Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2025 has concluded, leaving a significant impact on the future of its ecosystem with groundbreaking advancements in iPadOS 26 and macOS Tahoe. The key themes were a comprehensive redesign, unified operating system nomenclature, and a massive leap forward in on-device artificial intelligence, spearheaded by innovative features like Genmoji and deeply integrated AI-powered tools.
The “Liquid Glass” Revolution: A Unified and Translucent Aesthetic
One of the most striking announcements was the introduction of “Liquid Glass,” a new design language that permeates iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS Tahoe, watchOS 26, and tvOS 26. This aesthetic marks Apple’s most extensive visual overhaul since iOS 7, bringing a cohesive and immersive feel across all devices. Liquid Glass features translucent materials that reflect and refract their surroundings, creating a dynamic and fluid user experience. This design extends to app icons, buttons, and media controls, enhancing visual elegance and improving user navigation.
iPadOS 26: Pushing the Boundaries of Multitasking
iPadOS 26 was hailed as the “biggest iPadOS release ever,” bringing the iPad closer to a traditional PC experience while retaining its signature immediacy. A powerful new windowing system allows users to freely resize and place app windows, offering unprecedented multitasking capabilities. Users can now easily manage multiple apps on screen, with familiar window controls for closing, minimizing, and tiling. A new menu bar provides quick access to app commands with a simple swipe or cursor movement, and the Files app has been revamped with collapsible folders and resizable columns for enhanced document management. The Preview app, a staple of macOS, also makes its way to iPadOS, offering advanced PDF editing and image manipulation with Apple Pencil.
macOS Tahoe: A Refreshed Desktop Experience with Deeper AI
macOS Tahoe, continuing Apple’s tradition of naming its desktop operating systems after Californian landmarks, introduces a refreshed design with the “Liquid Glass” aesthetic. The Dock, sidebars, and toolbars have been redesigned to bring user content to the forefront, and the menu bar is now completely transparent, maximizing screen real estate.
Beyond the visual refresh, macOS Tahoe boasts deepened AI integration and powerful productivity tools. Spotlight, the built-in search functionality, receives a significant upgrade, offering smarter search results with intelligent ranking and new filters. It can now pull documents from third-party cloud drives and allows users to perform hundreds of actions directly, such as sending emails or creating notes, without opening individual applications.
A significant continuity enhancement is the full integration of the iPhone’s Phone app into macOS, allowing users to make and receive calls, manage voicemails, and even screen unknown callers directly from their Mac. Live Activities from a nearby iPhone can now be mirrored in the Mac’s menu bar, providing real-time updates on events like Uber rides or flight statuses.
Genmoji and the Power of Apple Intelligence
At the heart of the new software releases is the expanded “Apple Intelligence,” Apple’s on-device AI platform designed for privacy and personalization. A standout feature is Genmoji, which allows users to create custom emojis by simply describing what they want. Users can blend elements of existing emojis or use text descriptions to generate entirely new ones. Even more remarkably, Genmoji can create personalized emojis of friends and family members, allowing users to adjust expressions and attributes like hairstyles to match their current look. Genmoji seamlessly integrates into Messages, Mail, Notes, and even third-party apps, offering a new level of expressive communication.
Apple Intelligence further enhances various aspects of iPadOS 26 and macOS Tahoe:
- Live Translation: Real-time text and audio translation is now integrated across Messages, FaceTime, and the Phone app, enabling seamless multilingual communication. On-device processing ensures privacy for these interactions.
- Visual Intelligence: Building on existing capabilities, Visual Intelligence can now analyze on-screen content from any app. Users can take a screenshot and leverage AI to identify objects, search for products, or even automatically add event details from an image to their calendar.
- Intelligent Shortcuts: The Shortcuts app is supercharged with Apple Intelligence, enabling users to automate complex, multi-step tasks with greater ease. AI-powered intelligent actions can summarize lecture notes, generate visual content, and more.
- Smarter Communication: In Messages, Apple Intelligence can intelligently suggest polls in group chats and provides enhanced message screening to filter out spam.
- Workout Buddy (watchOS 26): For Apple Watch users, a new AI-powered “Workout Buddy” offers personalized, motivational insights based on real-time workout data, providing guidance and encouragement during exercise.
Availability
The developer betas for iPadOS 26 and macOS Tahoe are available now, with public betas expected to roll out in July. The full software updates will be released later this year as free updates for supported iPad and Mac models.
WWDC 2025 has undeniably set a new benchmark for Apple’s software offerings. The combination of a visually stunning “Liquid Glass” design and a deeply integrated, privacy-centric Apple Intelligence promises a more intuitive, powerful, and personalized user experience across the entire Apple ecosystem.