Apple is building on its language translation chops, five years after bringing its own Translate app to the iPhone.

While people are having voice conversations with foreign language speakers, iOS 26 will speak out words in the other person's native language, along with a written caption as well. When they reply, the operating system will provide a quick spoken translation and a caption, Leslie Ikemoto, Apple's director of input experience, said during the company's WWDC keynote.

FaceTime will display live captions while still passing through the audio from the foreign language. When texting, messages are translated right below the content in the other person's language.

Meta has started offering message translation in its Messenger and WhatsApp apps. Google offers a Live Translate feature for its Pixel phones that works in text messages and voice and video calls.

The new live translation features that will appear in the Messages, FaceTime and Phone apps are powered by Apple's own AI models that run locally and don't need to access remote data centers.

The feature will be limited to a relatively small group of languages, however. It will only work in Phone and FaceTime for one-to-one calls in English (U.S., UK), French (France), German, Portuguese (Brazil) and Spanish (Spain), according to a statement. The messaging feature has support for English (U.S., UK), French (France), German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish (Spain) and Chinese (simplified).

Third-party developers will be able to adopt a new programming interface to draw on Apple's new translation technology.

— Jordan Novet

A protestor tried to interrupt Apple software chief Craig Federighi's introductory remarks during the company's WWDC keynote.

It was not clear what the protestor said.

Several significant technology events have experienced a rise in demonstrators in recent months. Many of those protests have targeted Big Tech's contracts with the Israeli government as tensions mount following the October 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel.

CNBC previously reported that the industry has stepped up security, especially following the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

— Samantha Subin

Apple announced a slate of new features for engaging with content in the Vision Pro augmented reality device.

Gamers will be able to use Sony VR2 Sense controllers once they've updated the Vision Pro to visionOS 26, said Mike Rockwell, vice president of Apple's Vision products group. Sony introduced the VR2 bundle, including the controllers and a virtual reality headset, in 2023. The equipment requires a PlayStation 5 console.

Apple's decision to allow the Vison Pro to work with controllers will allow the device to better compete against rival Meta's Quest headsets, which use physical controllers for video games.

Those wishing to watch action videos while using the Vision Pro will gain a better experience thanks to partnerships with Canon, GoPro and Insta360, leading to native playback for wide field-of-view content and in other formats, Rockwell said.

Third-party developers will be able to add 3D objects to websites, which people in Vision Pro headsets can then drag into their own rooms to examine more carefully.

Hundreds of companies now use the Vision Pro, for a variety of purposes, including design, training and sales, Rockwell said.

Apple wants to boost adoption, encouraging a series of devices to be used by many people who can save eye and hand data and other settings.

New programming interfaces will allow developers to add a For Your Eyes Only mode to prevent unwanted access to documents. People will be able to use a new Logitech Muse device to draw lines in space while wearing the headset. "With fluid motion tracking, Muse transforms creative workflows across a variety of disciplines, from designing intricate 3D models to brainstorming in virtual workspaces and bringing complex ideas to life with immersive tools," Logitech said in a statement.

For both consumer and corporate purposes, multiple people with Vision Pro headsets can play games or watch videos together, Rockwell said.

— Jordan Novet

Apple's headset, Vision Pro, is getting a few updates, including the ability to put new virtual clocks and windows around the user's room.

Users can place clocks that look a little bit like an Apple Watch face on their wall. They can only see them when they have the headset on because they're virtual. Users can also place virtual windows around their rooms.

It's a fun little bit of "spatial computing," and shows a little bit of Apple's vision for placing virtual objects into the real world.

— Kif Leswing

Apple is calling its new Mac operating system Tahoe, inspired by the skiing and outdoor destination in California.

The operating system includes many of the features brought to iOS, and offers ways to customize controls, with a transparent menu bar. Users can also change folder colors and add emojis.

Using shortcuts, Mac users can also tap into Apple Intelligence and spotlight to run shortcuts and other actions on their computers or launch apps from their iPhone.

— Samantha Subin

The central design concept unveiled by Apple is called "Liquid Glass," a virtual glass look that was inspired by the Vision Pro.

— Chris Eudaily

Apple has added a machine learning feature that can turn down the vocals in an Apple Music song, making it good for sing-alongs and karaoke.

This year, the Apple TV device is coming a lot closer to becoming a full-fledged karaoke machine.

Users can still turn down the vocals in the Apple Music app on TV, but now they can also replace them with their own vocals, using their iPhone as a microphone, as the lyrics play on the screen.

— Kif Leswing

Apple's announcements so far have been light on artificial intelligence features, but the company did update Visual Intelligence, its feature that uses the iPhone's camera to identify objects and events.

The company said Visual Intelligence provides an "ask" button that will enable users to query ChatGPT about what's on their screen — the example Apple offered was to be able to search similar lamps from the internet in apps such as Etsy.

Apple also said it can take dates and times in text inside an app and add it to the user's calendar automatically.

Visual Intelligence can also search inside apps from photos the user takes — for example, if you see a cool item in a cafe.

— Kif Leswing

Apple said it is enhancing the Image Playground tool it announced last year for the next version of iOS with help from OpenAI's ChatGPT assistant.

In iOS 26, people can ask the app to turn a contact's poster into different styles so it shows up that way during calls and in text chats. You can describe the style you want, and ChatGPT will do the necessary work to adjust the image.

Nothing will be shared with OpenAI without the permission of the customer.

Third-party developers will be able to draw on the feature in their own apps with the upgraded Image Playground application programming interface.

The effort is an example of how Apple is leaning on OpenAI to upgrade its device capabilities after a partnership announced a year ago that led to an integration with Apple's Siri assistant.

Not everyone will be able to use the Image Playground app. It will only work for iPhone models with Apple Intelligence enabled, and that requires the latest version of iOS. Apple Intelligence isn't available in every language or country, either, Apple says on its website.

— Jordan Novet

Apple announced a new app called Games. The new Games app pulls all the games a user has downloaded into a single list.

The new app also has some social features, including lists of what your friends are playing, the ability to send a message to a friend to challenge them to a game, and high-score leader boards.

Apple has maintained a games-focused social feature called Game Center since 2010.

Games are one of the most profitable parts of the App Store, but Apple has never embraced gaming as a major part of its business. The company has also clashed with developers such as Epic Games over its App Store fees.

— Kif Leswing

Apple said it is bringing lyrics translation to its Apple Music service to help users across the world sing, despite language barriers.

The company also announced a new DJ-like feature called Automix that uses AI to meet users' music tastes. Users can also now pin favorite albums, playlists and artists to their library.

— Samantha Subin

Apple is also bringing new updates to its CarPlay offering, including an updated widget interface.

The update includes a new design allowing users to see directions and other features when a call comes through.

— Samantha Subin

Apple is changing the style of its names of operating systems for all of its devices.

To reflect the majority of the year when these software updates will be available to customers, the company will release iOS 26, watchOS 26, tvOS 26, macOS 26, visionOS 26 and iPadOS 26, Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of software engineering, said at WWDC.

The unification will address the difference in operating system names that has persisted for years. Today, Apple provides iOS 18 to the iPhone, iPadOS 18 to the iPad, watchOS 11 to its wrist wearable, tvOS 18 for the Apple TV, macOS 15 for the Mac computers and visionOS 2 for the first-generation Vision Pro.

— Jordan Novet

Apple just announced a new operating system that features its first major iOS redesign since 2013.

Alan Dye, Apple's vice president of human interface design, said the new operating system is inspired by the Vision Pro. The company is calling the new look "Liquid Glass"

— Samantha Subin

More than 225,000 people were waiting to join Apple's livestream of its Worldwide Developers Conference event on YouTube.

That makes the conference a smaller draw than the iPhone maker's September hardware events in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024.

After the stream began and CEO Tim Cook stopped talking, the audience surged past the 600,000 mark.

— Jordan Novet

We're here at Apple Park, the company's campus, alongside thousands of developers, to see what Apple is planning for its next operating systems.

The campus is set up like it has been for the past few years: Big movie screens are set up in one of the company's four-story atriums. This means the presentation will likely be pre-recorded, as it has been since the Covid-19 pandemic. Apple CEO Tim Cook is expected to give some remarks before the video starts.

— Kif Leswing