Apple

Apple WWDC - Recap

Apple’s WWDC 2025 heralded a unified design philosophy—Liquid Glass—and powerful on-device AI across its ecosystem. Each OS gets tailored improvements: smarter apps, productivity boosts, fitness coaching on Watch, spatial widgets in Vision Pro, and deeper continuity across devices.

Ricardo Carrola

Ricardo Carrola

— 3 min read
Apple WWDC - Recap
Photo by Billy Huynh / Unsplash

Hi guys, so here it is , a global recap from the last Apple Event. The 26 is here for ruling them all !

Remember, these developer betas are intended for developers or users comfortable with potential device crashes, data loss, and frequent backups and restores. Avoid installing them on your primary devices!

TLDR

Apple’s WWDC 2025 heralded a unified design philosophy—Liquid Glass—and powerful on-device AI across its ecosystem. Each OS gets tailored improvements: smarter apps, productivity boosts, fitness coaching on Watch, spatial widgets in Vision Pro, and deeper continuity across devices. A significant leap forward for aesthetics and intelligence.

Cross-Platform Highlights

A new design language and global strategy for all of the Apple OS's.

Liquid Glass UI – Apple introduced a sweeping design overhaul, bringing a translucent, dynamic "Liquid Glass" theme across all platforms: iOS, iPadOS, macOS Tahoe, watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS. Expect fluid, glass-like visuals, real-time light adaptation, layered transparency, and depth throughout apps, home screens, dock, and widgets reddit.com+15apple.com+15youtube.com+15.

Global Year‑Based Versioning – All platforms now share the new “.26” label (e.g., iOS 26, macOS 26, watchOS 26) tied to the year of release .

Apple Intelligence Expansion – On‑device foundation models are now exposed to developers through the Foundation Models framework, unlocking live translation, visual intelligence, generative tools (Image Playground, Genmoji), call summaries, and AI assistants across all OSes .

Let’s Dive Into All the Sugary Details Per OS 🍭

Here’s a breakdown of what’s coming to iOS, iPadOS, macOS Tahoe, watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS—served up OS by OS for your tech cravings.

iOS 26

Design & UI

  • Liquid Glass redesign applied to lock/home screens, widgets, app icons.
  • AOD wallpaper blur effect and refined emoji previews under the keyboard.

Intelligent Features

  • System‑wide Apple Intelligence: live voice/text translation, contextual visual intelligence (Screenshot Gestures), on‑device AI shortcuts.
  • Upgraded dictation now lets you spell words.

Core Apps

  • Call screening, voicemail AI summaries, Hold Assist, smarter phone UI
  • Messages: polls, custom chat backgrounds, translation, enhanced filters
  • Camera & Safari refreshed with Liquid Glass styling and new compact tab bar, HDR/SVG support
  • Apple Music gains lyrics translation, AutoMix DJ, pinning favorites
  • Maps introduces Visited Places & Preferred Routes predictions
  • Wallet adds real‑time travel updates, airport maps, US digital passport support
  • Files and Notes now support markdown exports; Notes can transcribe calls
  • Control Center gains a Reminders tile for one‑tap task creation
  • New Games app unifies App Store, Arcade, and Game Center features

iPadOS 26

  • Liquid Glass interface across iPadOS with live translation support
  • Major multitasking enhancements: windowing support, pointer & menu bar, macOS‑style Files app, and even the Preview app.

For this one, I am going to make a small in-depth review. I have already been daily driving iPadOS 26 since the first Beta!

macOS 26 “Tahoe”

  • First macOS redesign since Big Sur — fully embracing Liquid Glass: transparent menu bar, dynamic Dock, tweaked cursor.
  • Interactive folder icons (custom colors, emojis, animations)
  • Spotlight revamped with quick actions and Apple Intelligence integration
  • iPhone Mirroring & new Phone and Journal apps integrated via Continuity
  • Cleaned Control Center, App Library replacing Launchpad, improved accessibility
  • Terminal now supports 24‑bit color and Powerline fonts

watchOS 26

  • Liquid Glass UI extends to Smart Stack, Control Center, faces
  • Workout Buddy: AI‑powered fitness coach offering voice motivation and real-time insights
  • New wrist‑flick gesture to dismiss notifications one‑handed
  • Live Translation in Messages, improved Smart Replies, Notes app arrives on watch

tvOS 26

  • Liquid Glass delivers vibrant, fluid UI (e.g. in fast‑forward interface) .
  • Upgraded Apple TV app with cinematic art, smoother profile switching, new developer APIs for account login
  • Karaoke‑style features for Apple Music using iPhone as mic .

visionOS 26

  • Widgets can now be anchored in space and 3D environments .
  • Enhanced Personas avatars for video calls; more lifelike & expressive
  • Shared playback support — watch movies together. PS VR2 controller support

AirPods & CarPlay

  • AirPods support photo capture via stem tap; updated voice isolation
  • CarPlay receives compact call UI, Live Activities and widget improvements for a more seamless drive experience

Check all the official websites:

WWDC 2025 Central Hub:

Operating System Previews (with .26 versioning):

Key Technologies:

Technical documentation for developers on implementing the Liquid Glass UI.

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