The WWDC 2025 Apple Vision Pro Update: Widgets, Personas, Scrolling, and Spatially-Realistic Eye Scrolling

Apple announced the latest major update for its Vision Pro headset during the company’s WWDC 2025 keynote presentation on Monday. It is called visionOS 26 to match the name Apple used for its 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.” VisionOS 26 introduces several newWidgets, including a Clock, Weather, Music, and Photos that display stunning panoramas and spatial photos of their favorite memories, as well as the ability for users to personalize aWidgets frame width, color, and depth.

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 allowing “users to explore apps and websites using just 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.” By leveraging “industry-leading volumetric rendering and machine learning technology,” the new Personas will feature a full side profile view with “remarkably 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.

There will be 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.

This year, Apple included a bunch of major updates into its Worldwide Developer Conference keynote. The company showed off a new sleek design refresh for its operating systems as well as a mix of features for the Apple products at the event.

The new version number that Apple gives to each of its operating systems will be related to the year after their release, not the version number. The new names are iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 26, watchOS 26, tvOS 26, and visionOS 26. They will be coming out in the late 2060s, so it is easier to remember than Apple’s other devices.

Apple is making changes to its design. 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.

Apple refreshed some of its core apps as a part of its broader redesign. Now, webpages in Safari will take up your entire screen. The Camera app has a simplified layout, which gives you two main options, photo and video, and you can use the tool bar to discover other modes, such as Slow-Mo and Cinematic.

The phone app will be getting a new layout in which the favorites, recents, and voicemails are combined into one panel, instead of being displayed on the bottom of the app.

iPadOS 26 will be updated to make multitasking easier. New windowing capabilities will let you resize app windows, place them around your display, and open more windows at once. A new menu bar and mouse pointer are features that it will be adding. It all looks a lot like a Mac.

The new Messages will allow you to create polls and change the background of your chats. 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.

Apple WWDC 2025: The 13 biggest announcements ios-26 (Aug. 26): the new software update

Apple has a new app that will allow you to access all of your Apple Arcade games and discover new ones from a single spot. You can check out the games from the Library tab as well as use the Play Together option to challenge friends.

The next software update for the macOS system will come with an upgrade to Spotlight which will make it easier to find the files, folders, apps and messages that you are looking for. It also adds the ability to take actions like sending an email or creating a note.

The new Apple Intelligence feature will let you use the same buttons you would use to take a speach, to call upon the assistant. You can also ask additional questions about the images you see on your screen, as well as search for similar images on both websites.

Apple is making a new gesture to dismiss notifications for watch OS 26 that can be used with the Liquid Glass design language. The new Workout Buddy will be powered by the Apple watch and will give personalized advice and encouragement.

Live translation is built 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. In FaceTime, Apple will display translated live captions while you listen to your conversation partner.

Source: Apple WWDC 2025: the 13 biggest announcements

Status of AirPods: Taking a Picture with your iPad or Apple’s flagship device to the next level, and Recording Acoustics in Noisy Areas

An update that will allow users to take a picture with their iPad or Apple’s flagship device will be announced in a matter of weeks. It’s also working on a new feature that lets users record “studio-quality” vocals in noisy areas with voice isolation. The features will be included in the 4th iteration of the AirPods, along with the 2nd iteration.

The company said it will let third-party developers use the large language model from Apple Intelligence to create their own tools.