Apple WWDC 2026; key highlights of Tim Cook's 'last event' as CEO: Apple Intelligence and New Siri

It's a Wrap from WWDC 2026 that was all about Siri and Apple Intelligence coming across Apple OSes.

Thanking developers, Tim Cook says: "I truly believe the best is still ahead," Cook says in this video. He talks about how Apple's north star has always been creating products that serve people's needs. It's been an honor, he says and goes on thank thanking everyone for joining the company today at WWDC 2026.

Siri AI is gonna be a beta when it launches in the US later this year. Siri AI won’t be available in the EU because of privacy restrictions. In China too, Siri AI will not be available until Apple works through regulatory requirements.

You can start an invite from the Photos app by selecting a person and then describing your event. You can then use Apple's foundational models to generate more types of images and use them as things like Message backgrounds or lock screen wallpapers. You can use the new Extend tool to add more background space or adjust the aspect ratio of a picture. To reframe a picture after taking it, this new tool called Spatial Reframing can help.

Apple Intelligence can group notifications into updating alerts for single activities. The Home app can also use footage from compatible cameras to generate descriptions. Shortcuts to go easier.

Apps like Passwords, Safari, Messages and more will be getting Apple Intelligence updates. Now, Safari can "use Apple Intelligence to tame your tabs by organizing them into topics." Safari can add new related tabs to a topic "even as you browse."

Siri AI will be available in English to start, but Apple says support for more languages coming "quickly."

New Siri will be available across Apple products. The new Siri app "makes it easy to revisit an existing conversation or open a new one." Rockwell says: "We're also tailoring Siri AI for watchOS" and there is a new app grid on Apple Watch. Siri AI is also coming to visionOS, where there is a new 3D visualization of the AI. You can just look at the Orb to talk to Siri, rather than having to say "Hey Siri."

Siri AI, remember as Apple is calling it, also has a new customizable voice with sliders for pace and yes -- expressivity.

As rumored, Siri has a new home in the Dynamic Island. The border glow is gone, and now when you summon Siri, it will show results in the Dynamic Island. As we said, new design too. So it now has a semi-transparent look with a slight glow and a little throwback to the purple waveform.

No surprises here. There is a new design. Rockwell is showing off how Siri can draw on current world information to get your answers. After Siri informed him that he has to enter a lottery for them, he asked it to "remind me to sign up when the lottery happens." It set a reminder.

Siri comes to App Store. Siri that Apple says is now more capable and more conversational now also has a dedicated Siri app.

Federighi has handed things over to Mike Rockwell, the VP of Siri engineering

Craig is describing how the next generation of Apple Intelligence will make our apps smarter and more useful. And yes Google is there, Apple’s foundation models are at the center with a deep collaboration with Google. Apple Intelligence has a new system orchestrator to keep things synced and all working together.

Federighi says AI is incredibly powerful technology that, with proper care, can "unlock meaningful benefits for people everywhere." He adds that but some appear to be racing forward to pursue AI for the sake of AI without care or concern for the people it's meant to serve. Apple believes that truly helpful AI must be centered around "you and your needs," he said.

Ford hands off to Federighi who gives a recap and then moves to talk about trust and safety. He is talking about end to end encryption in messages, Safari privacy as well as "life-saving features like crash detection."

On iOS, iPadOS and macOS, the foundation of Search that powers Photos, Spotlight and Mail all are said to be have been rebuilt. Those are just "some highlights of the work we've done this year," Ford said and alludes to some "great features" across other products.

iOS 27 is supported on iPhone 11 and all the same iPhone models as iOS 26, Ford said. For iPhone users, this means that iOS 27 will be available to more users than any iOS release ever so far.

Ford says that iOS apps will launch 30 percent faster. Content across the system will also load faster. Gives example: After you take a picture, new photos will appear in your library up to 70 percent faster than before. Sending them through AirDrop will also be faster.

Talking about "design improvements are just the beginning." "We optimized the parts of the system that make a big difference in the responsiveness of our products." System animations, for example, have been updated to be faster.

Tim Cook hands the "stage" to Apple's SVP Craig Federighi. "This year we put our focus into three areas," he said. They're improvements to platforms, updates in trust and safety and finally "a big leap forward for Apple Intelligence." It has "an innovative architecture that unlocks a new Siri across platforms."

Tim Cook sets the tone. Today's announcements will be across Apple Intelligence and Siri, among other areas.

While Nvidia and Microsoft this year have spent time trying to tame OpenClaw, a technology that can direct an army of AI agents on a personal computer to log into a user's online ⁠services and carry ​out tasks for business users, analysts do not ​expect Apple to go the same path as yet. Apple is unlikely to put much emphasis on emerging technologies like OpenClaw, which still have potential security issues.

Analysts are said to be most excited about the likely introduction of a "chat" mode with Siri and a "personal context" option to share that data with the assistant. Andrew Cornwall, a senior analyst with Forrester told Reuters that he expects Apple to let developers plug their apps into Siri using what Apple ​calls "extensions" and let those developers choose ​among AI models from OpenAI, Anthropic, ⁠and Google's Gemini in their apps.

Among speculated features in OS27, one is a new customization tool for Home Screen, namely the ability to revert edits made to the layout or other elements. This will make it easier for users to try out a change before changing their mind.

Apple's top executive overseeing its Siri virtual assistant told employees in March 2025 that delays to key features have been ugly and embarrassing, and a decision to publicly promote the technology before it was ready made matters worse. Robby Walker, who serves as a senior director at Apple, reportedly said at an all-hands meeting for the Siri division, that the team was facing a bad period. During the all-hands gathering, Walker suggested that employees on his team may be feeling angry, disappointed, burned out and embarrassed after the features were postponed.

What will it be -- macOS Emerald or macOS Big Bear? These two have emerged as speculative possibilities for the name of macOS 27, which Apple has yet to announce. All in all, Apple is scheduled to preview iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, watchOS 27, tvOS 27, and visionOS 27.

Apple debuted the Vision Pro in 2024. The AR headset is unlikely to get a successor at the event. However, Apple will show us VisionOS 27. Rumours also suggest the device with the smallest screen in the company's lineup might be the most important one for VisionOS 27 to support.

macOS 26 Tahoe will be the final major macOS version for Intel-based Macs, Apple revealed at last year's WWDC. That means macOS 27 will be compatible with Apple silicon Macs only, so you will need a Mac with an M-series chip or a MacBook Neo with an A18 Pro chip in order to install the software update.

As new versions of iOS, iPadOS, MacOS and WatchOS coming later this year are announced, it is very likely that developers can download their Beta version right after the keynote ends. Apple historically releases betas of its future software to the public in July.

Apple hasn't said a word about the long-rumored foldable iPhone, and it's almost certain that it will not. But Apple's WWDC announcements could hint at what's coming later this year for the long-rumored iPhone Fold. As some of the OS updates/changes we see could reveal what's to come in iPhone Fold. This means that Apple may modify iOS to work seamlessly across a larger, tablet-like screen -- and across two different screens.

Apple's upcoming update to MacOS is reported to be "focused on improving the software's quality and underlying performance" and that the company's "engineering teams are now combing through Apple's operating systems, hunting for bloat to cut, bugs to eliminate and any opportunity to meaningfully boost performance and overall quality." According to reports, some of this effort may also be focused on cleaning up the visual changes introduced in Apple's big switch to Liquid Glass. The design overhaul which did not go well with some Apple fans is likely to see some changes.

Will Apple make a surprise hardware announcement? “While hardware products are rarely launched at a developer show, we could see hints of Apple’s expansion into foldables, wearables, and smart home products by way of developer and ecosystem updates," Emarketer senior analyst Gadjo Sevilla told news agency AP. He called 2026 a ”transition year” for the WWDC.

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that Craig Federighi “will take the virtual microphone for the vast majority of the presentation” during the WWDC keynote. Craig Federighi is the company’s software chief and de facto head of AI, so expect him to be prominent throughout the keynote. We are also likely to see a range of Federighi lieutenants and other executives working on Apple’s AI and software efforts, including Jeff Norris for visionOS and David Clark for watchOS.

As Apple has been playing catch-up on AI with its Big Tech peers, the company announced one of its most-important AI tie-ups with Google in January this year. Apple will use Google’s Gemini AI model to help power its AI features.