Home windows Vista-like glass redesign, Mac-style iPadOS modifications, and extra

Apple’s massive WWDC (Worldwide Builders Convention) for 2025 has formally begun, and the principle software program keynote presentation is kicking issues off with a bang. , the Cupertino, California-based tech large has unveiled next-generation updates to all its operating system platforms, unifying its replace efforts underneath a single ‘version 26’ naming convention for consistency.

This 12 months, Apple is introducing a flurry of recent options that’ll make their approach into its upcoming iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 26 Tahoe, watchOS 26, tvOS 26, and visionOS 26 platform releases. Every of those working methods is on the market now in developer preview type, with the primary public betas slated to land in July. According to Apple, full secure releases will hit the bottom working someday this fall.

Listed below are 5 of probably the most noteworthy reveals from WWDC 2025, starting from a sweeping glass-like visual overhaul, elementary tweaks to the iPad experience, and rather more.

1

A ‘liquid glass’ OS redesign

Home windows Vista’s Aero Glass aesthetic is again in fashion

Pocket-lint / Apple

As anticipated, probably the most placing WWDC25 reveal of all of them is a brand new ‘liquid glass’ aesthetic designed by Apple, which might be making its approach into every of the corporate’s bespoke working methods of their model 26 releases later this 12 months. Impressed by the glass-like digital surfaces of the Vision Pro headset, Apple appears to be leaning into the Home windows Aero design language pioneered by Microsoft again within the days of Vista.

Actual-time mild reflections and refractions dynamically alter in look primarily based on content material displayed on display screen, icons have been redesigned with a layered design and an optionally available translucent clear look, and sidebars, toolbars, and menus have all been reworked to raised match the brand new design language. Apparently, the much-rumored circular iPhone app icons are nowhere to be seen — a internet constructive growth, in my subjective opinion.

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2

A enjoyable new Recreation app

A centralized recreation launcher hub for the Apple ecosystem

Pocket-lint / Apple

Throughout iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and macOS 26 Tahoe, Apple is introducing an all-new preinstalled software referred to as the Recreation app. This app serves as a one-stop-shop location for launching cellular video games, with achievements, scoreboards, and different helpful additions in addition. In a way, Apple has created its personal devoted gaming launcher for App Retailer and Apple Arcade titles. I believe this is a wonderful concept at a time when the corporate is pushing for ever-more expansive AAA video games to hit its platforms.

This new Recreation app additionally integrates with the prevailing Recreation Middle framework, which has included scoreboards and different recreation knowledge metrics ever since its launch in iOS 4.1 in 2010. Recreation Middle was its personal devoted app again within the day, earlier than being demoted to the Settings app a number of years later. I am a fan of Apple’s newfound spotlighting of Video games inside a centralized app hub, and I look ahead to testing the brand new interface as soon as it hits my iDevices.

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3

Smarter cellphone calling and messaging

Almost 20 years on, the iPhone is about to grow to be a greater cellphone

Pocket-lint / Apple

Today, our trendy smartphones are basically pocketable supercomputers. With how highly effective and multifaceted the iPhone has grow to be, it is easy to overlook that the phrase ‘cellphone’ is, actually, within the product title itself. Almost twenty years on from the unique iPhone’s launch, Apple is dramatically bettering the precise telecommunications expertise of the iPhone. Taking a web page out of Google’s Pixel playbook, iOS 26 is about to incorporate new spam name detection and filtering instruments, in addition to a brand new choice to have the cellphone maintain wait queues by way of elevator music identifier and call-back applied sciences.

Reside cellphone name translations are one other thrilling addition, which ought to make ringing up family members in a foreign country a much more accessible expertise. And, as an added bonus, the iPad and the Mac are gaining devoted Cellphone apps of their very own, which is able to make it simpler to put calls utilizing Apple’s Continuity characteristic with out your iPhone being in reachable proximity. All of this makes me marvel: if I’ve a 5G cellular-enabled iPad, and if it has a Cellphone app inbuilt, would possibly I quickly be capable of exchange my iPhone altogether?

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4

The iOS Pictures app is (seemingly) mounted

Apple re-introduces a devoted tab for collections of picture albums

Pocket-lint / Apple

With final 12 months’s launch of iOS 18, Apple redesigned the native Pictures app to supply a extra dynamic person expertise. Sadly, the app proved confusing to many iPhone customers — to today, the app refresh stays controversial, with many lamenting the lack of the devoted tab for itemizing albums. With iOS 26, Apple seems to be capitulating a bit, by reintroducing a Collections tab close to the underside of the app’s interface.

Personally, I am one of many few individuals who prefers the up to date iOS 18 Pictures app, as I really like getting access to all my photographs, folders, and collections in a single, unified area. That being stated, the interface definitely felt much less cluttered in iOS 17 and beneath, and so I am glad to see Apple as soon as once more providing a tabbed expertise to enhance approachability.

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5

The iPad is lastly a reliable laptop

iPadOS is about to get much more macOS-like, and it has been a very long time coming

Pocket-lint / Apple

Placing apart the most important visible refresh of all of Apple’s working methods, I might argue that the only greatest reveal of WWDC25 is the vastly improved iPad expertise coming within the type of iPadOS 26. The corporate has lastly taken steps to enhance the iPad’s means to function as a standalone computer, by grafting on a number of Mac-inspired interface tweaks and options.

With iPadOS 26, Apple is bringing the Mac’s acquainted site visitors light-style window administration buttons to the iPad, along with improved split-screen windowing controls, fast window snapping, and extra. Different PC-like additions embrace a brand new, pointier mouse cursor, granular management over audio enter, a devoted Menu Bar interface for choosing fast actions, the introduction of the Mac’s Preview app, and a extra strong Information app. This final addition introduces assist for ongoing background duties in a form of Live Activities-style notification setup, which is one thing I’ve personally been clamoring for.

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