Apple Vision 26 Developer Conference Summary: Bringing New Features and Design Updates to the Operating Systems at the Twelfth Worldwide Developer Conference (WDC)
The Apple Vision Pro will support PlayStation’s VR2 Sense controllers in visionOS 26, which will let you play a wider variety of virtual-reality games. A new scrolling feature that allows users to scroll through apps by gazing up or down is one of the new additions that Apple Vision Pro will have.
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.” The visionOS 26 has some new add-ons that include a clock, Weather, Music, and Photos that displays stunning panoramas and spatial photos of their favorite memories.
A key feature that promises to improve the day-to-day use of the Apple Vision Pro is a new hands-free scrolling option. Previous versions of visionOS required users to pinch their thumb and index finger together to grab content and then drag it in either direction to scroll, or perform a pinch and flick gesture to scroll faster. visionOS 26 is introducing a new look to scroll feature that allows users to explore apps and websites using their eyes with the option to adjust the speed of the scroll. Eye scrolling will be available in Apple’s own apps while an API will allow developers to add the functionality to third-party apps.
Apple is also improving Personas in visionOS 26 making the hyperrealistic avatars “feel more natural and familiar.” The new personas will have a side profile view that’s scientifically accurate hair, lashes, and complexion. When creating a Persona users will be able to preview how their avatar looks spatially and make adjustments as needed.
The Apple Vision Pro’s language support will expand to include French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish along with regional English support in Australia, Canada, India, Singapore, and the UK. A redesigned Control Center consolidates features like Guest User, Focus, and Travel Mode into one view, while the Vision Pro’s Home View adds support for folders to better organize and group similar apps.
Apple packed a bunch of major updates into its annual Worldwide Developer Conference keynote. The company showed off a mix of new features, as well as a design refresh for its operating systems, during the event.
As predicted, Apple has given each of its operating systems new version numbers that now align with the year after their release, rather than the version number. The new names are iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 26, watchOS 26, tvOS 26, and visionOS 26. They’ll be coming out in late 2025, but still, it’s easier to remember that than iOS 19, watchOS 12, and macOS 16.
Apple is revamping the design across its operating systems. Now they will have a new Liquid Glass theme that adds more transparency to buttons, switches, sliders, text, and media controls throughout their interfaces.
The date, time, notification previews on iOS 26’s lockscreen will also adopt the new look, allowing you to get a clear view of your wallpaper behind all the text.
Some of Apple’s core apps, such as Mail, are getting new looks in the new version of its operating system. Now you can see the entire screen with webpages in the browser. The Camera app has a simplified layout and you can use the tool bar to find other modes, such as Slow-Mo and Cinematic.
The Phone app is getting an upgrade, as well, as it will now have a layout that combines favorites, recents, and voicemails into one panel, while calls, contacts, and keypad remain on the bottom of the app.
Apple is bringing a major update to iPadOS 26 that should make multitasking easier. You will be able to place app windows around your display, and open more windows at once with new windowing capabilities. It’s also adding a more precise mouse pointer and a new menu bar, allowing you to swipe down on an app to view various options and commands. It all looks a lot more Mac-like.
Apple is updating Messages to let you change the background of your chats and create polls in group conversations. Some other updates include typing indicators for group chats and the ability to screen messages from unknown senders, which will appear in a separate folder instead of your main list.
The 13 Biggest Announcements of Apple WWDC 2025: the Messages, FaceTime, Phone, and Text Translation Apps
Apple revealed a new Games app that will let you access all of your Apple Arcade games and discover new ones from a single spot. You can check out the Library tab to view the games you’ve downloaded from the App Store, as well as use the Play Together option to challenge friends.
The next macOS software update will introduce an upgrade to Spotlight that will make your search results more relevant with personalization and filtering options to help you search for specific files, folders, apps, and messages. Sending an email or creating a note can be done with it.
There’s a new Apple Intelligence feature coming to iOS 26 that lets you use the same buttons you would to take a screenshot to call upon the AI assistant. From there, you can ask additional questions about what you’re seeing on your screen with ChatGPT or search for a particular object on Google or Etsy to find similar images.
Along with the Liquid Glass design language, Apple is bringing a new “wrist flick” gesture to watchOS 26 that you can use to dismiss notifications. The Apple watch will include a new Artificial Intelligence-powered workout mentor that will give personalized advice.
Apple is building AI-powered live translation into the Messages, FaceTime, and Phone apps. You can use the integration to automatically translate texts in the Messages app, while you’ll hear speech translated aloud on the Phone app. You can listen to your conversation partner in the live caption section of Apple’s device.
Source: Apple WWDC 2025: the 13 biggest announcements
The AirPods 4th and Pro 2 Update: Predictions, Features and a Large Language Model for Developing Toolkits for Voice Captioning
The update will let users take a photo with their device by tapping on the stem of their AirPods. It’s also working on a new feature that lets users record “studio-quality” vocals in noisy areas with voice isolation. The features of the headphones will come in the 4th iteration, the AirPods 4, and the Pro 2.
In its keynote, Apple announced it will allow third-party developers to use the large language model used by Apple Intelligence to create tools of their own.