivery or taxi arrival, you have to take out your smartphone anyway.
With macOS 26 and iOS 26, Live Activities will also appear in the Menu Bar on your computer. With one click, you can expand it, and with another click, you can open the application via iPhone Mirroring. It would seem like an obvious point, but it took an extra year for it to appear in the desktop operating system.
New and more powerful Spotlight
Since we’ve already mentioned macOS and productivity, one notable addition is Spotlight. Right now, it’s mostly a shortcut for finding files, launching apps, and a minimal replacement for the calculator. However, it’s going to get a lot more features in macOS 26.
In addition to the features already available, Spotlight will be able to show recent files, for example, or display suggestions based on routine actions. Search for apps will now include those on the owner's iPhone, not just those on the computer.
Actions will add more functionality. Right from the search bar, you can send a message or email, create a calendar event or image in Playground Image, enable VPN, create a GIF, recognize music, start a podcast, and much more. There will also be clipboard history.
An API for developers will also be provided, so we can expect that third-party applications will be able to interact with Spotlight in a similar way.
Moreover, for the convenience of performing such actions, there are Quick keys — shortcuts for quick access. The presentation showed cases of sending messages as an example, for which you only need to type sm (Send Message) in the search, write a message and select the recipient. By analogy, to add a reminder, you need to enter ar (Add Reminder).
And yes, there have been more functional Spotlight alternatives for quite some time, such as Alfred. But previously, these were tools exclusively for power users who were more likely to look for alternative applications and utilities. With the new Spotlight, perhaps more users who had never thought about such conveniences before will still be able to improve their productivity a little.
Visual Intelligence on iOS
Speaking of borrowing. iOS is getting a lot of changes this year, and it was this system that took up the largest segment of the presentation. Among all its innovations and additions, one of the most interesting is Visual Intelligence when working with screenshots. This is a version of Circle to Search, but on the iPhone.
If on Android it is enough to hold your finger on the navigation bar and outline the desired object for recognition and search, then on iPhone you first need to take a screenshot, then select the search option from the image, or immediately select the desired object. On Android, in my opinion, the process is minimally more convenient, but over time the user is unlikely to notice such things as soon as the hands "remember" what to do.
Currently, such native functionality is sorely lacking in iOS. And if Visual Intelligence works as well as Circle to Search, it will be a very nice addition to the iPhone. Personally, to my own surprise, I used Circle to Search much more often than I could have thought when I first heard about the feature. I suspect that many iPhone users will get used to such a scenario just as quickly.
Of course, Visual Intelligence will not only be able to find an object, but also redirect the user to the store, recognize an event and add it to the calendar, and with Apple Intelligence it will be possible to ask about the object in the image in ChatGPT (or other models, as soon as the option to choose becomes available).
Support for new third-party accessories for Apple Vision Pro
Quite expectedly, support for keyboards and gesture control still doesn't reveal the full potential of working and having fun in virtual reality. And perhaps for some users, the next version of visionOS will help to "untie their hands" a little, so to speak.
Of the additional accessories announced at the presentation for Apple Vision Pro, at least a couple of new third-party devices will be available to users. One of these will be the Logitech Muse VR - a stylus for working in virtual space. It will help not only with drawing and sketching, but also, for example, measuring and interacting with virtual objects.
The second nice addition will be the PlayStation VR2 Sense controllers for entertainment.
However, the very fact of supporting a larger number of third-party accessories, in my opinion, already hints that over time there will be even more such additions and they will become more diverse. Some can be used by professionals (for example, in designing something), while others will be purely entertaining. As a fan of motorsport, I can almost see an immersion in the world of rally racing or street racing. Although, of course, there are already alternatives that are cheaper. But Apple is also putting more and more emphasis on games, so the appearance of something like this will not be surprising.
New gesture on Apple Watch + "AI mentor" Workout Buddy
Among other watchOS updates, the new gesture I liked the most. Soon, you can get rid of notifications and return to the watch face or other current tasks with a sharp turn of your hand. This gesture is called Wrist flick, that is, "a wave of the wrist."
It seems to me that it will fit very naturally into the watch usage model. Rejecting something that we don't like or don't need at a particular moment can often be complemented by a similar wave of the hand. And in this case, the user was given the opportunity to almost literally wave off the watch a notification with which the user is not going to interact in any way at that moment.
In addition, as the company emphasizes, one of the most common use cases for Apple Watch remains Workouts. That is, nothing has changed and many owners of "smart" watches continue to use them during sports and to track activity.
To complement this experience, the new watchOS will feature Workout Buddy, a virtual assistant that will announce progress and encourage you. It will be able to analyze history and summarize current results. At the same time, it will "appear" in the headphones during and after a workout, with a short speech to support the owner.
The generated voice selected in this way will tell you, for example, that this week you went for a run for the third time, you have now run three kilometers, "Keep it up!", and then tell you how well you kept up the pace and what the overall training results were. A fairly logical and interesting accent for fans of an active lifestyle.
They didn't forget about CarPlay!
The gigantic delay in the CarPlay update at one point even made us worry a little about the future of this functionality. But the recent release of CarPlay Ultra has alleviated this anxiety, and the announcement of updates at WWDC 2025 also showed that even without support for the new standard, we can expect some updates.
With the advent of iOS 26, more "glass" will also appear on the CarPlay screen. The Liquid Glass design will be minimally adjusted to the car's multimedia screen. Notifications will be redesigned, even with the possibility of tapbacks for messages. Widgets, like in CarPlay Ultra, will be configurable in the regular version.
And the highlight will be support for AirPlay Video. This was not mentioned at the presentation, but later it became known that such functionality is in the plans. It is currently unknown whether it will be in current models, and what additional manipulations will be required for its implementation. However, for CarPlay this is still a fairly big upgrade, which many users have been waiting for.
Unified operating system names
This year, there's an additional little thing that should make it a little easier to understand certain information. While previously users had to keep certain operating system version numbers in mind, this fall they will all be reduced to iOS 26, macOS 26, watchOS 26, and so on.
This means that the numbering is now based on years, rather than serial versions. This should be much more convenient for users who closely monitor updates and have many devices. It will also be easier for those who help relatives and friends with their personal gadgets in case of any questions or problems.
Probably, in general, this is really a small thing, and it will not affect the average user much. But for a certain "caste" of Apple equipment owners, such numbering will really make some things easier.
Instead of a summary
In fact, this fall, Apple owners will have a lot to look at and get used to. If we do not talk about visionOS, watchOS and tvOS, then iPhone, iPad and Mac owners will get a lot of new things. This will especially apply to iPadOS 26, where not only external, but also significant functional changes will take place. This is probably the most interesting moment of the past event.
The WWDC 2025 presentation was also one of the few in recent years where there were not many mentions of AI. On the one hand, this gave an opportunity to take a minimal break from the onslaught of artificial intelligence. On the other hand, Apple really does not always immediately pick up trends (OLED displays, VR devices and foldable smartphones are quite good examples). The piece of Apple Intelligence that is currently available can only be called the first step in this direction. So, perhaps Cupertino is still preparing more interesting products that are not being talked about at the moment. Otherwise, users will still be provided with a more convenient option for interacting with existing models from other developers.
But what was really lacking was the hardware. Previously, there were device announcements at WWDC, and this year there were also assumptions that Apple might show something interesting. Unfortunately, the assumptions were in vain. However, there are still products that have been waiting for an update for a long time, such as AirPods Max or Mac Pro. The latter could definitely have a place in the presentation.
Instead, the Liquid Glass design was the most discussed topic of the presentation. It's too early to criticize it too much, but it's also very difficult to praise it in places (especially the completely "transparent" version). But time will tell how successfully the designers were able to implement all this. And pre-release testing can affect many aspects in one way or another.
While we're all waiting for the update, don't forget to leave your impressions of WWDC 2025 and share in the comments what you think are the most interesting announcements from Apple.