Here's a look at the biggest announcements Apple made during its WWDC 2026 keynote.
WWDC 2026 is the company's latest edition of its annual developer conference
Photo Credit: Apple
Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) kicked off yesterday with a keynote address by CEO Tim Cook. It proved to be one of the company's most significant software-focused events in recent years. Previous editions of the developer conference usually centred around big Apple Intelligence promises that seldom came to fruition, but the Cupertino-based tech giant shook things up this year by showcasing deeper platform integration, a more mature AI strategy, and meaningful performance improvements across Apple's ecosystem.
Apple unveiled a completely redesigned Siri experience and detailed updates coming to iOS 27 and similar updates for the iPad, Vision Pro, Apple Watch, and Mac. Here's a look at the biggest announcements Apple made during its WWDC 2026 keynote.
At the developer conference, Apple unveiled Siri AI as a major overhaul of its virtual assistant. It will be available as a dedicated app on iPhone and via Spotlight on Mac. As per the company, Siri AI serves as a modern AI chatbot, offering broader world knowledge, improved conversational memory, and deeper integration with third-party and system apps on the phone.
One of the most substantial updates is its ability to respond to follow-up questions naturally, without having the user repeat context. Apple demonstrated that Siri AI can now perform multistep tasks, such as drafting messages, organising photos, and creating reminders.
On iPhone, Siri AI has been integrated into the Dynamic Island. It now appears as an animated visual indicator when activated. Apple also showcased new voice options, claiming that Siri has been redesigned to sound more natural and expressive. The AI assistant also gains camera-based intelligence, allowing it to identify objects, answer questions about surroundings, and provide contextual information based on what is visible in the camera viewfinder.
The company announced a dedicated Siri app. Apple says it allows users to continue previous conversations or start new ones from a single interface. Conversation history can be synchronised across Apple devices through iCloud. Users will be able to access the same interactions across supported products.
Despite being one of Apple's headline announcements, the tech giant mentioned that users in the European Union will not receive the new experience when iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 launch later this year. This was attributed to the delay in ongoing disagreements with EU regulators over the implementation of the Digital Markets Act (DMA). According to the company, regulators rejected several proposals designed to maintain privacy and security protections while allowing interoperability with third-party virtual assistants.
Apple has spent the last few years building the Apple Intelligence platform, but it announced a major shift in its strategy. During the keynote, the company built upon its announcement from earlier in the year by confirming that Google's Gemini models have been used as the core intelligence layer upon which the latest models have been built for powering the AI experiences across Apple devices.
This means Apple developers can interact with cloud-hosted Gemini models using the Foundation Models framework, along with being able to access Apple Intelligence in Xcode through agentic workflows. They will be able to perform complex, multi-step tasks during development without having to switch tools or windows.
As per the company, the new AI architecture will enable apps to have a better understanding of user intent. Apps will also be able to better analyse on-screen content, process information from the camera, and execute tasks across multiple apps. The company emphasised that privacy remains a key factor.
Most requests will be processed directly on-device, while more complex tasks are handled through Private Cloud Compute.
iOS 27 was announced as Apple's next-generation mobile operating system for the iPhone. The company said it introduces both user-facing features and major under-the-hood improvements. Apple claims iOS 27 delivers significant performance gains across the board. Apps launch up to 30 percent faster, newly captured photos load up to 70 percent faster, and AirDrop transfers are up to 80 percent quicker than before.
The update also introduces a dedicated Siri AI app later this year, along with enhanced Apple Intelligence integrations, improved search experiences across Spotlight, Mail, and Photos, and faster switching between Wi-Fi and cellular networks. The Search experience across Spotlight, Photos, and Mail is also claimed to have been rebuilt. The Mail app has an improved ranking system that surfaces more relevant results in Top Hits.
Apple's Liquid Glass design language, introduced with iOS 26, is also set to receive refinements following user feedback. The iPhone maker acknowledged readability concerns, introducing a new slider that allows users to fine-tune transparency levels. The sidebars have also been redesigned to provide better visual separation and improved colour contrast.
Another major announcement was the continuous support. Apple said that iOS 27 will support all iPhone models currently compatible with iOS 26, extending software support for models dating back to the iPhone 11.
Apple also announced similar Apple Intelligence upgrades for iPadOS 27. Performance gains, including up to 5x faster file browsing and transfers between external drives and the Files app, were highlighted. The company claimed that the improvements bring the overall experience closer to Finder on Mac.
For Apple Watch, the tech giant confirmed that Siri AI will extend to watchOS 27. The OS will also feature quality-of-life improvements, but no major new features were announced during the keynote.
Beyond Siri, the company expanded its suite of Apple Intelligence features by introducing new photo editing tools. Users can clean up backgrounds, remove unwanted objects, reframe images, extend scenes beyond their original boundaries, and even generate new perspectives within photographs. Image Playground has also been upgraded with more realistic image-generation capabilities and expanded editing options.
There are new AI-powered tab organisation features within Safari, which automatically group related webpages into folders based on topic. Meanwhile, the new "Describe an Extension" feature within the feature allows users to create custom browser extensions simply by describing what they want the extension to do.
The Home app can group related notifications and display important smart-home events more prominently. Compatible security cameras will also be able to automatically generate summaries of activities occurring around the home. In Shortcuts, users can create automations using natural language prompts, without requiring manual configuration.
Apple announced that its next desktop operating system is called macOS Golden Gate, and it brings many of the same Apple Intelligence features introduced on iPhone. For example, there is Siri AI, but it is integrated into Spotlight. The company said this allows users to search, analyse documents, and interact with information using natural language.
macOS Golden Gate also marks a significant milestone for the tech giant as it is the first major macOS release to exclusively support Apple Silicon hardware. Apple announced that Intel-based Macs will no longer receive major operating system updates. However, they might continue to receive important security patches.
On Apple Vision Pro, the latest visionOS update adds AI-powered features. Siri will appear as a floating orb within the interface. As per the company, it is capable of analysing both digital and real-world objects viewed through the mixed reality headset. Apple also introduced new panorama creation tools designed specifically for spatial computing experiences.
The company spent a significant amount of time talking about the new range of parental control features across iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27. These are claimed to be designed to give parents more visibility and control over how children use their Apple devices.
For example, parents can limit access to specific apps during certain times of the day, restrict communications to approved contacts, and manage website permissions more effectively. There is a new feature in Safari that allows children to request access to websites. The approval notifications will be sent directly to parents.
Apart from this, the company also improved its sensitive-content detection systems. Apple said these features are powered by on-device AI and have privacy-focused safeguards.
At the end of the keynote, Apple CEO Tim Cook bid adieu with a personal message. He briefly reflected on Apple's future and told viewers that he believes "the best is yet ahead." The company, notably, has already announced that the Apple CEO will step down on September 1, with John Ternus, Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering, taking over the reins.
Interestingly, Ternus did not make an appearance during the WWDC keynote despite being announced as Apple's next CEO.
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