Your iPhone, Watch, Mac and iPad will change. What do we know before WWDC 2026?

Every year in June, Apple presents new versions of its operating systems. This takes place during the Worldwide Developers Conference, an event organized for programmers writing applications for iPhones, iPad tablets, Mac computers, Apple TV set-top boxes, Apple Watches and Apple Vision Pro goggles. This gives them time to prepare for the new API etc.

Subsequent operating systems from the Cupertino company have appeared over the years, but last year Apple unified their naming. For this reason, this year, during WWDC 2026, we will see software such as iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, tvOS 27, watchOS 27 and visionOS 27. Many new features will be available in all of them, but some will only be available on selected platforms.

WWDC 2026: Siri and Apple Intelligence

Before we move on to discussing individual systems, it is worth mentioning that we again expect Apple to devote a lot of attention to its AI. Already a few months ago, the company decided that it needed the support of a partner in the form of Google, whose Gemini will be integrated with Apple Intelligence and will thus become the brain of the new Siri. What exactly does this mean and what will change?

First of all, Siri will become a full-fledged application like ChatGPT, and you will also be able to interact with this assistant using Dynamic Island on iPhones. It will also eventually receive new functions, including those that were announced in 2024. It will be able to analyze what is happening on the screen and, on this basis, it will learn the context in which we ask it questions.

Cooperation with Google does not mean, however, that Gemini will completely replace Apple Intelligence, as it is to be combined with it. In addition, the Cupertino company is not closed to cooperation with other partners from the artificial intelligence segment, and the partnership with Open AI involving the integration of Siri with ChatGPT is to remain in force. Other services of this type can also be connected to the assistant.

Of course, the question remains whether these new products will be available in Europe at all, or whether the inhabitants of the Old Continent will have to go without it. Months passed before the first version of Apple Intelligence appeared here, and both Apple's AI and the Siri assistant, which has been existing for almost two decades, still do not support the Polish language...

What's new in iOS 27

iOS is Apple's operating system, which has been around for nearly two decades, although its first versions were called iPhoneOS. There is no doubt that the company focuses on artificial intelligence, but this is not the end of the new features that will appear in it. Selected applications in iOS 27 will receive new features related to Apple Intelligence, including those involving environmental scanning.

After updating the Camera application, you will have the option to scan bills and food labels to immediately add data from the latter directly to the Health app. In turn, in Wallet there will be an option to add any physical document by scanning it with a camera. We should also have the option to generate subtitles for each played video.

In addition, iOS 27 is to have an interface optimized for the upcoming iPhone Fold, so that the system can efficiently handle two screens, each with different proportions, and cleverly switch between them. It will also have a split-screen mode, which has been present in iPadOS so far. However, these new features may be hidden for now and will only be officially shown in September.

What's new in iPadOS 27

iPadOS is a fork of iOS, which shares most of the code with it and usually includes most of the news from iPhones, but it also offers unique features on tablets with larger screens. It is an open question whether iPad owners will be able to enjoy any new products designed exclusively for them in 2026 - we don't know anything about them yet.

It is not impossible that Apple, after years of separation, will again combine iOS and iPadOS into one operating system. Since the company's offer is to include the iPhone Fold, which when unfolded will have a much larger screen than the one installed in classic phones with proportions similar to those of the company's tablets, it would actually be a quite reasonable step at this stage.

It seems that this year Apple will not focus on new features, apart from those related to AI, and instead will focus on fixing errors and tidying up the iOS and iPadOS code. Both of these systems are old and are full of code that is outdated and does not meet modern standards. However, we are counting on some lifting of the Liquid Glass interface.

New in macOS 27, tvOS 27, watchOS 27 and visionOS 27

macOS is the current name of the operating system for Apple computers. This year, also in this case, just before WWDC 2026, there are no reports of any changes that would fundamentally rebuild this system. For my part, I hope that the corners will be corrected and that the mode combining the address bar with the tab bar will return to desktop Safari in macOS 27 - I miss it!

What about systems for Apple TV, Apple Watch and Apple Vision Pro goggles? In their case... we don't know much about what Apple may have in store either. However, we can reasonably assume that there will be some new dials on the watches, and the birds are chirping that one of them will be the new Modular Ultra variant with a larger watch and three complications.

What about new devices for WWDC 2026?

Apple's June conferences are usually devoted to software, but it cannot be ruled out that some new hardware will be presented there - either a new revision of existing ones or something completely new. However, we expect the biggest hardware news in September, because this is the month when new Apple phones usually debut.

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It is worth adding that WWDC 2026 will most likely be the last event of this type to be hosted by the retiring Tim Cook at Apple Park. If the plans do not change, John Ternus will be his successor in September and he is the one who is to show the world both the iPhone 18 and the first foldable iPhone Fold, about which the Internet is already buzzing.

The opening keynote of WWDC 2026 will take place on June 8, 2026. All the most important news that Apple will announce on that day will be described and commented on in Spider's Web, so I invite you to follow the report from here. In addition, the first versions of iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, watchOS 27, tvOS 27 and visionOS 27 will be available for download immediately after the presentation.