Updated: May 2025
Apple’s WWDC 2025 sets the stage for its most visually cohesive experience yet. With a clear focus on bringing the immersive feel of visionOS to all major platforms — including iOS 19, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS — Apple is executing a top-down unification of UI across devices.
This post breaks down the key updates you need to know, including spatial design principles, AI advancements, and anticipated developer tools coming with this shift.
🌌 visionOS-Inspired UI for iOS, macOS, and Beyond
Apple plans to roll out visionOS’s spatially fluid UI patterns across all screen-based platforms. Expect updates like:
- Transparent layering & depth: Card stacks with real-time blur and depth sensing
- Repositionable windows: Inspired by Vision Pro’s freeform multitasking
- Refreshed icons & glassmorphism effects for universal app design
This means your iPhone, iPad, and even Apple TV will adopt design cues first seen on the Vision Pro, making transitions across devices feel seamless.
🧠 Apple Intelligence – Smarter and Context-Aware
Apple is enhancing its AI stack under the moniker Apple Intelligence. Here’s what’s coming:
- Contextual Siri: A more responsive, memory-enabled Siri that recalls prior queries and tasks
- System-wide summaries: Built-in document and message summarization using on-device AI
- Generative enhancements: Image generation inside apps like Pages and Keynote
All Apple Intelligence features run on-device (or via Private Cloud Compute) to maintain Apple’s privacy-first approach.
⌚ watchOS and tvOS: Spatial Fluidity + Widget Overhaul
- watchOS 11: Adaptive widget stacks that change based on motion and time of day
- tvOS: Transparent UI overlays that blend with media, plus support for eye/gesture tracking in future remotes
These redesigns follow the same principles as visionOS — letting content, not chrome, take center stage.
💼 Developer Tools for Unified Design
To support these changes, Apple is releasing updated APIs and SDKs inside Xcode 17.1:
- visionKit UI Components: Prebuilt spatial UI blocks now usable in iOS/macOS apps
- Simulator for Mixed UI Modes: Preview how your app renders across Vision Pro, iPad, and Mac
- Shared layout engine: Reduce duplicate code with one design spec that adapts per device