Apple Updates for Windows Operating Systems and Other Core Products: Apple’s WWDC Preliminary Report on Updates to the Operating Systems

Major updates were included in Apple’s annual Worldwide Developer Conference keynote. The company showed off its sleek design refresh coming to its operating systems, as well as a number of new features for the Apple products.

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 names of the new operating systems are iPadOS 26, macOS 26, watchOS 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.

As part of its broader redesign, Apple revealed revamps for some of its core apps in iOS 26. You can now take up the entire screen with the websites in your browser. You can use a tool bar to reveal other modes in the Camera app, and it has a simpler layout that shows you two main options, photo and video.

The phone app is getting a redesign as it will now have a layout with favorites, recents and voicemails in one panel and calls, contacts, and keypad on the bottom of the app.

Apple is bringing a major update to iPadOS 26 that should make multitasking easier. New windowing capabilities will let you resize app windows, place them around your display, and open more windows at once. It is also adding a new menu bar to allow you to view options and commands while using an app. It all looks like a Mac.

Apple is updating Messages to let you change the background of your chats and create polls in group conversations. There are a number of updates that include keyboards for group chats, and the ability to screen messages that are not yours in a separate folder.

New Apps for Playing in the Cloud: Predictions for the Next MacOS Update, and an Apple Intelligence Feature for Apple WatchOS 26

Apple announced a new Games app that will let you discover new games from a single spot, and access all of your Apple Arcade games at the same time. You can check out the Library to see the games that you’ve downloaded, as well as challenge your friends to a game.

The next macOS software update will update Spotlight to add personalization and filter options to help you find what you are looking for. It also adds the ability to take actions like sending an email or creating a note.

You can play more virtual-reality games with the Apple Vision Pro, as well as the controllers from Sony. The new scrolling feature will allow users to navigate their app by looking up or down, in addition to spatial widgets that appear instantly into a user’s space.

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. If you want to learn more about what you’re seeing on your screen, you can ask questions about it from there.

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 have a new AI-powered “Workout Buddy,” as well, which will generate personalized advice and encouragements.

Expectations for the Apple 26 update: Text-to-Speech and Voice to Speech Translation in the Airpods, FaceTime, and Phone app

Apple is adding an Apple Intelligence-powered feature that can translate text on your screen and translate speech back and forth in the middle of a phone call. The company is building the feature into Messages, FaceTime, and the Phone app, and Apple says its models for Live Translation run entirely on your device for privacy.

Apple previewed an update that will let users take a photo with their iPhone or iPad by tapping 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 that will come to the AirPods 4 include Active Noise Cancellation and the Pro 2.

Apple said during its keynote that it will allow third-party app developers to create tools of their own using the large language model used in Apple Intelligence.

Here’s a bit more detail on what you can expect from iOS 26 when it releases for everyone this fall. If you want to try it before the public version is out, Apple has already started a developer beta and you can check it out.

Changes from Liquid Glass will touch everything in the operating system, including apps, buttons, and the Control Center. Tab bars will expand and shrink when scrolling through Liquid Glass.

An iOS 26 Visual Intelligence-powered Option for Predicting Screening and Waiting for a Call and a Unified Layout

Apple is taking some cues from Google by adding a call screening feature and a “Hold Assist” feature that can wait on a call for you. The company is also adding a new unified layout option that combines Favorites, Recents, and Voicemails all into one view.

Even though we’re still waiting for Apple to announce when it will actually release its delayed improvements to Siri, iOS 26 will include some new Apple Intelligence-powered features. You can use Visual Intelligence to perform searches about what you see on your screen. With Genmoji, you’ll be able to combine two emoji into one. Using Apple intelligence models will be possible if you use Shortcuts.