Apple’s WWDC 2026 event kicked off this morning at 10 a.m. PT at Apple Park, kicking off a week full of anticipated announcements about Siri, iOS 27, Apple Intelligence, and more, along with developer events and demos. This year’s event is particularly noteworthy for several reasons. This will be CEO Tim Cook’s last job at the company after announcing on September 1 that he would hand over the job to John Ternus, senior vice president of hardware engineering. And it’s expected to play host to Apple’s attempts to significantly improve Siri and its AI efforts overall after leaving some of the work to Google and delaying some launches.
Are they successful? Stay tuned to this page and the rest of our ongoing coverage!
Apple unveils Siri AI
As expected, Apple presented an enhanced experience with its Siri assistant, which faces greater expectations from users in the AI era. Apple claims that the new Siri update with Google Gemini will be more capable, conversational, compatible with visual intelligence, and will be included in standalone apps in addition to working in existing apps. You can find a full rundown of all the new Siri AI updates here.
Before rolling out enhancements and features, Apple was adamant about its privacy-centric approach to AI. “We believe that privacy in AI is non-negotiable,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president. “Data is only used to fulfill requests, and external experts can continue to confirm this commitment at any time.”
Next-generation Apple Intelligence
In line with the new Siri AI overhaul, the tech giant announced a slew of new Apple Intelligence updates across its apps, including tab management for Safari, one-tap password updates, cross-app contextual awareness, and more. Messages are also getting AI-powered reply suggestions, and the Phone app can now pull context from other apps like Mail and Messages during a call.
Apple said it has collaborated with Google and the Gemini model family to develop the next generation of Apple Foundation Models that power the integrated Apple Intelligence experience.
Liquid Glass Gets Some Informed Consent Rollbacks
If you were one of those people who wasn’t all that interested in last year’s Liquid Glass design update, you weren’t alone. And while Apple isn’t switching to a new aesthetic, they may be able to bring back some elements or really accentuate them accordingly. And with Spotify’s disco ball update, new app icons For critics, Apple has introduced a new layered approach to Liquid Glass within its apps.
Image Playground Gets Another Chance
AI-generated apps aren’t taking the world by storm. That may be a good thing in some circumstances, but Apple has come up with a new offering to help users actually start creating images. We focused on possible uses across the various features of the device, with an exclusion for training based on photos generated using the app. Add to that the performance updates that come with the Apple Intelligence upgrade, and it at least gets it out of our senior writer Amanda Silberling’s “lousy” category.
iOS 27 extends back to iPhone 11.
Apple claims that the upcoming update will “reach more users than any iOS release to date” and has stated that all devices from the iPhone 11 onwards will be eligible to receive future software updates. And this update includes significant performance improvements across multiple OS releases this year. Apple claims that new photos will appear 70% faster, AirDrop transfers will be 80% faster, and an improved CPU scheduler will help with multitasking.
New parental controls for iPhone
Apple spent a significant amount of time at its WWDC event showcasing a suite of tools for parents who want more control over what their children can and cannot do on their devices. Parents can decide who their children can call and what apps and websites they can access, and Apple suggests how these restrictions could change over time. However, the “Ask to Explore” feature, which restricts access by default, and the “Ask to Purchase” feature for App Store and in-app purchases are set to default on devices set for children under 13. You can get detailed parental control details here.
Search is getting a complete overhaul
Via iPhone… well… Are you frustrated with searching for almost as many things? Search had a dedicated session during WWDC to promote a series of improvements. More information about this can be found here.
“We’ve all had that moment when you search for something you know and it doesn’t show up,” said Stacey Ford, vice president of OS Program Management. “So we rebuilt our search foundation to support Spotlight, Photos, and Mail on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS.
To take on the popular AI photo editing apps, Apple has introduced new AI features to its Photos app. The new spatial ‘reframe’ feature allows users to use AI to adjust the perspective of an image as if the camera position had changed in the original scene. The new “Expand” tool expands an image to adjust its aspect ratio or add more to the scene. The app’s popular “Cleanup” tool has also been upgraded, allowing users to remove distractions with better quality and more realistic fills via generative AI.
Apple takes on the challenge of AI dictation app
Apple is launching a new system-wide dictation experience built into the keyboard in iOS 27 that lets you correct spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. The update comes as AI dictation apps like Wispr Flow and Willow are gaining popularity. These apps clean up filler words like “ums” and “Ahs,” transcribe them in context, and format the text.
Shortcut adds natural language generation.
Apple is using AI to make Shortcuts, a visual scripting tool, easier to use in iOS 27. The updated experience allows users to create prompts and briefly describe what they want to do. The AI update makes the Shortcuts app more accessible and expands what non-technical people can do.
In Health, gain insight into perimenopause.
Apple’s Health app is adding perimenopause and menopause support to its existing cycle tracking features. This update covers topics that have become mainstream in recent years, providing new product opportunities for Apple in this fast-growing market, as digital health tools targeting these populations have attracted significant investment.
Tim Cook says goodbye
At the end of the keynote, there is a farewell speech from Tim Cook, in which he reminisces about his time as CEO.
“Over the past few years, you’ve helped people connect, create, learn, and experience the world in extraordinary new ways,” Cook said. “With the amazing features we’re introducing today and more to come, I truly believe Apple remains ahead of the curve. Getting the best products in the world to deliver experiences that enrich people’s lives has always been our North Star.” It has been the honor of a lifetime to help advance that mission with a team whose creativity, care and conviction continue to make a lasting difference in people’s lives.”
Check out the rest of WWDC 2026 reveals here.
Missed WWDC? You can always check out the full event archive via the stream above or right here on Apple’s YouTube page.
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