What to expect from WWDC 2026

WWDC 2026, the latest version of Apple's yearly developer conference, runs from June 8-12, and by all appearances the company has some important updates to outline. In comparison to Liquid Glass, the design material Apple introduced last year and now uses across all its operating systems, the new features the company is rumored to announce might not be aesthetic, but they could make just as big of a splash. Namely because Apple might finally be ready to show off its second stab at an overhauled version of Siri.

If you're curious to see the company's new plans for yourself, you can watch Apple's WWDC 2026 keynote live on its website, YouTube channel or the Apple Developer Bilibili channel in China. Apple will also host its Platforms State of the Union stream and individual developer workshops on its developer website if you want to learn even more details about the software updates the company will release later this year. Luckily, we do have some sense of what Apple has in store, and it looks like stability improvements and AI are the company's big focuses for the updates coming to iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, visionOS and tvOS this fall.

iOS 27 may be redesigned around Siri

The closer we get to June 8, the more leaks slip out. In the latest of such reports, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said the company's "much-anticipated Siri overhaul is set to become the centerpiece of its next iPhone, iPad and Mac software updates." The publication has created renderings of the upcoming software based on "information viewed by Bloomberg and people with knowledge of the company's plans." These show the "revamped Siri interface, a new chatbot-style app and other major iOS 27 changes that the company plans to announce at its June 8 Worldwide Developers Conference."

The ability to work with onscreen content and a user's personal data remain part of the new Siri's skillset. Gurman added that a standalone Siri app is also coming, and is "designed to compete more directly with ChatGPT and other AI assistants." Elsewhere, the Siri redesign will relocate where you see the assistant's animated icon after invoking it. Whether you say "Siri," "Hey Siri" or long press the power button, an updated animation will appear in the Dynamic Island at the top of the screen. Currently, when you invoke Siri, the animated orb pops up at the bottom, which can get in the way of buttons or other navigational elements. This does mean that those using older iPhones without the pill shaped notch might not get the same experience.

According to Gurman, Apple will introduce a new way to work with Siri. Swiping down from the top center of the iPhone will "launch a new Search or Ask interface" that features a "revamped Siri experience designed for getting things done or searching by typing." 

That gesture currently brings down your notification shade, and Gurman added that the "Notification Center can now be opened by swiping down from the top left." This is sure to frustrate anyone that is resistant to change.

There are many more Siri-related changes detailed by the Bloomberg report, as well as iOS 27 updates including a customizable camera app, bug fixes and a refinement of the Liquid Glass design.

Gurman also noted that the revamped Siri could be released "as early as September" and is likely to be Tim Cook's "final major product launch" before handing the reins over to John Ternus. 

A Snow Leopard-esque approach to stability and performance

Apple released Mac OS X Snow Leopard in 2009, primarily as a way to clean up the performance and refine the new features the company released with Mac OS X Leopard two years prior. The decision to essentially "take a year off" to focus on making everything about the company's desktop operating system feel better was well-received, and Apple is apparently planning to have iOS 27 serve a similar role.

Bloomberg reported in November that Apple's upcoming update will 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." Those fixes will presumably extend to the company's other operating systems, too.

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 has been controversial among the company's diehard fans, and Apple has already introduced tweaks in updates that arrived after the release of iOS 26 to make Liquid Glass interfaces more legible. Bloomberg reported the company could go a step further in its next updates and add a system-wide slider that will allow users to adjust the intensity of Liquid Glass (visual effects like translucency and reflectivity) they want in the interface.

The chatbot-ification of Siri

As mentioned earlier, Apple is also rumored to be making some major changes to Siri. When the company first introduced Apple Intelligence at WWDC 2024, it promised to launch an updated version of the voice assistant that could use your personal context (like the information securely stored on your iPhone) to act across apps. Apple delayed those features in March 2025 and then announced a partnership with Google in January 2026 to use Gemini models to presumably make them possible. 

Those features might finally arrive in this year's updates, as well as in the dedicated Siri app described in Bloomberg's report in May. This would make the assistant more interactive and natural to speak to, and could open up other possibilities, like letting users direct Siri to perform two actions at the same time. Developers will reportedly also be able to integrate their own AI assistants with Siri, much like OpenAI has with ChatGPT.

The new app will let users prompt the assistant to take care of tasks on their device, search the web and even access news, not unlike current Gemini and ChatGPT apps. Bloomberg wrote that the app will also be a way to review past conversations with Siri and receive suggestions of prompts to try with the new chatbot version of the assistant.

As for the reported "Ask Siri" interface, it may appear as an option in app menus, and allow you to ask the AI assistant questions about content in the app. It's not clear if this will be as in-depth or capable as Google's Ask Maps or Ask Photos features, but it at least seems like Apple's thinking along the same lines as its partner.

Update, May 29 2026, 10:00AM ET: This story has been updated to include details from the most recent Bloomberg report on changes coming to iOS 27 and Siri.