“The last time we had such a large-scale interface update was iOS 7.”
Apple CEO Tim Cook stated at the opening of WWDC that this is the most significant transformation in 12 years.
Apple WWDC Debuts
The annual Apple Developer Conference WWDC kicked off at midnight on June 10, Taiwan time, unveiling a new design for software operating systems such as iOS, macOS, watchOS, and iPadOS called “Liquid Glass.” This new design features a semi-transparent glass material with a sense of three-dimensionality and rounded edges, which will become the unified design language for future Apple products. Apple also announced a new naming convention for a new design era, changing the OS version designation from the numerical “19” to the year “26,” heralding a new epoch starting in 2026.
Apple announces the new naming convention.
Photo / Su Yi-Chan
In addition to the interface, Apple has integrated Apple Intelligence into major apps this year, including Photos, Calls, Messages, Maps, and more, all featuring AI-driven personalized functions. The new feature Visual Intelligence is an enhanced version of Siri with recognition and search capabilities. Digital Age reported live from the WWDC venue to showcase the new features.
Photo / Su Yi-Chan
iOS 26 Update: Six Highlights
Highlight 1: Liquid Glass “Transparency” New Interface
Apple has adopted the Liquid Glass design style across the entire system, characterized by a semi-transparent glass appearance that features a mirror-like effect, refracting and reflecting light sources, with shadows along the edges presenting a three-dimensional style. Under this design language, all menus, buttons, app icons, and widgets will become semi-transparent, blending more seamlessly with the screen. The shape of the buttons will also be rounded, resembling pill shapes.
Apple’s new Liquid Glass design language will render buttons and menus semi-transparent.
Photo / Su Yi-Chan
Highlight 2: Spatial Photo Generation and Semi-Transparent Clock
In recent years, Apple has added many customization options for the lock screen. This year, under the new design language, the clock will be displayed in a semi-transparent three-dimensional manner, automatically adjusting in size according to the main screen wallpaper. Even when swiping up to view notifications, the clock will shrink accordingly to ensure it does not obstruct the main subject on the screen.
Lock screen clock design in iOS 26 reveals spatial photos in 3D mode, making scenes appear to have depth, adjusting angles as the screen moves.
Apple’s iOS 26 spatial photo feature.
Highlight 3: Visual Intelligence Search Recognition
This time, Apple has integrated updates about Apple Intelligence into various OS functionalities. The only AI feature to be independently named is “Visual Intelligence,” which, as the name suggests, is an assistant with visual recognition capabilities, comparable to a picture-recognizing version of Siri, allowing interaction through images.
Users can activate Visual Intelligence while viewing any content to assist in searching or operations. For example, if a user sees a beautiful lamp while scrolling through social media, they can ask Visual Intelligence to search Google or Etsy for the seller and price using an image. If they come across a concert poster, they can ask Visual Intelligence to recognize the time and location information and assist in adding it to their calendar.
Highlight 4: “Call Filter” for Unknown Call Screening
The phone app received the most functional updates, featuring a new “call filtering” function that acts like a personal assistant for incoming calls. When encountering an unknown number, the call will initially be answered silently, similar to a voicemail, and once the caller states their name and purpose, the system will verify that it’s not a scam or suspicious call before ringing to alert the user to answer.
Another function similar to “hold” is the “Hold Assist,” which waits in the background when calling banks or other customer services that require waiting in line, notifying the user when a real customer service representative answers.
Apple also announced a beta version of real-time translation, which will synchronize subtitles in the other person’s language during a chat and re-translate the spoken content immediately after, allowing this feature to be used even if the other party is not on an iPhone.
iOS 26 preview of the video real-time translation feature.
Photo / Apple
Real-time translation during calls.
Photo / Apple
Highlight 5: Consolidated Unknown Messages and AI Suggestions for Group Chats
The “Messages” app has also received a filtering function update, similar to the unknown message folder in Instagram. Messages from unknown senders will be displayed in a dedicated folder, with these messages remaining silent without notifications until the user enters the folder and presses “accept” or marks the number as known.
New interactive features have been added to group chats, such as voting. Apple Intelligence can detect suitable moments to suggest voting, for instance, when discussing hotels for a trip with differing opinions, it will prompt a question about adding a vote.
iOS 26 group voting feature.
Photo / Su Yi-Chan
Users can also utilize last year’s image generation feature “Image Playground” to input commands and generate background images that fit the conversation content.
Highlight 6: Maps Remember Your Visited Places
The Maps application has also employed Apple Intelligence functionality, remembering frequently used routes, such as commutes or school pickups. Future route suggestions will display these routes, making it easier to compare alternative routes.
In iOS 26, the map will show previously traveled routes alongside suggested routes for comparison.
Photo / Su Yi-Chan
Additionally, a “Visited Places” feature has been introduced to record and organize locations visited for easy retrieval later. For instance, if a user visits a great café but can’t recall its name, they can find it directly in Visited Places. Users can choose to have the iPhone automatically detect when they are at restaurants or stores to record these locations, with Apple emphasizing that Visited Places data is encrypted and inaccessible even to Apple.
New iOS Features Launch This Fall, Supporting Down to iPhone 16
- The new software features will be available this fall for iPhone 11 and later models as a free software update.
- Apple Intelligence features require compatible devices, including iPhone 16 models, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, iPad mini (A17 Pro), and iPads and Macs with M1 or later chips.
- Supported languages: English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish, Japanese, Korean, or Chinese (Simplified).
- More supported languages will be introduced by the end of this year: Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, Portuguese (Portugal), Swedish, Turkish, Chinese (Traditional), and Vietnamese.
AI Features Are Slowly Unfolding! A Smarter Siri Waits Until 2026
Through the Liquid Glass update, Apple is aligning the visual style closely with the visionOS design language, while also incorporating features like spatial photos that were originally exclusive to visionOS, effectively extending advanced UI design to other devices through software updates. This also means more developers can design according to visionOS style, achieving unified benefits across the entire ecosystem.
This year, the highly anticipated Siri did not debut, and its presentation format has significantly changed, with Apple Intelligence features not concentrated in one segment but embedded across various apps to assist daily life. Vision Intelligence showcases some functionalities that Siri promised to update last year, including image search and cross-app collaboration features like calendar integration.
This article is collaboratively reproduced from: Digital Age
Further Reading: Apple WWDC25 Predictions | Will iOS See the Biggest Innovation Ever? In addition to changing app icons from square to round, is there hope for a Siri update?
Editor: Li Xiantai