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Access to the on-device Apple Intelligence model, large language model integration in Xcode, and an elegant new software design across Apple platforms give developers everything they need to build beautiful modern apps with speed and confidence

Apple announced new technologies and enhancements to its developer tools to help developers create more beautiful, intelligent, and engaging app experiences across Apple platforms.

CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA Apple today announced new technologies and enhancements to its developer tools to help developers create more beautiful, intelligent, and engaging app experiences across Apple platforms. A beautiful new software design brings more focus to content, and delivers more expressive and delightful experiences across iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS Tahoe 26, watchOS 26, and tvOS 26,¹ while keeping them all instantly familiar. The Foundation Models framework joins a suite of tools that allow developers to tap into on-device intelligence, and Xcode 26 leverages large language models like ChatGPT, giving them access to Xcode’s Coding Tools and other intelligent features.

These new resources join the extensive and continuously evolving set of technologies Apple offers developers, including over 250,000 APIs that enable developers to integrate their apps with Apple’s hardware and software features. These APIs span a wide range of capabilities, such as machine learning, augmented reality, health and fitness, spatial computing, and high-performance graphics. With each platform release, Apple expands and refines its technologies and tools to assist developers in bringing their ideas to life and delivering rich, responsive, and optimized experiences across Apple platforms.

“Developers play a vital role in shaping the experiences customers love across Apple platforms,” said Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations. “With access to the on-device Apple Intelligence foundation model and new intelligence features in Xcode 26, we’re empowering developers to build richer, more intuitive apps for users everywhere.”

New Design with Liquid Glass

The elegant new design gives developers the opportunity to make their apps more expressive and delightful, while being instantly familiar. It’s crafted with a new software-based material called Liquid Glass, which combines the optical qualities of glass with a sense of fluidity. This gorgeous new material extends from the smallest elements users interact with every day — like buttons, switches, sliders, text, and media controls — to larger elements, including tab bars and sidebars for navigating apps.

The elegant new design, crafted with Liquid Glass, gives developers the opportunity to make their apps more expressive and delightful, while being instantly familiar.

Native frameworks like SwiftUI give developers everything they need to adopt the new design in their apps. The universal design allows developers to bring greater focus to their users’ content, establishing a consistent experience when developing across Apple’s platforms.

The universal design allows developers to bring greater focus to their users’ content, establishing a consistent experience when developing across Apple’s platforms.

With the all-new Icon Composer app, developers and designers are empowered to create visually captivating app icons that enhance their app’s identity. This powerful tool helps create a consistent visual identity for app icons by annotating layers for multiple rendering modes, with advanced features that include blurring, adjusting translucency, testing specular highlights, and previewing icons in various tints.

With the all-new Icon Composer app, both developers and designers are empowered to create visually captivating app icons that enhance their app’s identity.

Foundation Models Framework

With the Foundation Models framework, developers will be able to build on Apple Intelligence to bring users new experiences that are intelligent, available when they’re offline, and that protect their privacy, using AI inference that is free of cost.

The framework has native support for Swift, so developers can easily access the Apple Intelligence model with as few as three lines of code. Guided generation, tool calling, and more are all built into the framework, making it easier than ever to implement generative capabilities right into an existing app. For example, Automattic is using the framework in its Day One journaling app to bring users privacy-centric intelligence features.

“The Foundation Model framework has helped us rethink what’s possible with journaling,” said Paul Mayne, head of Day One at Automattic. “Now we can bring intelligence and privacy together in ways that deeply respect our users.”

Automattic is using the Foundation Models framework in its Day One journaling app to bring users privacy-centric intelligent features

code 26

Xcode 26 is packed with intelligence features and experiences to help developers make their ideas a reality.

Developers can connect large language models directly into their coding experience to write code, tests, and documentation; iterate on a design; fix errors; and more. Xcode has built-in support for ChatGPT, and developers can use API keys from other providers, or run local models on their Mac with Apple silicon, to choose the model that best suits their needs. Developers can start using ChatGPT in Xcode without needing to create an account, and subscribers can connect their accounts to access more requests.²

Xcode 26 has built-in support for ChatGPT, and developers can use API keys from other providers, or run local models on their Mac with Apple silicon, to choose the model that best suits their needs.

Coding Tools help developers stay in the flow and be more productive in their tasks. Accessible from anywhere in a developer’s code, Coding Tools provide suggested actions like generating a preview or a playground, or fixing an issue, and can also handle specific prompts for other tasks right inline.

Coding Tools help developers stay in the flow and be more productive in their tasks, like writing tests and documentation, debugging, or understanding coercion.

Xcode 26 comes with additional features to keep developers focused and productive, like a redesigned navigation experience, improvements to the localization catalog, and improved support for Voice Control to dictate Swift code and navigate the Xcode interface entirely by voice.

App Intents

App Intents lets developers deeply integrate their app’s actions and content with system experiences across platforms, including Siri, Spotlight, widgets, controls, and more.

This year, App Intents gains support for visual intelligence. This enables apps to provide visual search results within the visual intelligence experience, allowing users to go directly into the app from those results. For instance, Etsy is leveraging visual intelligence to enhance the user experience in its iOS app by facilitating faster and more intuitive discovery of goods and products.

“At Etsy, our job is to seamlessly connect shoppers with creative entrepreneurs around the world who offer extraordinary items — many of which are hard to describe. The ability to meet shoppers right on their iPhone with visual intelligence is a meaningful unlock, and makes it easier than ever for buyers to quickly discover exactly what they’re looking for while directly supporting small businesses,” said Etsy CTO Rafe Colburn.

With visual intelligence, apps like Etsy can enhance the user experience by facilitating faster and more intuitive discovery of goods and products.

Swift 6.2

Swift 6.2 introduces powerful features to enhance performance, concurrency, and interoperability with other languages like C++, Java, and JavaScript. And now, in collaboration with the open-source community, Swift 6.2 gains support for WebAssembly.

Building upon Swift 6’s strict concurrency checking, Swift 6.2 simplifies writing single-threaded code. Developers can now configure modules or individual files to run on the main actor by default, eliminating the need for additional annotations.

Containerization Framework

The Containerization framework enables developers to create, download, or run Linux container images directly on Mac. It’s built on an open-source framework optimized for Apple silicon and provides secure isolation between container images.

The Containerization framework enables developers to create, download, or run Linux container images directly on Mac.

Tools and Resources for Games

Game Porting Toolkit 3 provides developers with updated tools for evaluating and profiling their game. Developers can now customize the Metal Performance HUD, and get onscreen insights and guidance for optimizing graphics code for the best possible performance in the evaluation environment. And developers can use Mac Remote Developer Tools for Windows to build Mac games on a remote Mac in their existing development workflows.

Game Porting Toolkit 3 provides developers with updated tools for evaluating and profiling their game.

Metal 4 is designed exclusively for Apple silicon, and sets the stage for the next generation of games on Apple platforms with support for advanced graphics and machine learning technologies.

Developers can now run inference networks directly in their shaders to compute lighting, materials, and geometry, enabling highly realistic visual effects for their games. MetalFX Frame Interpolation generates an intermediate frame for every two input frames to achieve higher and more stable frame rates, and MetalFX Denoising makes real-time ray tracing and path tracing possible in the most advanced games.

With Metal 4, developers can now run inference networks directly in their shaders to compute lighting, materials, and geometry, enabling highly realistic visual effects for their games.

The Apple Games app gives players a new all-in-one destination for all of their games and the friends they play them with on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. It also introduces a new dedicated app for developers to reengage their existing players and attract new ones.

Challenges give players a new way to compete with friends in score-based showdowns, turning single-player games into shared experiences. Developers that have Game Center leaderboards for their games can easily add challenges, offering players even more ways to rally a group, crown a winner, and have a rematch.

Challenges in the Apple Games app are a new way to compete with friends in score-based showdowns. Players can even rally a group, crown a winner, and have a rematch.

Game Overlay enhances in-game engagement by integrating Game Center features directly into gameplay.

Managed Background Assets simplifies asset hosting for developers, giving them control over how their app or game downloads assets. Developers can self-host or opt for Apple-Hosted Background Assets, where Apple handles hosting. Every Apple Developer Program membership includes 200GB of Apple hosting capacity for the App Store. Apple-Hosted Background Assets can be submitted separately from an app build.

Tools to Help Protect Kids Online

To ensure kids have enjoyable, enriching, and appropriate in-app experiences, developers can utilize a range of tools — including parental controls and the Sensitive Content Analysis framework — to enhance child safety and ensure privacy. Building on these existing tools, developers can use the new Declared Age Range API to deliver age-appropriate content based on a user’s age range. When developers implement this API, parents can allow their children to share their age range without disclosing a birthdate or other sensitive information, enabling developers to tailor experiences accordingly. The feature is built around privacy: Age range data is shared only if parents choose to allow it, and they can disable sharing at any time.

To enhance child safety and ensure privacy, developers can use the new Declared Age Range API to deliver age-appropriate content based on a user’s age range.

New App Store Accessibility and App Store Connect Features

New Accessibility Nutrition Labels for App Store product pages help users learn which accessibility features are supported before they download an app or game.

Developers can now share information in App Store Connect about their app or game’s support, such as whether it includes VoiceOver, Voice Control, Larger Text, Captions, and more. An Accessibility Nutrition Label will appear on their app’s product page, specific to each platform it supports. Developers can also add a URL on their app’s App Store product page that links users to a website with more details.

Accessibility Nutrition Labels for App Store product pages help users learn which accessibility features an app or game supports before they download it.

The App Store Connect app on iOS and iPadOS has been updated to let developers view TestFlight screenshots and crash feedback, in addition to receiving push notifications when beta testers provide feedback. The App Store Connect API supports these enhancements, and introduces the ability for developers to create webhooks to get real-time updates, and support for Apple-Hosted Background Assets and Game Center configuration.

Availability

Today’s updates join the ever-expanding collection of intelligent and powerful tools and technologies Apple provides to developers. The Apple Intelligence features detailed require supported devices, which include all iPhone 16 models, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, iPad mini (A17 Pro), and iPad and Mac models with M1 and later that have Apple Intelligence enabled and Siri and device language set to the same supported language: English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish, Japanese, Korean, or Chinese (simplified). More languages will be coming by the end of this year: Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, Portuguese (Portugal), Swedish, Turkish, Chinese (traditional), and Vietnamese. For more information, visit apple.com/apple-intelligence. Features are subject to change. Some features may not be available in all languages or regions, and availability may vary due to local laws and regulations. For more information about availability, visit apple.com.

All of these features are available for testing starting today through the Apple Developer Program at developer.apple.com, and a public beta will be available through the Apple Beta Software Program next month at beta.apple.com.

The universal design across platforms helps users focus more on content and brings a new level of dynamism while maintaining the familiar experience that defines Apple software.

The new design is coming to iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS Tahoe 26, watchOS 26, and tvOS 26 to bring greater harmony while preserving the unique qualities of each platform.

CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA — Apple today offered a preview of a new and compelling software design that makes app and system experiences more expressive and delightful, while still feeling familiar from the very first moment. It was created using a new material called Liquid Glass. This translucent material reflects and refracts its surroundings while dynamically transforming to help enhance focus on content, bringing greater vibrancy to controls, navigation, app icons, widgets, and more.

For the first time, the new design is coming to all platforms: iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS Tahoe 26, watchOS 26, and tvOS 261, delivering a more harmonious experience while preserving the unique qualities of each.

“At Apple, we’ve always believed that the deep integration of hardware and software makes interacting with technology intuitive, delightful, and rewarding,” said Alan Dye, Apple’s Vice President of Human Interface Design. “This is our biggest software redesign yet. It was meticulously crafted by rethinking the core elements that make up our software. The starting point of the redesign is an entirely new material we call Liquid Glass. It combines the optical qualities of glass with a fluidity only Apple can deliver, adapting to content and context. It opens up new possibilities for different experiences in the future and turns even the simplest interactions into the most fun and magical.”

The new material, Liquid Glass, combines the optical qualities of glass with a fluidity only Apple can achieve, adapting to content and context.

Introducing Liquid Glass: A New Expressive Material
Inspired by the depth and dimension of visionOS, the new design leverages Apple’s powerful advances in hardware, chips, and graphics technologies. The new material, Liquid Glass, is translucent and behaves just like real-world glass. Its color is defined by the content around it, adapting intelligently to both light and dark environments. Created through close collaboration between design and engineering teams, Liquid Glass uses real-time rendering and responds dynamically to movement with specular reflections. This creates vivid experiences that make using iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple TV even more enjoyable.

This incredible material extends from the smallest elements users interact with daily—such as buttons, text, and controls—to larger components like toolbars and sidebars used to navigate apps. It also shines in experiences like the Lock Screen, Home Screen, notifications, Control Center, and much more.

The new material, Liquid Glass, combines the optical qualities of glass with a fluidity only Apple can achieve, adapting to both content and context.

Updated App Design
With the goal of putting more focus on content users already know, Apple’s design team considered every detail of Apple’s platforms to identify improvements that could be made across each one.
Controls, toolbars, and app navigation have been redesigned. Previously configured for rectangular screens, they now fit concentrically into the modern rounded corners of hardware and app windows, creating greater harmony between hardware, software, and content.
The controls are designed with Liquid Glass and feature a functional layer that stands out from apps. They allow users to see content and adapt dynamically as users need more options or navigate through different parts of an app. Organized groups make it easy for users to find the controls they need.

The controls and navigation in the apps were designed with Liquid Glass and transform fluidly to support better focus on the user’s content.

Tab bars and sidebars have been redesigned in the same way. In iOS 26, when users scroll down, the tab bars shrink to highlight more of the content while keeping navigation just as accessible. And when they scroll back up, the tab bars smoothly expand again. On iPadOS and macOS, the redesigned sidebars make apps like Apple TV more immersive. They refract the content behind them while reflecting the user’s content and wallpaper, helping users better perceive context.

The updated design elements apply to new experiences in apps like Camera, Photos, Safari, FaceTime, Apple Music, Apple News, and Apple Podcasts.

The new original design offers a more enjoyable experience in apps like Camera, Photos, Safari, and FaceTime.

An enhanced experience across all platforms
The new design extends across iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS, with updates to system experiences such as the Lock Screen, Home Screen, Desktop, and Dock. To keep the focus on the subject in Lock Screen wallpaper photos, the clock is also designed with Liquid Glass and fluidly adapts to naturally integrate behind the subject.

Con Liquid Glass, the San Francisco typeface has been designed to dynamically adapt the thickness, width, and height of each number to integrate seamlessly into the scene.

The Home Screen and desktop, the Dock, app icons, and widgets were designed with multiple layers of Liquid Glass. They look stunning, with specular highlights and more customization options, while maintaining the familiarity users are accustomed to. For example, in macOS Tahoe 26, users can personalize the desktop and Dock with widgets and app icons that come to life in Light Mode, or give them a dark, tinted, or elegant look with the new translucent appearance. And it gets even better with a fully transparent menu bar that makes the Mac display feel larger.

A 13-inch MacBook Air shows the desktop with a translucent look.
A 13-inch MacBook Air shows the desktop with a dark tone.

Con macOS Tahoe 26, users can customize the desktop and Dock with new looks for app icons and widgets designed with multiple layers of Liquid Glass.

Dynamic Apps
Developers can easily adopt the new design with a set of updated APIs in SwiftUI, UIKit, and AppKit. With Liquid Glass materials and the new enhanced controls, developers can redesign their apps to make them more intuitive and delightful.

Con Icon Composer, developers can create icons using Liquid Glass across all platforms, with stunning rendering in light, dark, and tinted designs, or with a translucent appearance.

Apple today announced the addition of iPad to its Self Service Repair program, giving iPad users access to repair manuals, genuine Apple parts, Apple Diagnostics troubleshooting sessions, tools, and rental kits. Starting tomorrow, the program will be available for the iPad Air (with M2 chip and later), iPad Pro (with M4 chip), iPad mini (with A17 Pro chip), and iPad (with A16 chip). The launch will include components such as displays, batteries, cameras, and external charging ports.

Today’s announcement builds on Apple’s broader expansion of repair services, which allows customers and independent repair providers to perform out-of-warranty repairs. It also includes new details about the Genuine Parts Reseller program.

“At Apple, our goal is to create the world’s best products and make them last as long as possible,” said Brian Naumann, Apple’s Vice President of AppleCare. “With today’s announcement, we’re excited to expand our repair offerings to reach more customers, helping them extend the life of their devices even further without compromising safety or privacy.”

Launched in 2022, the Self Service Repair program provides customers who are comfortable making their own repairs with access to the same manuals, genuine Apple parts, and tools used at Apple Store locations and Apple Authorized Service Providers. In line with Apple’s commitment to expanding repair access, the company continues to grow Self Service Repair to include more products and regions. With the addition of iPad, the Self Service Repair Store now supports 65 Apple products, including the new iPhone 16e, MacBook Air, and Mac Studio. Soon, Canada will become the 34th country to offer Apple’s Self Service Repair program.

Today’s set of announcements also includes more details about Apple’s Genuine Parts Reseller program. This newly launched initiative expands access to businesses that do not have a direct service relationship with Apple, addressing a market need for repair options and offering more choices for customers. Through this program, independent mobile device repair professionals can order genuine Apple parts and components through third-party distributors, including MobileSentrix in the U.S., and MobileSentrix and Mobileparts.shop in Europe. The program offers a wide range of Apple parts for iPhone repairs, such as displays, batteries, and charging ports. iPad parts will be available starting tomorrow. Repair providers interested in learning more can visit the program’s webpage.

In recent years, Apple has strengthened its presence in the repair industry by expanding the number of professional service centers with access to genuine Apple parts, tools, and training. Apple’s repair options include Apple Store locations, Apple Authorized Service Providers, independent repair providers, mail-in repair centers, Self Service Repair, and the Genuine Parts Reseller program.

The annual online conference will take place from June 9 to 13, promising a week of technology, innovation, and creativity

Apple today unveiled the schedule for this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), which will include the keynote and the Platforms State of the Union. The free online event, taking place from June 9 to 13, brings together Apple’s global developer community to share insights into the company’s latest technologies, features, and tools. Throughout the week, developers from around the world will connect with Apple engineers, designers, and experts and watch more than 100 sessions to help them discover the latest advancements for building impactful apps and games for Apple products. Apple will also welcome over 1,000 developers and students for a special in-person event at Apple Park on June 9.

Apple Keynote
June 9, 10 a.m. (PDT)
WWDC25 will kick off with a first look at groundbreaking updates coming to Apple platforms. The keynote will be streamed on apple.com, the Apple TV app, and Apple’s YouTube channel. A recording will be available for on-demand viewing after the livestream ends.

Platforms State of the Union
June 9, 1 p.m. (PDT)
Following the keynote, the Platforms State of the Union will delve into the newest tools that will further empower Apple developers, including the latest innovations in iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, visionOS, and watchOS. This presentation will be streamed on the Apple Developer app, website, and the Apple Developer YouTube channel. A recording will be available for on-demand viewing after the livestream ends.

Video Sessions and Guides
With over 100 technical sessions, WWDC25 offers developers the chance to gain in-depth insights into the latest technologies and frameworks directly from Apple experts. These sessions will be available on the Apple Developer app, website, and Apple Developer YouTube channel. Developers will also have access to guides and documentation to walk them through major announcements and key moments from the conference.

Group and One-on-One Labs
Members of the Apple Developer Program and Apple Developer Enterprise Program will have the opportunity to connect directly with Apple experts through online group labs and one-on-one consultations. Developers can join group labs to learn more about the week’s biggest announcements in real time or schedule an online consultation to explore topics such as Apple Intelligence, design, development tools, graphics and games, machine learning, Swift, and more. Apple engineers and designers will also be available through the Apple Developer Forums.

Swift Student Challenge
Apple is proud to support developers through the Swift Student Challenge, one of many Apple programs aimed at inspiring the next generation of entrepreneurs, coders, and designers. For the second year in a row, 50 Distinguished Winners have been recognized for their outstanding submissions and will visit Apple Park for a unique three-day experience.

Developers can access all WWDC content via the WWDC25 website, the Apple Developer app, the Apple Developer website, and the Apple Developer YouTube channel.