Apple Developers Conference Summary: Highlights from VisionOS 2 vs. The Newest Trends in Apple Viewpoints and Personas

Last year’s visionOS 2 update introduced several features that improved the day-to-day usability of the Apple Vision Pro, including the ability to rearrange app icons on the homescreen, Bluetooth mouse support, and a simple wrist roll gesture for checking the time or the headset’s battery life. The Vision Pro now has the ability to create dual 4K-equivalent curved ultrawide displays with the headset connected to a mac, thanks to visionOS 2.

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.” Users can customize a widget’s frame width, color, and depth, and visionOS 26 is introducing several new widgets including a Clock, Weather, Music that provides quick access to playlists, and Photos that displays “stunning panoramas and spatial photos of their favorite memories.”

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 using cutting-edge technology, the new Personas will feature a full side profile view with 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.

The Apple Vision Pro’s language support will expand to include French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish along with regional English support in Australia, Canada, India, Singapore, and the UK. The Control Center has been given a redesign and the Vision Pro Home View supports folders to better organize and group similar apps.

Apple held an annual Worldwide Developer Conference keynote that featured a bunch of major updates. 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.

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 are new and includeiOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 26, watchOS 26, tvOS 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 changing the design of its operating systems. They will have a new liquid glass theme that adds more transparency to the buttons, switches, sliders, and text controls.

You can see the wallpaper behind the text on the notification previews on the lockscreen when they adopt the new look.

Some of its core apps have been reworked as part of Apple’s broader redesign. You can take up your entire screen with webpages in the browser. 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.

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. You will be able to open more windows at once with new windowing capabilities. A more precise mouse pointer and a new menu bar are additions to the operating system. It looks a lot like a Mac.

Apple is updating Messages to let you change the background of your chats and create polls in group conversations. 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.

On iOS WWDC 2025: the 13 biggest announcements – Ios 26, a new AI-powered interactive feature for macOS, FaceTime, and Phone

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

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.

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. From there, you can ask additional questions about what you’re seeing on your screen with ChatGPT or search for a particular object on Google or Etsy to find similar images.

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.

Apple is building AI-powered live translation 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. You can listen to your conversation partner while Apple displays translated live caption in the application.

Source: Apple WWDC 2025: the 13 biggest announcements

Apple Inclusive Learning (Apple) for Recording Studio Voices in Noisy Areas – A Preliminary Report

Apple previewed an update that will let users take a photo with their iPhone or iPad by tapping the stem of their AirPods. It is creating a new feature that will allow users to record studio-quality voices in noisy areas 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.