Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) keynote is imminent. The festivities kick off later today — Monday, June 10 at 1PM ET. The keynote address is available to the public and you can watch it via Apple’s event website or on the company’s YouTube channel. And if you don’t want to click away, the latter feed is embedded directly below.
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This is WWDC, so it’ll be a software-focused event. Expect that Apple will showcase updates across its full panoply of operating systems, including iOS 18 and iPadOS 18, as well as watchOS, macOS and even visionOS, which is the operating system behind the Vision Pro headset.
But the big news is expected in the AI space, where Apple has has to elevate its games to compete with the likes of Microsoft and Google. To that end, per Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple is expected to spend nearly half of the keynote’s running time touting a bevy of new AI initiatives, some of which are expected to be powered by a new partnership with OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. If Gurman is right, and he usually is, we’ll see Siri getting some long overdue AI upgrades, including the ability to issue commands inside specific apps.
As for software updates, it looks like iOS 18 will finally bring RCS support to Messages. This messaging protocol offers end-to-end encryption and better media sharing. It’ll also improve texting compatibility with Android devices. Rumors indicate that Apple Music may get an OpenAI-powered tool that auto-generates playlists and Notes might get a voice-recording option. Other apps like Mail, Fitness and Health are expected to get new features, too. (Again, hit up that recent preview from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, which is chock full of details.)
There’s also those ever-tantalizing words of “just one more thing.” Last year, the company used WWDC to officially unveil the Vision Pro. Apple won’t introduce a new device category this year, the AVP was its first since Apple Watch, but there should be a Vision Pro global availability announcement and some updated features.
Despite last year’s Vision Pro reveal, we’re not expecting a lot of hardware news. It’s possible we’ll get a new Apple TV streaming box and, if we’re lucky, an AirPods Max refresh with USB-C. Don’t hold out hope for new tablets or laptops, as Apple recently released both iPads and MacBooks — though Apple could drop the just-released M4 chip in the MacBook Pro. The Mac mini and Mac Studio are both overdue for an update, as well. But it’s possible we get none of the above. There won’t be new iPhones until September, and the same goes for Apple Watch.
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