Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2025 disappointed some investors and fans by not delivering major artificial intelligence (AI) breakthroughs. Instead, the tech giant focused on a significant redesign of its software across all devices, introducing a new design language called ‘Liquid Glass’.
Key Features of Liquid Glass
The Liquid Glass design represents Apple’s first major iOS redesign since iOS 7 in 2013. Key features include:
- A glass-like lock screen appearance
- Buttons transformed into ‘glass pills’ that slide along ‘glass rails’
- New animations, including those for answering phone calls
- Curved corners matching device design
- Transparent buttons and interaction elements
Technical Background
Apple attributes the ability to implement this new design to the increased power of their Apple Silicon chips. According to Craig Federighi, ‘Apple Silicon has become dramatically more powerful — enabling software, materials and experiences we once could only dream of.’
AI and Other Updates
While major AI advancements were not the focus, Apple did announce some AI-related improvements:
- Enhanced language translation capabilities during phone calls
- Integration with OpenAI’s ChatGPT for image processing
- AI-generated voice for translation feature
The translation feature allows for real-time language translation during phone calls, processed entirely on the iPhone without server connection. The ChatGPT integration enables features like text summarization within images and scene description.
Operating System Naming Convention Change
Apple is changing its operating system naming convention starting with the 2026 release. Instead of incremental version numbers, they’ll be named after the year (e.g., iOS 26, iPadOS 26, WatchOS 26). This change simplifies the naming across different devices and maintains the pressure on Apple to release annual updates.
Market Reaction
The lack of major AI announcements was met with a negative reaction from Wall Street, with Apple’s stock dropping 1.2% on the day. UBS analyst David Vogt noted that ‘many of the AI features announced were more incremental in our view, and already available through competitor applications.’
