Apple has confirmed that its annual Worldwide Developers Conference will run from June 8-12, with a keynote kicking things off at Apple Park on the first day. The event will be free and available online via the Apple Developer app, website, and YouTube channel—with a separate stream on Bilibili for viewers in China.
A limited number of developers and students will get to attend in person at Cupertino. Swift Student Challenge winners will be notified on March 26, and 50 Distinguished Winners will be flown out for a three-day experience at Apple Park.
iOS 27, a smarter Siri, and the end of Intel Mac support
On the software side, WWDC26 will preview the “27” generation of Apple’s operating systems—iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, watchOS 27, and visionOS 27. The biggest draw is expected to be a long-overdue Siri overhaul. Apple is reportedly building a chatbot version of Siri—codenamed “Campos” internally—that would put it in direct competition with ChatGPT and Gemini. It would retain Siri’s familiar trigger mechanism but add a full conversational interface on top.
iOS 27 is otherwise shaping up to be a Snow Leopard-style release: heavy on stability, lighter on splashy features. Apple engineers are reportedly rewriting chunks of the OS to squash bugs and improve battery life, even on older iPhones.
On the Mac side, macOS 27 will drop support for Intel-based Macs entirely, making Apple Silicon a hard requirement going forward. Rosetta 2, however, sticks around for one more cycle.
Mac mini and Mac Studio upgrades could also land at WWDC
Hardware isn’t off the table either. The Mac mini and Mac Studio are both due for M5-series chip upgrades, and WWDC is a plausible landing spot if Apple doesn’t release them before June. The M5 Pro and M5 Max bring up to 30% faster CPU performance and 50% faster graphics over their M4 predecessors.
Apple VP Susan Prescott called WWDC26 “one of our best yet”—standard fare, but the Siri chatbot alone should make June 8 worth watching.
