‘Once in a decade’ moment: How Apple is making iPhone and its other products smarter

Apple iPhone will be able to filter unwanted calls, keep your space when you’re on hold, while its smart watch features a new ‘workout buddy’ and more as it releases its biggest software update in a decade.

You can now listen to The Australian's articles. Give us your feedback.

You can now listen to The Australian's articles.

Apple has overhauled its operating systems for all its devices, including the iPhone, Apple Watch and Mac computers, with software boss Craig Federighi branding it the biggest upgrade in a decade.

The tech behemoth unveiled a suite of updates to the technology that underpins its systems as well as its artificial intelligence offering, Apple Intelligence, at its Worldwide Developers Conference in Cupertino early on Tuesday morning (Australian time).

The redesign of its operating system focuses on what Apple calls “liquid glass”, which makes icons and menus transparent. Apple says this makes interacting with its devices more “fluid” and “immersive”.

Other new features included screening tools to filter unwanted calls; “hold assist”, which keeps your place in a queue to a customer service centre without you needing to be on your phone; an AI-powered “Workout Buddy” assistant that motivates people to achieve their fitness goals; and a more unified operating system that allows people to use their Apple devices more seamlessly. The iPhone’s camera menu has also been simplified.

A much-hyped upgrade of Siri to bring Apple’s voice assistant into the AI era is still to be released, with Mr Federighi saying it needs “more work to reach a high-quality bar” and expects to announce more details later in the year.

Apple will also open up its foundational AI model to third-party developers.

Apple CEO Tim Cook. Picture: AFP

Liquid glass

Mr Federighi said liquid glass was a new translucent material that reflects and refracts with its surroundings to provide a cleaner look across Apple’s devices. This creates a 3D look on photos when users move a phone.

“With the optical qualities of glass and the fluidity that only an Apple can achieve, it transforms depending on your content or even their context, and brings more clarity to navigation and controls,” Mr Federighi said.

“App icons have been crafted with multiple layers of liquid glass and come to life in light mode, dark mode, colourful, little tints, or an all-clear look.”

On Mac computers, the bottom menu bar can be made transparent, which makes the display appear bigger.

The redesign of Apple’s operating system focuses on ‘liquid glass’, which makes icons and menus transparent and interacting with its devices more ‘fluid’ and ‘immersive’. Picture: Supplied

Screening tools

AI features include new screening tools on the iPhone to help eliminate distractions. It automatically answers calls from unknown numbers, silently in the background. Once the caller shares their name and the reason for their call, the phone rings, allowing users to view response, pick up or ignore.

The new “hold assist feature” automatically keeps a user’s place in line when they’re on hold with a customer service representative. Mr Federighi said the phone app automatically detects hold music and allow you to put away your phone until your call is answered.

“Don’t worry, once a live agent becomes available, we’ll ring you, return to the call and let the agent know that you’ll be there shortly,” Mr Federighi said.

The messages app has also received an upgrade. Users can screen messages from unknown senders, giving them more control over who appears in their conversation list. Messages from unknown senders will appear in a dedicated folder where people can then mark the number as known, ask for more information, or delete. These messages will remain silenced until a user accepts them, Mr Federighi said.

Apple Intelligence is available for the latest iPhone, iPad and Mac devices.

Live translation

Apple introduced a new live translation feature that’s integrated into its messages, phone and FaceTime apps. Translations are performed on the device via Apple in-house AI models to keep conversations private, Mr Federighi said.

During FaceTime, translations appear in captions.

In messages, live translation can automatically translate text for users, so if they’re making plans with some new friends while studying abroad, for example, a message can be translated as the user types and is then delivered in the preferred language of the recipient. When they respond, each text can be instantly translated.

Unified operating system

The operating systems for its devices will be unified to correspond with years rather than sequential numbers, to make updates less confusing. The operating system for the iPhone will be iOS26, for Mac it will be MacOS26 and so forth.

“It’s the kind of project that only comes along about once per decade. It’s a gorgeous new design that feels effortless to use,” Mr Federighi said.

“Our last major redesign was iOS7 (in 2013). Back then, we were inspired by the recent emergence of retina displays and the amazing power of our Apple Silicon.

“Well a lot has changed. Apple Silicon has become dramatically more powerful, enabling software, materials and experiences we once probably dreamed of, and our devices have become even more vital to our daily lives.

“With more apps available than ever, our products are also more frequently being used together as you move across them throughout your day. The stage is set for something new that will enable great experiences.”

Apple has introduced a ‘liquid glass’ design feature that makes apps and menus transparent. Picture: Supplied

Workout buddy

Updates to Apple Watch include a new “Workout Buddy”, which provides the user with pep talks and encouragement during exercise.

It simultaneously gathers all the data from a user’s workout and rapidly analyses their fitness history – such as splits and distances run – to deliver “meaningful insights” in real time during workouts.

“Combined with Apple Intelligence on your iPhone, it provides you with just the right encouragement, a brand new text-to-speech model translates that encouragement into a dynamic, generated voice,” Apple Watch and Health product manager Stephanie Postlewaite said.

All the new features are available for testing via Apple’s Developer Program. A public beta will be available from next month.

Increased competition

It comes as Apple, which disrupted the mobile phone market but now faces disruption itself as its key competitors, including Samsung, Google and Microsoft, make apparent leaps ahead of it in the AI race.

Apple shares have fallen more than 16.3 per cent since the start of the year. This compares with 16.4 per cent and 12.4 per cent gains for Meta and Microsoft respectively, while Google Alphabet has experienced an 8.3 per cent drop.

Apple released its AI platform, Apple Intelligence, at last year’s WWDC conference and says it remains a work-in-progress. It also said this year that its much-hyped upgrade of its Siri voice assistant was taking longer than expected.

The Siri upgrade is expected to deliver more personalised features to its 2.35 billion users, having access to on-device data across multiple apps to create an AI-powered iPhone.

“We’re continuing our work to deliver the features to make Siri even more personal. This work needed more time to reach a high-quality bar and I look forward to sharing more about it in the coming year,” Mr Federighi said on Tuesday morning.

Apple Watch has now more AI features, including a new ‘Workout Buddy’.

But Carolina Milansi, a technology analyst with Creative Strategies, welcomed the new updates, saying they tie Apple’s products closer together, keeping people more within its ecosystem, which “the market loves”.

“It really brings all the devices closer together and that creates more tightness and engagement,” Ms Milansi said. “That is what still (gives) Apple a great advantage over their competitors. It’s the fact that they are able to control all that.”

Further intensifying competition, ChatGPT maker OpenAI has also acquired LoveFrom, Jony Ive’s design firm, for $US6.5bn ($9.97bn). Mr Ive, the iPhone’s chief architect, has now taken over creative design at OpenAI as it develops consumer devices to shape AI’s future, although it’s unclear what those devices will be.

At the same time, Apple is facing pressure from Donald Trump to reverse its 20-year-plus strategy of making its products overseas, namely in China. Chief executive Tim Cook said in March that President Trump’s retaliatory tariffs would cost Apple $US900m this quarter.

Mr Cook had hoped to cushion the tariff blow by manufacturing products bound for the US in India instead of China, but that failed to sate Mr Trump.

The US President said he told Mr Cook: “We’re not interested in your building in India. India can take care of themselves. They’re doing very well. We want you to build in the US.”

The author travelled to Cupertino as a guest of Apple

Originally published as ‘Once in a decade’ moment: How Apple is making iPhone and its other products smarter