The Year Apple Updates: Android, FaceTime, and Phone Embedded in an Apple Update the Month After Their 2025 Announcement

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 new names are watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS. They’ll be coming out in late 2025, but still, it’s easier to remember that than iOS 19, watchOS 12, and macOS 16.

The announcement also indicates that Apple has changed how it signifies major updates to its device operating system. The previous marketing scheme would have lead to the release of iOS 19 this year. But now, Apple’s big iOS updates will be numbered based on the year following their introduction, a little bit like car-makers do with new car releases.

Apple revealed changes for some of its core apps as part of its redesign. Your browser will show webpages on your entire screen. The Camera app also has a simplified layout that shows you two main options — photo and video — and you can swipe on the tool bar to reveal other modes, such as Slow-Mo and Cinematic.

Apple is adding some improvements to the phone app, including a call screening feature that can answer calls on your behalf and sit on calls on your behalf while you’re on hold.

The Messages app is getting a bunch of new features. You can also make your own photos or images, but Apple will not provide a background. Apple Intelligence can suggest adding a poll if the feature knows it might be helpful. Group chats are typing indicators.

To make new emoji, Apple will let you merge two emoji with Genmoji instead of just using a text description. A new feature will allow you to make images with the help of Openai.

The Messages, FaceTime, and Phone apps have live translation built into them. You can use the integration to translate text into the Messages app, and hear the speech it makes in the Phone app. In FaceTime, Apple will display translated live captions while you listen to your conversation partner.

Apple Music is getting lyrics translation and lyrics pronunciation. A new feature called automix can change songs into something else. You will be able to pin your favorite artists to the top of the app.

Apple Maps can give you your preferred routes and will send you a notification if there is traffic or delays on that route. If you want to share your trip with your friends, you can check back on it.

Apple is soon going to allow you to create a digital ID. Boarding passes are getting a refresh and will let you access indoor maps of the airport. Apple Pay will be able to use Apple Intelligence to locate orders that were not in Apple Pay.

What will we learn from Apple in the next mac OS update? Reimagining iOS operating systems at the Worldwide Developer Conference Conclusive Conference

The new Games app will allow you to access all your Apple Arcade games and discover new ones from a single spot. You can check out the Library tab to view the games you’ve downloaded from the App Store, as well as use the Play Together option to challenge friends.

Apple will also let you use Visual Intelligence to learn more about what’s on your iPhone’s screen. A demo showed a person how to use visual intelligence to learn more about a jacket they see in a photo on a social media app. You can take a picture of an event and use visual intel to add it to your calendar. You can ask the guy on the screen about something that’s on the screen.

This is Apple’s second major iOS update following the introduction of the company’s Apple Intelligence AI features. Some basic artificial intelligence features in the new version of the app include tools to improve writing, a custom Genmoji and integration with a chat service. But some big promised upgrades to Siri, like the ability to take action based on what it could see on your phone, were delayed ahead of their expected launch.

Apple showed off a bunch of changes at the Worldwide Developer Conference keynote. During the event, the company showed off the sleek design refresh coming to its operating systems, as well as a mix of new features for the iPhone, iPad, Mac, AirPods, and more.

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 the lockscreen will now look similar to the new look and have a clearer view of your wallpaper.

The Phone app is getting an upgrade, as well, as it will now have a layout that combines favorites, recents, and voicemails into one panel, while calls, contacts, and keypad remain 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. A new menu bar and a more precise mouse pointer are also included in the update. It all looks a lot more Mac-like.

The next macOS software update will introduce an upgrade to Spotlight that will make your search results more relevant with personalization and filtering options to help you search for specific files, folders, apps, and messages. It also adds the ability to take actions like sending an email or creating a note.

The Case for Virtual Reality in Apple Vision Pro and VisionOS 26: From Liquid Glass to AirPods Pro with Active Noise Cancellation and Voice Isolation

You will be able to play a wide variety of virtual-reality games with the Apple Vision Pro and visionOS 26. It’s also adding a new scrolling feature that lets users navigate apps by looking up or down, in addition to spatial widgets that integrate “seamlessly into a user’s space and reappearing every time they put on Apple Vision Pro.”

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 new Apple Watch will have a Workout Buddy that will give you personalized advice and encouragement.

Users can take a picture with their devices if they tap the stem of their AirPods. A new feature will let users record studio-quality vocals in noisy places with voice isolation. The features will come to the AirPods 4, AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation, and AirPods Pro 2.

Though Apple’s keynote was a bit light on AI news, the company announced that it will let third-party app developers access the on-device large language model used by Apple Intelligence, allowing them to create tools of their own.