This year’s WWDC wasn’t about brave leaps into the unknown. It was about crawling back from a few of those leaps, keeping grandiose AI promises at bay. It was also about giving users what they actually want — maybe old ideas, maybe not exciting and shiny. But definitely what we wanted.
The Gallery app: fixed because we all hated it
Remember the Photos app redesign in iOS 18? How could you forget it, you are probably still having a hard time navigating that mess.
It tried to modernize the experience, but all it did was replace utility with clutter. Somehow, Photos became more confusing than Instagram’s settings screen (is it me or does it change things around every month?).
In iOS 19, it’s been “rethought” (read: put back closer to what worked in the first place). Cleaner structure, easier navigation, and just enough nods to AI to justify the CPU cycles. It’s not revolutionary — if anything, it’s perfectly simple and… well functional.You have two tabs — Library and Collections. Making it super-easy to just see your latest photos as soon as you open the app. And get into the folders only if you make the deliberate choice to do so!Yeah, leave the confusing gallery stuff to Android, Apple!
Nothing was said on stage and this all passed through as a part of the major redesign with Liquid Glass. But, given that Gallery was freshly redesigned just last year with iOS 18, I think it’s obvious that everyone hated it. Such a quick rollback gives me some serious Apple Maps mislaunch flashbacks.
iPadOS Grows Up (Finally)
After years of begging, Apple gave us multi-tasking on the iPad, and we all hated it. I am talking about Stage Manager, which was first cleverly introduced as a Mac feature, then shown off as coming to the iPad with iPadOS 16.
Nobody on Mac used it. Nobody on iPad used it.
Stage Manager was Apple’s attempt to reinvent multi-tasking for the touchscreen, or at least for the iPad screen. But it just confused everyone, including tech reviewers. You had windows, but not really. A dock, but with attitude. And a “resizable” interface that somehow fought your fingers at every swipe.
Now? iPadOS 26 gets real multitasking. After years and years of begging. After literally giving the iPad Pro the most powerful Apple chip before it made it to laptops and desktops. In 2025, we finally get window snapping, a proper mouse pointer (that points!), and workflows that don’t make you feel like you’re training a dog to walk backward (I’ve done that, it’s actually easier).
Apple doesn’t say Stage Manager is dead, but I have a strong feeling that it’s going to be phased out pretty soon. Right now, in the beta, it’s even hidden and not on by default.
Files App: like Finder, but 7 years late
You know what makes a file manager useful? Seeing actual information about your files. Radical, I know. Until now, Files on iPadOS was more of a well-lit folder than a serious tool. No list view with metadata. No real preview system. Just desktop vibes and a chill empty space.
In iPadOS 26 beta, Files behaves like a grown-up. List views, file details, and double-click previews that feel suspiciously like Finder on macOS. Which they should have been from day one.
You can edit pictures and PDFs in place, with said Preview. You can put shortcuts to your most used folders directly to your desktop. And you can — get this — sort files by date created, date modified, or size. What are we going to do with all these new options?!
Genmoji learns what makes emoji fun
Genmoji with Emoji Kitchen vibes
When Apple first launched Genmoji, it was meant to be a limitless source of new emoji. Think up of anything and generate it into a new small picture to send. Ironically, this actually kills the excitement and fun of using emoji in the first place.
Emoji aren’t powerful because they’re limitless. They’re powerful because they aren’t.
The fun of communicating through emoji is about finding the perfect symbol from a fixed palette. Don’t have the exact emoji you need to get your point across? Well, combine a few of them and hope for the best!
Apple’s Genmoji 2.0 update shows that they’ve learned this lesson. You can now create new emoji by combining two (or more) existing ones — like Google’s Emoji Kitchen. So it still has the spirit of creating something fresh, but at least it’s still somewhat limited and within a system that we have silently agreed to mean something. It’s emoji jazz, not emoji jazz fusion.
What this all means
Apple’s 2025 updates are less about what’s new and more about what’s right. The company didn’t stand on stage and apologize. That would’ve been fun, but we all know it’s never happening. Every interface tweak, every design reversal, every quiet deletion of a failed feature was a soft-spoken “Oops, let’s try that again”.Are we entering an era where Apple is more willing to evolve its platforms based on reality, voiced customer concerns, and actual competition breathing down its neck? That sounds equal parts exciting and concerning!
Here’s hoping Apple doesn’t lose its magic touch. But also that it gets its head out of the ground a bit more often.
