macOS Tahoe, iPadOS 26: Top announcements on first day of Apple WWDC 2025

Apple's WWDC for 2025 has begun with the first day being the most action-packed and general public centric as expected. The event, largely themed around Apple's various software offerings, saw a slew of announcements - and here are some of the bigger and relevant ones:

 

iOS: The new version of iOS will be called iOS 26 for the year 2026 and would no longer be iteration versions (currently iOS18) as has been done so far. This goes for tvOS, iPadOS and watchOS. Previously, huge redesign of iOS was done long back with iOS 7, and this new upgrade brings another design overhaul. The new design is based on something Apple calls Liquid Design with the OS taking on colours and feel of what's there in the display - more contextual themed than before. 

 

You get more in camera app settings, something that has been requested long back. For Safari, webpages are now closer to edges, to take more screen estate and there's new animations when tapping something in Safari, too. The phone app has a unified view now for showing more interaction details for a contact across different modes. On the AI side, one of the more relevant features seems to be Live Translation, like in Messages, you can have automatic translations as and when the person types or received message from another person, or have captions in FaceTime. Visual Intelligence allows you to search what's on your screen or ask for further updates. 

 

macOS Tahoe: The new Liquid Glass design extends to the Mac, too. Other major changes include a new dedicated Games app, Shortcuts getting AI integrations as well as intelligent file previews in the OS. The Mac also gets iPhone's Phone app support so you can access the Phone app right from your Mac. 

 

iPadOS 26: Other than what iOS design refresh looks, the iPadOS is getting better file management, which has also been long requested, along with a folder in Dock. There's Live Activity coming to the iPad, too, so you get alerts and live progress from a supported app at the top of your screen. Alongside, there's better support for running multiple apps with floating apps and resizable windows.

 

WatchOS: with the new watchOS 26, you now have Live Translation done on-device, too. Apple Intelligence extends to 'Workout Buddy' so you can do workouts with another person and share progress. There's also routines-based actions where the Watch would complete a task based on your preconfigured routine as per the time and location. 

 

tvOS: Apple TV gets a design refresh with more playback controls while playing something. Apple Music gets sing-along with iPhone mic for friends and family.

 

Other updates include Apple Music getting lyrics pronunciation, 3D spatial widgets and 3D photo conversion coming to visionOS. Then there's digital IDs for passports and boarding passes with links to terminal maps.

 

Whether you like the new design and animations and how well all this work remains to be seen. The developer betas for the new OS versions are out and public betas, if you want to try, will be out next month (general release will be made in September, as usual). Do note, since these are beta versions, there could well be more bugs and sluggishness in general compared to a regular public release.

Sci/Tech