Anticipated Apple Innovations at WWDC 2025: Unveiling of Three Expected Features and Three Wish-List Items
As WWDC 2025 fast approaches (it's happening on June 9), Apple is under pressure to deliver with Apple Intelligence following last year's fiasco at WWDC, where they hyped many AI-powered features but fell short, particularly on an upgraded Siri.
Last year, Apple overpromised and under-delivered, showing off unfinished features as if they were real. When it became clear they couldn't deliver on time, things got messy, and Tim Cook's tech titan was left with AI-infused embarrassment written all over their Genmoji faces.
Despite some AI features being released, like writing tools, ChatGPT integration, notifications, and Genmojis, they seemed outdated by the time they launched due to the rapid pace of AI innovation. While Apple was keen on getting users excited about emojis featuring our faces, the rest of the world was chatting with AI using their voices in Star Trek-style interactions with Gemini Live and ChatGPT's voice mode.
Apple's sluggish development speed, with its traditional once-a-year OS update, is now starkly contrasted with the rapid innovations from OpenAI and Google.
WWDC 2025 offers Apple an opportunity to make amends, refresh its AI aspirations, and prove it can still matter in the modern era of AI by focusing on outstanding hardware and software integration. After all, neither Google's Gemini nor ChatGPT requires an iPhone 16, Pixel 9, or Samsung Galaxy S25 to function properly.
Thanks to Marc Gurman and his Power On newsletter, we have a better idea of what's on the horizon for WWDC 2025:
1. Unleashing Apple Intelligence to third-party developers
Apple is expected to open up its existing AI models to third-party developers, allowing them to utilize Apple's AI features in iPhone apps for tasks like summarizing text or even creating innovative AI features of their own. Apple's models, with approximately 3 billion parameters, may have less heft than cloud-powered AI's from OpenAI and Google, but they are well-suited for lightweight tasks that can be handled on an iPhone.
2. A savvy AI battery saving system
A new battery management system might sound unexciting, but anything that helps us stretch an iPhone's battery life is worthwhile. The concept is that Apple Intelligence will analyze device usage patterns and make clever adjustments to conserve energy.
3. Live language translation with AirPods
This feature is genuinely exciting! It will be tied to an AirPods software and iOS update, but it will use AI to facilitate live language translation through your AirPods. If Apple manages to nail this feature, it could give them a competitive edge.
In addition to these new AI features, we're expecting Apple to rebrand several existing features as "AI-powered" in apps like Safari and Photos, as well as adding AI-related upgrades to AirPods, such as more advanced gesture control and sleep detection.
What I'd love to see
While there are sure to be surprises during the event, here's what I'm hoping for:
1. AI background noise elimination
People cheered loudest during a Samsung AI event when it demonstrated how AI could effortlessly remove background noise, like wind or chatter, in videos using a tool called Audio Eraser. If Apple can make this function more accessible and applicable to any audio or video clips, they'll have a guaranteed winner on their hands.
2. Tighter AI integration
Since an AI-powered Siri isn't quite ready yet, it would be great if Apple sets out to make it easier to integrate existing AI models like ChatGPT and Gemini into iOS. Let's have it perform functions like opening apps and digging out options in Settings!
3. Better AI image editors
Apple lags behind Google and Samsung in the area of AI-powered image manipulation. When comparing Galaxy AI's photo editing tool to Apple Intelligence's Clean Up, the outcomes weren't even close.
People expect more from AI these days – we want to produce photorealistic images from prompts, not cute AI graphics in Image Studio. And when we edit photos, we want the ability to flawlessly remove objects from an image and effortlessly add new ones.
Apple needs to step up its game significantly in this field, and I don't think that's too much to ask for in WWDC 2025.
- In an effort to compete with voice-based AI interactions, Apple may incorporate advanced audio technologies in future hardware, such as implementing voice-controlled functions using its AI models, allowing for Star Trek-style interactions reminiscent of Gemini Live and ChatGPT's voice mode.
- Leveraging the power of artificial intelligence, Apple might equip its cameras with advanced image analysis capabilities, enabling users to produce photorealistic images from prompts, remove objects from images, and add new ones, bridging the gap with competitors like Google and Samsung in the realm of AI-powered image editing.
