The 5 Most Important Apple Software Features Introduced This Year

2025 was a important twelvemonth of advancement for Apple's software, with a noticeable absorption connected ocular design, productivity, and communication.


While Apple introduced and continued to iterate connected a wide scope of features passim the year, respective additions stood retired for their scope and applicable interaction crossed aggregate devices. As the twelvemonth comes to an end, these 5 caller features supply a utile lens for weighing up what the institution focused connected this twelvemonth and however acold its platforms evolved successful 2025.

Liquid Glass

This year's astir instantly disposable alteration is the instauration of Liquid Glass, a caller system-wide ocular plan connection applied crossed Apple's operating systems. Liquid Glass replaces galore of the flat, opaque UI elements introduced implicit the past decennary with layered translucency, subtle refraction, and motion-responsive surfaces that respond to underlying content.


Navigation bars, sidebars, power panels, and strategy overlays present look arsenic semi-transparent sheets that blend into their surroundings alternatively than sitting connected apical of them. Apple framed this arsenic a unifying worldly crossed platforms alternatively than a purely aesthetic refresh, with the aforesaid ocular logic appearing connected iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple TV.

In practice, it is 1 of Apple's biggest ocular redesigns since the archetypal iOS 7 displacement distant from skeuomorphism, and it signals a renewed absorption connected making the interface consciousness fresh, spatial, playful, and responsive alternatively than static.

Revamped iPad Multitasking

On the ‌iPad‌, the astir consequential alteration is the instauration of an all-new multitasking strategy with windows and a macOS-style Menu Bar and cursor successful iPadOS 26.


Apps tin present tally successful freely resizable windows alternatively than being constrained to fixed split-screen layouts, allowing aggregate overlapping windows to coexist connected screen. Alongside this, a Menu Bar appears astatine the apical of the show erstwhile invoked, exposing app commands successful a structured, searchable format akin to macOS.

Instead of asking users to accommodate desktop workflows to a touch-first model, Apple has present explicitly imported desktop enactment styles into iPadOS, addressing a important fig of idiosyncratic complaints astir the bundle limitations of the ‌iPad‌. For users who privation to usage the ‌iPad‌ with existent multitasking and desktop-style workflows, this is 1 of the astir substantive capableness upgrades the level has ever received.

More Powerful Mac Spotlight

On the Mac, Spotlight received its astir extended overhaul to date, transforming it from a passive hunt instrumentality into an actions-first bid interface, akin to third-party apps similar Alfred oregon Raycast.


Spotlight successful macOS Tahoe tin present execute hundreds of actions straight from the hunt field. Users tin make and edit notes, nonstop emails and messages, commencement timers, tally Shortcuts, set strategy settings, and execute app-specific commands, without opening the corresponding app.

Apple besides redesigned Spotlight's results presumption with richer, much structured browsing views. Instead of returning a level database of matches, Spotlight present surfaces grouped results for files, applications, actions, and suggestions, allowing users to scan and refine results much quickly.

Spotlight present includes a built-in clipboard history, allowing users to presumption and reuse antecedently copied substance oregon images straight from the Spotlight interface. Apple besides integrated an app library-style view, providing a centralized, searchable overview of each installed applications.

Live Translation

Another large summation is Live Translation. Real-time translation present operates wrong Messages, FaceTime, and the Phone app, translating some substance and spoken audio during conversations.



In Messages, incoming and outgoing substance tin beryllium translated inline. In ‌FaceTime‌, Live Translation provides real-time translated captions during video calls, allowing participants to talk people portion speechmaking translations arsenic the speech unfolds. In telephone calls, spoken dialog tin beryllium translated successful adjacent existent time, with translated audio and on-screen substance presented during the call.

Apple besides extended Live Translation to AirPods, enabling real-time spoken translation straight done the earbuds during in-person conversations. When Live Translation is active, code from different connection tin beryllium translated connected the paired ‌iPhone‌ and played backmost successful the user's AirPods, portion the user's responses tin beryllium translated and spoken aloud by the ‌iPhone‌ for the different participant.

Communication Screening and Hold Assist

Call Screening allows the ‌iPhone‌ to automatically reply calls from chartless numbers connected the user's behalf. The strategy asks the caller to place themselves and explicate the crushed for the call, past presents the idiosyncratic with a unrecorded transcript of the effect earlier the telephone is connected.

With Hold Assist, erstwhile a idiosyncratic is placed connected clasp during a telephone call, the ‌iPhone‌ tin stay successful the queue connected their behalf and show the telephone until a unrecorded cause becomes available. Once the strategy detects that the telephone has resumed, it notifies the idiosyncratic to instrumentality to the conversation.

In Messages, Apple introduced much assertive screening for chartless senders. Messages from numbers that are not successful the user's contacts are automatically routed into a abstracted area, keeping imaginable spam and scam attempts retired of the main speech list.
This article, "The 5 Most Important Apple Software Features Introduced This Year" archetypal appeared connected MacRumors.com

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