Let’s be honest: WWDC 2025 is unlikely to go down in history as one Apple’s greatest ever events, as I’ve warned in a separate article. The company shouldn’t really be forging ahead with new plans until it finishes mopping up the undelivered ones from last year, and the ongoing and unaddressed failures of Siri and Apple Intelligence will hang over the proceedings like a bad smell.
But even the dullest Apple event can generally be relied upon to deliver a few gems… and after all, it’s WWDC, the second most important keynote of the year. Here are the seven things I can’t wait to see at WWDC 2025:
1. An iPhone AI feature I’ll actually use
With apologies to Mac and Apple Watch owners, iOS is the main event at WWDC. This year’s update promises some major changes, including important accessibility features and an interface redesign, which is already inspiring both positive and negative feelings. But a far more important change will happen under the hood.
Reports indicate iOS 19 will feature a new AI-powered battery preservation mode, which will analyze usage patterns to lower power draw at times or in applications where it won’t impact your experience, and thereby extend battery life at minimal cost. Plus, the Lock Screen will finally show how much time is left until your phone is fully charged. Forget Genmoji: this is how AI can actually make a difference in users’ lives.
2. Apple Intelligence where it belongs
I’m a little tired of hearing about Apple Intelligence: its supposed triumphs (from Apple) and its many flaws (from everyone else). Sadly this year’s WWDC is sure to feature more of the same, and we’ll need to prepare ourselves for that. But there’s one aspect of Apple Intelligence I am excited to know more about, and that is its belated debut on the Apple Watch.
Pundits predict that the watchOS 12 update will see Apple’s AI platform land on the Apple Watch, which I’ve long said is its natural home. The watch’s small screen means next-gen messaging and voice control would be transformative, rather than a nice option, while its position on the wrist makes it perfectly placed to be a virtual assistant.
So far, the main barrier to the Apple Watch joining the AI party has been it comparative lack of processing power, and the new models coming in the fall are unlikely to change that. But according to Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman, watchOS 12 will see the Apple Watch outsource the AI work to a nearby iPhone, which is a smart stopgap solution until the hardware catches up.
3. The Babel fish becomes a reality
The tech industry has long been fascinated by the Babel fish, a fictional creature which, in the Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide novels, sits in a person’s ear and enables them to understand any language. If only the Babel fish were real. Well, it is—sort of—thanks to wireless earbuds with live translation software.
Google has been offering this combination for years: the Pixel Buds (or indeed other earbuds paired with the Google Translate app) were capable of it back in 2017, albeit with plenty of drawbacks. But we’re excited to see Apple’s attempt, which is expected to launch later this year as part of iOS 19 and an AirPods firmware update.
Whether this feature will be available in the first versions of iOS 19 is unclear, but we’d be very surprised if Apple doesn’t spill some of the details at WWDC this June.
Foundry
4. The most powerful Mac ever made
WWDC is known as a software event. But when Apple does decide to launch some hardware in June, it doesn’t mess around. It rolls out the big guns.
The Mac Pro, the premium deluxe offering in Apple’s Mac line-up, was last updated two years ago: that was the M2 Ultra model, announced at WWDC 2023. It’s slower than the Mac Studio and not all that faster than the maxxed-out MacBook Pro, so the next model should feature an M4 Ultra chip or something higher we haven’t seen before, outclassing even the M4 Max MacBook Pro and Mac Studio models that currently sit at the top of the range. The Mac Pro is the model to deliver unrivalled power for the creative professional users whom Apple has occasionally neglected, so saving it for a grand WWDC entrance makes sense.
The Mac Pro doesn’t get updated as often as other Apple products, and it’s possible we’ll have to wait until later in 2025. But if the M4 Ultra Mac Pro does turn up at WWDC, it’ll instantly be the star of the show.
5. The Mac’s new Vision
Speaking of the Mac… Apple is certain to announce macOS 16 at WWDC 2025, and like iOS 19, it’s expected to feature a thoroughly redesigned interface. Sources suggest macOS will take its visual cues from Vision Pro, Apple’s groundbreaking mixed-reality headset, as the company looks to achieve more of a consistent UI across platforms. It will be fascinating to see how this fusion between Apple’s oldest and youngest product lines shakes out.
Apple
6. News about new Siri
Arguably the weakest element in Apple’s ecosystem, and certainly its highest-profile failure, is the lamentably inaccurate voice assistant Siri. An astonishing 14 years after it launched with the iPhone 4s, Siri shows no sign of getting any better, and sometimes seems to be getting worse.
At last year’s WWDC, Apple promised to fix Siri by deploying the magic of Apple Intelligence. But the arrival of the new AI-powered Siri keeps getting delayed; it didn’t appear in March’s iOS 18.4 update as expected, or even in May’s iOS 18.5. Hopefully, Apple will have some news for us in June, because Siri really needs to get better at its job.
And while we’re on the sore topic of Siri, we’d appreciate some (preferably realistic) announcements about the version of Siri after the new one: the “true modernized, conversational version” which is also known as LLM Siri. New Siri was supposed to be part of iOS 18, and LLM Siri part of iOS 19, but delays compound on delays and the whole thing keeps getting pushed back. I’m excited to see these improvements, Apple, but please let us know what’s going on.
7. Honesty
And that leads me to the single thing I want most from WWDC25: pure, unfiltered honesty about the state of play at Cupertino. What’s been going wrong since last year? Why have so many projects been delayed? And is Apple Intelligence really as far behind other AI platforms as it seems to be?
This might seem like a desperate long shot. The truth at a marketing event, what a fanciful notion! But Apple has some form here. When Apple Maps suffered disastrous teething pains, Apple admitted this and apologized. When creative pros were neglected, as I mentioned earlier, Apple admitted this and apologized. There is a chance, albeit a slim one, that we’ll get some sort of mea culpa at WWDC.
Every company makes mistakes. Announcing Apple Intelligence long before it was ready, and then selling iPhone 16 handsets off the back of features that won’t have launched by the time the iPhone 17 comes out, was a big one, but it doesn’t have to ruin Apple’s reputation. The cure is honesty. Explain what went wrong and why. Then be completely transparent about the features that will actually be ready in time for the iPhone 17. Confidence will return–but not if the spin and bluster continue.
That’s my wish list for WWDC 2025. Join us on June 9 to see how much Apple delivers, and to read our coverage of all the announcements.
