Apple WWDC Event 2026 Highlights: Apple debuts new Siri, AI features, Child Accounts, macOS Golden Gate, and more

"Sharing powerful new tools with all of you and then seeing what you create with them has been a constant reminder that imagination has no limits. Over the years, you have helped people connect, create, learn, and experience the world in extraordinary new ways," Cook says.

"With the incredible capabilities we introduce today and so many more still to come, I truly believe the best is still ahead. Apple creating the best products in the world to deliver experiences that enrich people's lives has always been our North Star. It's been the honour of a lifetime to help advance that mission with teams whose creativity, care, and conviction continue to make a lasting difference in people's lives. Thank you all for joining us. Let's have a great WWDC!"

Image Playgrounds now lets you make high-quality images in any style you want, including making it photo-realistic. Thanks to its new generative model that runs on private cloud compute, it gives you a more powerful way to bring your imagination to life.

From stunning nature scenes to fun images using multiple people from your photo library, you can also transform your photos into endless styles just by describing what you want in natural language.

Image Playground now also lets you create AI-generated contact posters.

Safari can use Apple Intelligence to tame your tabs by organising them into topics. Safari analyses each page, identifies similarities, and then brings related tabs together, making it easier to find what you're looking for.

You can also use natural language to tell Safari what you are looking for and close the tab, later you receive a notification if there is a change.

The Siri app makes it easy to revisit an existing conversation or kick off a new one. And when you open it, you can see an overview of your conversational history, which is saved privately with iCloud. So you can start chatting with Siri on your iPhone, pick up where you left off on your iPad, and wrap up on your Mac.

On visionOS, Siri AI takes full advantage of the power of spatial computing with a 3D visualization of Siri that you can place anywhere in your space. And you don't have to say, "Hey, Siri." Just look at Siri and start speaking. You can also tap into the Siri app using the new app grid on Apple Watch.

The new Siri AI is designed to be more capable, more conversational and better at understanding what users actually mean. Apple is also introducing a dedicated Siri app, expanding Visual Intelligence across platforms, and adding new “Write with Siri” features.

Powered by Apple Intelligence, Siri can better understand context, take actions across apps, and respond based on what’s on your screen. This makes it a smarter assistant that feels more aware and useful in everyday tasks.

It's much more precise in capturing what you say, from spelling to punctuation and capitalization. And because it's built right into the keyboard, you can use it across the system, whether you're texting, in group chat, while you're on the subway, or thinking out loud while using your journal app.

"It is a more capable assistant that helps you find what you need and gets more done. It's also more conversational. So you can go back and forth like never before and get detailed, engaging answers. As you have these rich conversations, you can refer back to them with a new dedicated Siri app," Apple says

With a daily time allowance recommendation that spans all three, giving parents a helpful starting point. Each of these categories also has its own time allowance recommendation to start with. These are based on a child's age and developed with the best clinical and child development experts.

Screen Time Schedules work hand-in-hand with Time Allowances, letting you do things like offer extra time to watch a movie on the weekend. Parents have the ability to fully customize these schedules to fit their family's routines.

Starting this year, parents can ensure their kids start focused by giving them access to only the content they are comfortable with.

It begins with an easy-to-use set of assistance where parents can choose exactly what they want to learn:

- a few essential apps

- a recommended set

- or the specific ones they want

Over time, a child will be ready to add more, and parents can remain in control.

Across iOS, iPadOS and macOS, Apple has revamped the underlying technology that powers Search. The company says the re-architected indexing system makes search faster, more reliable and more consistent across devices. New content is indexed almost immediately, while the latest and most relevant context is prioritised in search results.

Apple is also expanding iCloud’s sharing capabilities, making it easier to share photos and videos with Android users. The company announced improvements to the Health app aimed at delivering more accurate insights, new audio equaliser options for AirPods, and enhanced visual experiences on Vision devices with more realistic imagery.

Apple says these updates are designed to improve usability and create a more seamless experience across its ecosystem.

Every window on macOS now has the same title bar, ensuring greater consistency across all of your apps, even if they happen to not be here. On app icons, Apple is taking this new design even further by integrating additional layers of liquid glass directly into the icon artwork itself.

"At Apple, we've always believed that technology should be personal, powerful, and easy to use. The tight integration of our hardware and our software unlocks the full potential of each of our products. That same philosophy drives us to design our operating systems to work together seamlessly and to create a common foundation of technologies to help developers build great experiences across their app.

This is what WWDC is all about: introducing new technologies and innovations that push the limits of what's possible.

Today, we're looking forward to sharing some exciting announcements, including our latest advancements in Apple Intelligence and Siri. With that, I'd like to hand over," Cook says.

Apple CEO Tim Cook arrives onstage, from our vantage point in the audience. He talks about the developers, Apple, and his time at the company.

Apple is set to unveil iOS 27, the next version of its iPhone operation system, during the WWDC 2026 keynote today. There are several rumours floating around ahead of WWDC 2026. But one of the safest bets is that Apple’s new iPhone software will be called iOS 27, following the name change introduced last year.

iOS 27 has also been designed keeping in mind Apple’s first foldable iPhone, which is set to launch in September 2026, according to Bloomberg. Since the widely rumoured foldable iPhone will boast a 7.8-inch inner display and a 5.5-inch outer display, Apple has focused on making changes to iOS 27 that accommodates this new form factor, the report said.

Social media is abuzz about the new, AI-revamped Siri set to be unveiled at WWDC 2026 today, alongside major AI features and quality and performance improvements across the operating systems.

However, Apple’s announcements today could also focus on two key areas, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman: Privacy and safety.

https://twitter.com/tim_cook/status/2063796365558485007?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

For those who have followed WWDC over the years, this year’s keynote could mark the end of an era. The keynote today is likely to serve as a final showcase of CEO Tim Cook’s vision for Apple and a reflection on how he steered the company after Steve Jobs passed away in 2011.

Under Cook’s leadership, Apple became one of the world’s most valuable technology companies, while the iPhone emerged as a symbol of American innovation.

He also oversaw the growth of the App Store into a highly profitable ecosystem, powered by developers whose apps transformed the mobile industry and reshaped how people interact with digital services.

Now, the big question is whether Ternus will reset Apple’s strategy going forward and rethink the role of the App Store at a time when AI agents are rapidly becoming the primary way people interact with digital products and services.

Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2026 kicks off today (June 8), where the tech giant is expected to show off a newly overhauled Siri on the iPhone capable of taking multi-step actions, alongside new operating systems for its devices with more advanced AI features.

We expect to see AI upgrades across Photos, Search, Camera, and system-wide interactions.

Of course, the annual developer conference is going to be beyond AI as well, with a focus on tools that developers use but don’t be surprised if it turns upcoming iOS and macOS, the two most dominant operating systems that powers the iPhone and Mac, into AI OS.

WWDC isn't a hardware event. Instead, it's where Apple showcases the latest versions of its operating systems and other software, while giving developers an early chance to explore and build for them. That said, much of the software unveiled at WWDC is designed to power the new hardware Apple typically launches later in the year. In that sense, the event serves as a preview of the experiences and features that will define Apple's fall product lineup.