On Monday, June 9 at 1 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT, Apple will announce an avalanche of software updates for all of its platforms at its annual WWDC 2025 developer conference. We’ll see new versions of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, visionOS, and tvOS—all of which are rumored to jump straight to version “26.”
Apple is expected to introduce all-new visual looks, inspired by the Vision Pro’s glassy and translucent visionOS, to unify the interfaces and make them more consistent across devices. For its largest and most important platform—iPhone—that means the first major software facelift since Jony Ive’s iOS 7 flattened software in 2013.
The elephant in the room is going to be AI—specifically, Apple’s brand of artificial intelligence called Apple Intelligence. Will Apple address its big fumbling of its next-gen Siri voice assistant that was supposed to have arrived by now but still hasn’t? Or will it downplay its lagging AI features as Google, OpenAI, Anthropic, and other major AI companies drop new and more advanced LLM-powered chatbot and generative features at a seemingly rapid-fire pace?
Senior Consumer Tech Editor Raymond Wong will be in Cupertino, Calif. to bring live WWDC 2025 coverage from Apple’s spaceship-shaped Apple Park. The Gizmodo consumer tech team, including Senior Writer James and Staff Reporter Kyle Barr, will be on deck breaking down the news announcements, too. Be sure to come back on Monday for live updates!
Apple May Make All Its Software Look Like a Sunroom
There’s a light at the end of the long, long tunnel. Apple will finally let us peep its next slate of software updates. If the rumors are to be believed, every OS is jumping to “26,” and instead of iOS 19 or macOS 16, we’ll get iOS 26 and macOS 26. The new naming convention hints that Apple may try to unify the design of all its software, which is supposedly inspired by the Vision Pro’s glassy visionOS.
The Mac menu bar, your iPhone’s app icons, and widgets will also have a glassy appearance. Beyond the changes to the UI, Apple may introduce a few more features, like a Preview-type app for iPhone and iPad. We may also see a section on gaming with an all-new “Gaming” app for mobile. Just don’t expect too much in the way of “Apple Intelligence” updates save for new live translation features for phone calls and texts.
A Leap Year for iOS
Simultaneously, one of the biggest but also the most superficial changes at WWDC 2025 could be with Apple’s naming conventions. As reported by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, all of Apple’s software—that’s iOS, macOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and visionOS—may jump from their respective numbers, 18, 16, 18, 11, and 2, respectively, to… 26. That shift changes the year-over-year system from chronological numbers to the year it’s released plus one, like a Toyota or whatever.
In a way, it won’t really mean much of anything, but in another way, it signifies a big change and might actually match the major vibe shift we’re expecting with the new version of iOS. It’ll make things simpler, I suppose, but poor visionOS might have some whiplash.
Hey Siri, Do You Still Suck?
Apple announced Apple Intelligence at last year’s WWDC. Generative AI features like Genmoji, notification summaries, and writing tools rolled out, but the big one—a revamped Siri with on-screen awareness and agentic functionality to help do things on your behalf—failed to materialize even after months of delay. Reports have claimed that the new Siri features were fictitious and Apple’s marketing had pushed for them to be shown off before the Siri team had even gotten them working.
Our Senior Writer James Pero thinks Monday is going to be looked upon as Apple’s make-or-break AI—it’ll be largely about optics. Will Apple emerge as an innovator or a laggard?
Live Updates From Apple WWDC 2025 🔴
