WWDC 2025 was a return to smaller-scale features that are actually useful

WWDC 2025 felt like a course-correction. Last year’s tech event season left me cold — all the AI-powered tools supposedly for consumers that Microsoft, Google and finally Apple were peddling felt like a lot of hype without much real benefit. And that was before Apple fumbled the development of its more advanced Siri, showing off pre-recorded demos that weren’t close to ready. Google I/O last month was more of the same, with seemingly infinite versions of Gemini and not a lot of things I felt like I would use day-to-day. And if you go back to 2023, the highlight of WWDC was the Vision Pro — most definitely not a product for most people.

But yesterday, Apple offered up a number of features that’ll actually likely be noticed and used by more people, whether we’re talking about the redesigned iPad multitasking system or a ton of new customization options for the iPhone. And when Apple Intelligence was mentioned, it felt less like fixes to problems no one has and more like smart tools that could actually make your life easier.

Live Translation is probably the best example of that. Apple Intelligence will be able to do things like automatically translate your messages, show live-translated captions in FaceTime calls and provide spoken translations on telephone calls. For anyone dealing with multi-lingual conversations, this could be extremely useful, something you couldn’t always say about many of the Apple Intelligence features from 2024.

Visual Intelligence is another Apple Intelligence standout. It’s quite similar to Google Lens, in that you pointed your phone’s camera at something and it would recognize what it was looking at and give you information about what was on your screen. This year, Apple’s building that right into the screenshot tool and using the information it recognizes in a variety of intriguing ways. (It’s worth mentioning that Google has offered features like these for a while now, though.) For example, you could screenshot an image of an event poster and Visual Intelligence can create a calendar event with its details. You can also take a screenshot of something and then ask ChatGPT about it. The example Apple gave was a screenshot of a picture of a mandolin; the user then asked ChatGPT to give some examples of rock songs that use the instrument.

And even the more frivolous Apple Intelligence features at least sounded more fun this year. The first real use of Apple Intelligence on the Apple Watch is Workout Buddy, a coach that can inspire you throughout a workout. Instead of just letting you know you’re halfway through a run, the Workout Buddy can see your whole workout history and offer more detailed insights — like giving you kudos on finishing your fastest 10K, for example. That said, none of this runs on the Apple Watch itself. You’ll need an iPhone with Apple Intelligence “nearby” to use it.

Beyond Apple Intelligence are a variety of features that I hope will meaningfully improve using Apple’s hardware. The new Liquid Glass design across all of the company’s products looks nice, but I’m more excited about the work that Apple is doing to minimize spam on the iPhone. Being able to screen for messages from unknown contacts should go a long way towards making the Messages app better — text spam is out of control (I got two spam messages while Apple was talking about spam messages), and anything to crack down on that now before it becomes as bad as phone spam is crucial. Apple is also adding some call screening features similar to something Android has had for more than five years now.

For me, though, the iPad updates Apple announced yesterday are probably the most exciting things I’ve seen. I’ve long been interested in trying to use one as my main device and I’ve gotten to the point where I can do almost anything I need or want to do on Apple’s tablet. But I also can’t deny that the software has almost always felt a step behind the power and cutting-edge technology the company puts in the iPad Pro lineup.

Apple answered that with what it called its biggest update to iPad multitasking ever, something that actually doesn’t feel like hyperbole. Apps still open in full screen, but you can resize them and layer them in whatever fashion you like. Stage Manager attempted this, but the new layout seems even more flexible than that. And, perhaps more importantly, it should remember sizing and arrangement better than before. There’s also a menu bar for easier access to power features, and the Files app lets you drop any folder you want in your dock for quick access. I’m not naive enough to think this will satisfy everyone who finds iPadOS to be lacking in some way, but it does feel like Apple has listened to a lot of the complaints power users have had with the iPad over the years.

Despite the theme of unification — in the platform names, with the new UI design and shared features, the event did feel a little like a rapid-fire feature drop that wasn’t always fully connected. Given that Apple broadly covered six platforms as well as Apple Intelligence in 90 minutes, it’s not surprising that things felt quick and also a bit scattered. But amidst the slightly chaotic bursts of news, there were plenty of things that caught my attention, and I’m sure there will be more as I dig further into what Apple is planning (there are always features that aren’t touched on in the keynote, after all). It feels like a bit of a throwback, and it made me enjoy this WWDC a good bit more than the last.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/wwdc-2025-was-a-return-to-smaller-scale-features-that-are-actually-useful-120027296.html?src=rss https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/wwdc-2025-was-a-return-to-smaller-scale-features-that-are-actually-useful-120027296.html?src=rss