It’s nearly time for WWDC26, which means it’s time to make my annual bingo board of predictions, prognostications, and presentation ponderings ahead of this year’s keynote.

Two years ago, Apple unveiled Apple Intelligence, which I think most people would pretty unanimously agree has been a significant miss for the company. The fallout from that failed rollout has led to lawsuits, organizational reshuffling, and a pretty significant directional repivot inside Apple.

Looking back now, I don’t think anyone would have expected that the solution would be Apple adopting Google’s Gemini to power its AI push, as the rumours now seem to suggest. But here we are.

Fortunately, Apple has managed to maneuver these past two years quite adeptly. And as Google battles with other AI makers like Anthropic and OpenAI, Apple has benefited from their sizeable platform base to have these apps installable and usable across most of its platforms. Apple may not have had its own AI story figured out, but it has still benefited from these companies competing for more and more customer attention across its platforms.

This year, I think many of us are expecting to see Apple do a lot more with AI across the OS. Apple and Google have reportedly been working on bringing Gemini into Siri, and we’re expecting to see the fruits of that integration at this year’s event.

But what else does Apple plan to announce at WWDC? And how will all of these integrations come together? That part is still very much shrouded in mystery.

So I’ve done my best to compile as many picks and predictions as I can, from what I think might happen, to what has been rumoured, to a few selections meant purely to manifest the things I want to see. So play along as we watch WWDC together!

Note: The board was assembled in picks made from late May and locked in on June 3.

BINGO 101

Winning in Bingo means completing a specific pattern on your card, in this case, a row, column, diagonal, or the entire card. The "Good Morning Free Space" in the centre is already marked and can be part of any winning pattern.

Bingo Board

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Picks Explained

Next macOS Name: Tiburon

*Mockup of a hypothetical macOS Tiburon Wallpaper.*

This year, my pick for the name of the next version of macOS is macOS Tiburon.

As of 2025, Apple still had a number of California-themed names protected, including California, Condor, Diablo, Farallon, Grizzly, Mammoth, Miramar, Pacific, Redtail, Redwood, Rincon, Shasta, Skyline, and Tiburon. That list is from before WWDC25, when Tahoe was announced, so it’s far from a guarantee that this is the definitive list of possible names.

It’s also worth noting that Tiburon has shown up in a couple of Apple screenshots, which, again, guarantees absolutely nothing. And now that I think about it, that might actually make it less likely to be the chosen name.

Tiburon, if you’re curious, is a small bayside town just north of San Francisco.

Update: The code word “Big Bear” has been spotted in relation to some of the teaser WWDC images, leading people to belief that might be the name of the next version of macOS.

Keynote Length: 105 Minutes (± 5)

For the past half decade, virtual WWDC keynotes have regularly cleared the 100-minute mark. But in 2025, Apple’s keynote was noticeably shorter than its predecessors, landing at 92 minutes and 26 seconds.

This year, based on what I’m predicting and hoping to see, I imagine Apple returning to a more true-to-form WWDC keynote. My guess is that we see the presentation stretch closer to the 110-minute mark, which would make it the longest WWDC keynote of the post-COVID era outside of 2023, when Apple debuted Vision Pro and clocked in at a hefty 126 minutes.

Wallpaper Creator

There are rumours that Apple is poised to be launching some sort of Wallpaper Creator feature for their platforms. Users may be able to use something like image playgrounds to create custom backgrounds using prompts, photos from the users library, etc.

M5 Mac mini & Mac Studios Announced

Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, and the 256GB M3 Ultra Mac Studio. What do these three things have in common? Many have claimed to see them, but no one can seem to find them.

Apple appears to have found itself caught up in the global RAM and chip shortage, as supply and demand continue shifting toward powering ever-larger data centres. Shipping dates for some Mac Studio and Mac mini models continue to slide, while more configurations appear unavailable or have been removed from Apple’s website altogether. Earlier this year, the 256GB and 512GB memory configurations of the Mac Studio vanished from Apple’s online store.

Which makes me wonder if Apple will use WWDC to introduce updates to these increasingly hard-to-find desktop devices.

It’s not every year Apple launches hardware at WWDC, but the Mac Studio and Mac mini are both due for attention, and they have become especially popular among people working with AI-heavy workflows. So this feels like one of the more plausible places for new models to debut.

That said, I shudder to think what the pricing might look like for any higher-spec memory configurations, given the inflated market we’re in right now.

Pick your Provider

Currently, Apple only has OpenAI’s ChatGPT available as a direct OS-level plug-in across its platforms. But with Google Gemini coming on board, I imagine users will be able to select the provider of their choice, whether that’s Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or another AI service altogether.

Apple has already added plug-in support for both OpenAI’s Codex and Anthropic’s Claude in Xcode, so seeing that same kind of connectivity and choice expand to other parts of the OS feels like a pretty natural next step.

AirPods App

As AirPods continue to gain features and complexity, the case for a redesigned & dedicated hub to manage their settings keeps getting stronger.

Right now, AirPods settings appear when the earbuds are connected, but that menu has become a mile-long list of options: battery life, listening modes, hearing health, press-and-hold actions, call controls, Camera Control, audio settings, Automatic Ear Detection, Spatial Audio, Live Translation, microphone settings, sleep controls, head gestures, case sounds, Find My, Accessibility, hearing mode, privacy, device information, AppleCare+ details, and finally the Disconnect and Forget Device options.

At this point, I think AirPods are overdue for their own dedicated app or settings redesign. Something that more thoughtfully organizes this laundry list of features and presents them in a cleaner, more structured, and more approachable way.

Stephen Lemay Appears on Video

Alan Dye skipped town for Meta late last year, leaving his role to be filled by longtime Apple user interface designer Stephen Lemay.

Lemay is now in his third decade at Apple, having joined the company back in 1999, and now holds the title of Vice President of Human Interface Design.

Just as Jony Ive and Alan Dye have done in years past, I expect we’ll see a small segment during the keynote where Lemay speaks to some of the design refinements and updates being introduced across Apple’s platforms this year.

OS 27 Features Updated Genmoji Creation

I don't know how popular this feature continues to be, despite Apple's Pro prolific billboard campaign, but I expect at one point during the keynote that they'll make mention of improvements to Genmoji creation.

Apple Intelligence Shortcut Integration

I wonder if we’ll see Apple integrate more Apple Intelligence into the Shortcuts app, giving us lay users a simpler and easier way to create shortcuts.

Maybe that looks like chatting with Siri in natural language and saying, “I need you to take these 10 images, crop them, and convert them into JPGs,” and having Shortcuts build the automation for you. Or maybe Apple could surface recommended shortcuts based on common actions you perform, giving people an easier entry point into automation without needing to understand all the fiddly bits that make Shortcuts feel so intimidating.

Lil’ Finder Guy Makes an Appearance

Lil’ Finder Guy made their debut alongside the launch of the MacBook Neo, and so far, they seem to be a mascot mostly dedicated to marketing the Neo, and Mac features more broadly, via the lens of the MacBook Neo on TikTok.

I have no idea what Apple’s long-term plans are for their tiny viral mascot, but I’m manifesting some kind of easter egg at the event. Maybe they show up in a screenshot, maybe they’re hiding in the background during a feature demo, or maybe Apple sneaks them in somewhere else entirely.

Apple Intelligence Health Integration

Apple has built an incredibly robust app for cataloguing health information, but so much of that data still feels passive. It gets collected, stored, and occasionally surfaced, but rarely analyzed in a way that feels personal or genuinely useful beyond more basic insights like sleep scores.

I wonder if Apple will start injecting more on-device Apple Intelligence into the Health app to provide users with more personal, dynamic insights into their health trends. Apple has long been rumoured to be working on some sort of fitness coach, and this feels like a natural place for those features to first appear.

Imagine being able to ask the Health app a question about your own health and getting a thoughtful, guardrailed response based on your actual data. If I asked how to build more muscle, it might notice that most of my workouts are walking-based and suggest adding more functional or strength-based training. If I asked about fat loss, it might look at my recent workout heart rate zones and suggest ways to spend more time in higher-intensity zones.

The Health app already has the data. What it needs next is a way to help users better understand what that data actually means.

A Memeable Federighi Moment

Apple’s parkour-loving, golf-cart-racing, three-headed-guitar-playing, skydiving madman, last seen racing donuts on the roof of Apple Park, is sure to surprise us with another memeable… I mean, memorable WWDC performance.

Free Space: (One Last) Good Morning

I believe Tim Cook, who will still be Apple’s CEO at the time of the event, will open the video presentation with his signature Southern-style “Good morning” for the last time.

Customizable Camera in iOS 27

*Customizable Camera App. Source: Bloomberg*

I’d like to see Apple take a step toward making the Camera app in iOS 27 more customizable. Apple has so many buried featured inside their camera app and I would like them give users the ability to surface and customize the layout of their controls to better suit their needs. For example, if someone wants a persistent exposure controller, let them pin it. If someone regularly adjusts aperture, let them keep that control closer at hand. The Camera app is already incredibly powerful. I’d just like to see Apple give users a little more say in how that power is organized.

A Siri Chat App is Announced

*Siri Chat Bot mockup. Source: Bloomberg*

Chatbots have proven to be incredibly popular interfaces for interacting with AI, and I expect Apple to compete by introducing a chatbot interface of its own.

I imagine this’ll be a standalone app that allows users to talk or text directly with Apple’s AI to ask questions, perform functions on device, or access world knowledge. Depending on the complexity of the request, Apple could choose to handle the task locally or hand it off to its Private Cloud Compute models when more power or broader context is needed.

Gurman seemed to reveal as much in late May, when he published concept artwork showing what these interfaces are expected to look like.

HomeOS Previewed

According to the rumours, Apple has been sitting on a nearly finished lineup of new home accessories designed to be powered by Apple Intelligence. However, since Apple Intelligence has spent the past couple of years mostly being used to make parrot popsicle Genmoji, these products appear to have been stuck in a bit of a holding pattern.

I expect Apple will preview the first wave of these devices, along with the new operating system powering them, at this year’s WWDC. These are widely rumoured to be smart home devices in the vein of Amazon Echo or Google Home, featuring a screen, speaker, and a modified version of iOS. Let’s call it homeOS.

I don’t expect any of this hardware to be available at WWDC. My guess is that Apple previews the category, gives developers the summer to start thinking about how their apps might work on this new accessory line, and possibly offers some form of developer kit to select partners so they can begin testing these experiences in the real world.

Daily Brief

Extending on the promises of 2024, I wonder if Apple could use all of the Apple Intelligence features being built across the OS to create some sort of daily brief.

Whether it appears as a notification, email, widget, Siri summary, or something else entirely, the idea would be to give you a bird’s-eye view of your day before it really gets going.

In the morning, it could surface traffic reports, suggest when to leave, recommend alternate routes, provide an outline of your schedule, highlight relevant reminders, and maybe even make suggestions about when to get certain things done. For example, if traffic is expected to be heavier after work, it could suggest stopping at the grocery store near your office before heading home. Or if you have a meeting later in the day, it could surface the relevant emails, links, notes, or files you might need before you’re scrambling to find them.

The whole purpose would be to quietly connect the dots between Calendar, Reminders, Mail, Maps, Weather, etc., and then give you a useful snapshot of what matters most that day.

A Secret Location is Accessed via Whimsical Transition

In addition to the expected drone footage around Apple Park, at some point, we'll transition from one place to the next via some fancy corridor, escape hatch, portal, or secret underground tunnel accessed via the fountain inside the courtyard of Apple Park.

Liquid Glass Polish

It was all too easy to poke fun at some of the more glaring oddities of Liquid Glass. The skewampus and inconsistent rounding of windows. The transparency issues. The overall afterthought quality liquid glass got on macOS.

This year, I expect we’ll see a much more refined version of Liquid Glass now that Apple has had an entire calendar year, and our collective jeers, to fuel them.

I don’t think the rumours suggest some radical redesign. Rather, it might looks more like a year tightening things up, improving the shadowing, bringing more consistency to the system, and hopefully revisiting some of the more dreadfully lazy icons.

I also expect we’ll see more of a push to bring Liquid Glass properly into macOS, which lacked a lot of the animations, depth, and polish that iOS and iPadOS debuted with.

Apple Debuts a Gemini-Powered Siri

It’s widely expected that Apple will debut its Google Gemini-powered Siri at WWDC. After a two-year botched rollout of Apple Intelligence, Apple appears to be turning to Google Gemini, an established player in the AI space, to help power the next generation of Siri.

And that’s a pretty massive move. If Gemini becomes part of Siri, Google’s AI model suddenly becomes one of the most dominant AI systems across platforms around the world. Between Android and iOS, nearly every modern smartphone user will have a device that could soon be powered, in some way, by Gemini.

There are also rumours about how this new Siri might appear beyond the traditional “Hey Siri” (Yes, I still say the “Hey...”) command. Some reports have suggested it could be pulled down from the Dynamic Island, using the same glowing effect Apple has been teasing in its WWDC invite.

More AI Editing Tools Come to Camera/Photos

Back in 2024 with iOS 18.1, Apple introduced Clean Up, a photo-editing tool that uses on-device AI to remove people and objects from photos. It’s a handy feature, but it feels like just the beginning. This year, rumors suggest Apple is planning to bring even more AI-powered editing tools to the Photos app, potentially giving users the ability to extend, reframe, or otherwise enhance their photos with on-device models.

John Ternus Appears During the Event

If Apple does indeed announce updated M5 Mac Studios & minis, we’re almost guaranteed to John Ternus feature during the video. But even if that hardware isn’t announced, I fully expect we see him make an appearance in some capacity during the event. This is, after all, his ship after August 31st.

More Native Apple Vision Pro Apps

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on you. But fool me a third time? Shame on both of us.

For the past three WWDCs, I have been banging the drum for Apple to bring more of its native apps properly to visionOS. Apps like Reminders, Calendar, Podcasts, Pages, and Apple Books are still largely iPad versions, and many of them continue be very mid ports on Vision Pro.

I don’t think bringing a native version of Pages to visionOS is going to suddenly send people stampeding into Apple Stores to buy a Vision Pro. But it would be an important show of commitment to the platform. A sign that Apple is still investing in visionOS not just as a place for immersive videos and floating Safari windows, but as a real computing platform with first-party apps that feel considered, polished, and native.

Apple has recently made a bunch of changes to upgrade their Creator Studio apps, so it’s time to push those spoils into Vision Pro as well.

But I have pleaded for this for the last two years and been disappointed both times.

I’m ready to be hurt again.

iOS/macOS 27 Emphasize Stability & Battery Life Improvements

Some in the Apple community have been waiting for this current generation of macOS to have its “Snow Leopard” glow up.

Snow Leopard, released in 2009, is still held in high regard because it focused less on obvious new features and more on core system performance, stability, and refinements to the architecture of the Mac.

If this year really is that kind of moment, I imagine Apple will spend time talking about improvements to the foundation of the operating system, and how those changes trickle down into faster performance, better efficiency, and improved battery life during everyday tasks.

Tim Cook Says GoodBye

I wonder if we’ll see Tim add a slightly more personal note to his sign-off at the end of the keynote, acknowledging that this may likely be his final widely-public words as Apple’s CEO.

Normally, he wraps things up by recapping the event, highlighting what developers can look forward to, and touting the exciting week ahead. But given that he has now been leading Apple for nearly a decade and a half, I wonder if we’ll see him add a small line reflecting on his role at the company. Nothing dramatic, of course, just a little extra feels.

BONUS: APPLE INCREASES BASE ICLOUD STORAGE FROM 5GB.

If Apple announces an increase to its base 5GB iCloud storage (even if that change comes in the form of 5GB per device), then an instant BINGO is declared.

WWDC26 Bingo