Apple reportedly is cooking up significant changes to core iPhone and iPad apps, with redesigned interfaces coming soon to the Phone, Safari, Camera and Messages apps. The company plans to reveal the app updates Monday during the WWDC25 keynote, alongside other sweeping changes to its operating systems.
Apple plans major app updates at WWDC25
The rumored updates to these essential apps reflect Apple’s continuing quest to refine its vaunted ecosystem. The company wants to ensure that its software evolves to meet user needs and expectations, without making changes so radical that they bewilder a billion-plus iPhone and iPad users.
The changes to the Phone, Safari, Camera and Messages apps, reported Friday by Bloomberg, are part of a sweeping overhaul of Apple’s software platforms. Apple reportedly is readying a glossy, glasslike redesign inspired by the visionOS software that powers its Vision Pro headset.
Apple’s Phone app gets a revamp
The most notable newly reported app updates expected at WWDC25 will come to the Phone app in the next version of iOS, which likely will be called iOS 26 rather than iOS 19. (The company reportedly plans to switch all its operating system names to reflect the upcoming year rather than the old chronological system.)
The revamped Phone app will feature a new unified view that combines favorite contacts, recent calls and voicemails into a single scrollable interface, Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman wrote Friday. This modernized approach represents a departure from the current tab-based system However, Apple apparently will keep the traditional interface available as an option that users can toggle back to directly within the Phone app.
Safari gets a visual refresh
Safari users will see a significantly updated design, highlighted by a transparent, glassy address bar. That squares with rumors of Apple’s trend toward translucent interface elements across its operating systems.
Camera app simplification
The Camera app could get a major overhaul focused on simplicity. Apple acknowledges that years of adding new features — spatial video, panorama, slow-motion recording capabilities — made the user experience somewhat unwieldy.
iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 updates could make photo and video capture more intuitive.
Messages takes aim at WhatsApp
Apple will likely position Messages as a stronger competitor to Meta’s WhatsApp and other modern messaging platforms. The app could gain two key social features: the ability to create polls within conversations and the option to set custom background images.
Custom backgrounds reportedly will sync across all of a user’s Apple devices and between conversation participants. That should ensure everyone in a chat sees the same visual theme.
Preview app comes to mobile
For the first time, Apple’s Preview app is expected to make the jump from macOS to iPadOS and iOS. That should give iPad and iPhone users a built-in solution for PDF management, annotation and editing.
The mobile version of Preview reportedly will mirror the Mac experience, featuring a launch screen similar to other Apple productivity apps like Pages and Keynote. It could come complete with the Preview logo and a gallery of document options. The app will come preinstalled rather than requiring a separate App Store download.
Additional enhancements to iOS and iPadOS coming at WWDC25
Apple plans other small changes to its iPhone and iPad operating systems, including:
- Apple Pencil reportedly will gain a new digital reed calligraphy pen tool.
- iOS and iPadOS keyboards could include a bidirectional mode for seamless switching between Arabic and English text input.
- Genmoji, a popular Apple Intelligence feature, might get a small but creative upgrade. It reportedly will allow users to combine two existing standard emoji to create new custom characters. For instance, you might merge a basketball emoji and a trash can emoji to show a ball going into the bin.
Calendar app upgrade reportedly on hold
Apple also has been working on a completely revamped Calendar app. Originally planned for release this year, the revised Calendar app will now arrive with next year’s operating system updates, likely called iOS 27 and macOS 27, which are internally codenamed Buttercup and Honeycrisp, according to Bloomberg.
David Snow, an expert on Apple hardware and software, writes on a variety of technological and cultural topics for Cult of Mac. They include Apple news, technology buying guides, and features about computer setups and Apple TV shows and movies.
With 30 years of experience covering technology and other subjects, he has written and edited for numerous print and online publications, including CMP Media, TechTV.com, CNET, Wired News, Red Herring magazine, Law.com, The National Law Journal and Law Technology News magazine. Among other roles, he served as executive editor of the Law.com network of websites and editorial director, technology, for ALM Media.
Snow graduated with a B.A. from Syracuse University with majors in magazine journalism and psychology. While there, he worked as a reporter for The Daily Orange newspaper and associate editor of Equal Time magazine.
Founder of the blog At the Waterline, he can be reached on X (formerly Twitter) via @atthewaterline and on Mastodon via @dsnow.
