Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference, WWDC 2025, kicks off this coming Monday at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET), and anticipation is already high concerning what the company has planned. Last year’s conference put artificial intelligence front and center, and now Apple faces heightened expectations to follow through on those ambitious advances.
Central among this year’s announcements is expected to be the most significant redesign to Apple’s mobile operating system since iOS 7 unveiled in 2013. That earlier update marked a dramatic shift from a skeuomorphic interface filled with real-world textures to a flatter, minimalist look championed by then-design head Jony Ive. Now, speculation suggests that a similarly groundbreaking visual revamp awaits, potentially drawing inspiration from VisionOS, the software driving Apple’s spatial computing headset Vision Pro. If these reports are accurate, users may soon encounter transparent interfaces, more rounded app icons, and design cues carried consistently across Apple’s array of products—including CarPlay—for a more cohesive look and feel.
Apple is also reportedly set to introduce a significant change to its naming conventions. Rather than continuing with sequential numbering, the company could rebrand iOS and other operating systems—such as macOS, watchOS, and tvOS—with a year-based system. This move would mean the next iteration of iOS might be named iOS 26 rather than iOS 19, aligned uniformly across all product lines.
When it comes to artificial intelligence, however, Apple may offer fewer bombshell disclosures this year. Last year the company made ambitious claims around Apple Intelligence capabilities that, in some cases, have not yet fully delivered. Analysts note the company may instead highlight several incremental AI-driven improvements across its platforms—for starters, a potentially AI-enhanced Health app, equipped with generative AI to deliver personalized health guidance, alongside upgrades in Messages, which might acquire new AI-enabled translation capabilities and assisted-response features.
There’s also substantial interest swirling around a rumored dedicated Gaming app, poised to replace the aging Game Center and integrate close ties with Apple Arcade. The new app is expected to offer streamlined friend-challenges, leaderboards, recommendations, and possibly deeper integrations with FaceTime and iMessage for more immersive remote gaming sessions.
In other system updates, macOS, anticipated to be renamed macOS Tahoe, is likely to gain the revamped Gaming app and other usability enhancements, while the Apple TV operating system may receive a significant interface overhaul as well as the new gaming features from other platforms.
The AirPods ecosystem stands to gain innovative upgrades as well. This could include new interactive gestures like head movements to control calls and media playback, automatic music pausing when the user falls asleep, and real-time language translation delivered directly via Apple’s wireless earbuds—a tool aimed particularly at travelers and multilingual conversations.
On the hardware front, however, rumors are notably subdued. Reliable reports suggest Apple might skip major new hardware announcements entirely at WWDC 2025, with indications that even anticipated devices, such as a possible new Mac Pro or a previously rumored smart home control tablet, are not yet ready for launch. Nevertheless, some observers speculate that Apple will unveil support for new spatial controllers designed specifically to interact with its Vision Pro spatial computing platform.
As always with Apple conferences, surprises remain possible, but this year’s show appears poised to emphasize Apple’s software vision, refining and reshaping user experience across its vast ecosystem—albeit with fewer dramatic introductions from the hardware and AI sectors.
