There were plenty of gags, music, trailers and AI in Apple’s WWDC keynote this morning (AEST) but most the significant news of all? A massive design overhaul and unified naming system starting with iOS 26.

“Experiences are more expressive and personal, from the Lock Screen and Home Screen, to new capabilities across Phone and Messages that help users focus on the connections that matter most. And with powerful new Apple Intelligence capabilities integrated across the system, users can get things done easier than ever.”

“iOS 26 shines with the gorgeous new design and meaningful improvements to the features users rely on every day, making iPhone even more helpful,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering.

WWDC is a massive data download so below I’ve listed the most significant iOS 26 announcements and those important to our creative audience.

iOS26

NEW LOOK

Apple calls its new display look – Liquid Glass — a new translucent material that reflects and refracts its surroundings. The idea being it will give ‘greater focus to content’. It also unlocks more flexibility with controls. In Safari, web pages flow from the top edge to the bottom of the screen, enabling users to see more of the page while maintaining access to frequently used actions like refresh and search. In Apple Music, News, and Podcasts, the tab bar is redesigned to float above users’ content, dynamically shrink when users are browsing to put content front and centre, and then expand when they scroll back

The best update for Image Matrix Tech viewers is to the camera app. Separate tabs show video and photo options when you open the camera. This is something I welcome with open arms. I’ve always felt that the camera menu was a bit of a mess. I really like what Apple has done here. Video on the left and photos on the right. You can then swipe up to dial in your settings making the whole capture process faster and easier. Photos app has also been updated to feature separate tabs for Library and Collections views.

AI

Apple Intelligence expands throughout your iPhone in iOS 26. Live Translation is integrated into Messages, FaceTime, and Phone to help users communicate across languages, translating text and audio on the fly. Live Translation is enabled by Apple-built models that run entirely on device.

Visual intelligence can search and take action on anything they’re viewing across apps. Users can ask ChatGPT questions about what they’re looking at onscreen to learn more, as well as search Google. Visual intelligence also recognises when a user is looking at an event and suggests adding it to their calendar, repopulating key details like date, time, and location.

Shortcuts can tap into intelligent actions, a whole new set of shortcuts enabled by Apple Intelligence, and will see dedicated actions for features like Writing Tools and Image Playground.

Apple Intelligence can also automatically identify and summarise order tracking details from emails sent from merchants and delivery carriers, giving users the ability to see their full order details and progress notifications all in one place — even for purchases not made with Apple Pay.

DISTRACTION FREE, SMOOTH OPERATION

A unified layout makes for a smoother, uninterrupted operation under iOS 26. Recent calls and Voicemails are all in one place. Call Screening builds on Live Voicemail and helps eliminate interruptions by gathering information from the caller and giving users the details they need to decide if they want to pick up or ignore the call. Hold Assist notifies the user when a live agent is available.

Users can now screen messages from unknown senders in messages. Unknown senders will appear in a dedicated folder where users can then mark the number as known, ask for more information, or delete. These messages will remain silenced until a user accepts them.

CARPLAY

The new design includes a new compact view for incoming calls, allowing users to see who’s calling without missing key info like upcoming directions. iOS 26 also brings Tapbacks and pinned conversations to Messages in CarPlay, and with widgets and Live Activities. These updates also come to CarPlay Ultra.

APPLE MUSIC, MAPS AND WALLET

Lyrics Translation in Apple Music helps users understand the words to their favourite songs, while Lyrics Pronunciation allows everyone to sing along, regardless of language. AutoMix uses intelligence to transition from one song to the next like a DJ, using time stretching and beat matching to seamlessly move from one song to the next.

In Apple Maps, Visited Places help users remember the places they’ve been. Users can choose to have iPhone detect when they’re at a place like a restaurant or shop, and view all of their Visited Places in Maps. Visited Places are protected with end-to-end encryption and cannot be accessed by Apple. iPhone can now use on-device intelligence to better understand a user’s daily route, presenting them with their preferred route when they’re headed home or to the office, along with notifying them of delays and offering alternate routes.

Apple Wallet users can choose to pay with instalments or rewards when they make in-store purchases with Apple Pay using iPhone. Refreshed boarding passes in Wallet offer the ability to see and share Live Activities for real-time updates on a flight. They also provide convenient access to a traveller’s most relevant information, such as Maps to navigate airports, Find My to track important items and report missing bags.

OTHER iOS 26 UPDATES

• Apple Games is a new app that gives players an all-in-one destination for their games.
• New features for AirPods 4, AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation (ANC), and AirPods Pro 2. Building on the benefits of Voice Isolation, studio-quality audio recording allows iPhone, iPad, and Mac users to record their content with great sound quality and enjoy even clearer calls. With camera remote, users can press and hold the AirPods stem to take a photo or start and stop a video recording on iPhone or iPad.
• Parents can now create or move kids into Child Accounts even more easily, taking advantage of a wide set of parental controls designed to keep children safe. Enhancements across Communication Limits, Communication Safety, and the App Store include parental approvals for contact requests from kids, blurring out sensitive content in FaceTime calls and photos in Shared Albums, and enabling parents to grant an exception for their child to download an app with an age rating that exceeds the app content restriction they set.
• Browsing in Safari gets even more private with advanced fingerprinting protection extending to all browsing by default.
• Accessibility Reader, which provides a customised systemwide reading experience, and Braille Access, an all-new interface for iPhone devices with connected braille displays. Updates to Live Listen, Background Sounds, Personal Voice, and more bring a new level of accessibility across the Apple ecosystem.
  
  

All of these features are available for testing starting today through the Apple Developer Program.