Apple WWDC Wishlist: What I Actually Want

2026-06-08, by Dmitri Zdorov

On Monday (already today), Apple's annual WWDC conference begins, where they set the tone for where everything will head over the next year. They will showcase new versions of their operating systems in early beta, and it's expected that everything will be released in the fall. There are years when they also introduce new hardware on this occasion, but that is rare.

But I want to write again about what I would want from them. And not abstractly, based purely on my desires, but rather choosing from the spectrum of rumors and analytics regarding the potential directions already being discussed.

1. First and foremost, the main thing I would really want from them is to allocate enough resources to get rid of bugs. This likely means a decision to tone down the enthusiasm for new features, or even improvements, and purely concentrate most of their efforts on making what already exists work as promised. Everyone has their own list of grievances here, but now LLMs make it possible to open the floodgates for user complaints, sort through this waterfall at an AI level, and verify what are actually bugs, what are interface flaws, and what might be user error—though even that, in a sense, is an interface deficiency. Of course, I don't think this is entirely possible or even necessary, but if they announced that there would be nothing new for a whole year and they would only fix what already exists, the vast majority of people would be thrilled. But from my perspective, it just means they need to allocate more resources to this than they are allocating now. Resources, attention, understanding of importance, prioritization, etc.

2. The second is a straightforward account system to replace or reinvent their current Apple ID System. Right now, it's a complete mess: old accounts, new accounts, they work differently. For some, an Apple email is used for login; for others, it's your third-party email, but they still give you an Apple email that you can't use to log in. On top of that, some services are old and people started using them long ago, so a portion of purchases or apps are tied to them, but they can't be used for new things. In short, this mess needs to be stopped, and a simple, understandable system must be created that can absorb all old accounts.

3. The third is full synchronization. Ideally, I would want it to just be a single unified system. Take a Mac, an iPhone, a watch, and everything else—no matter how many there are or what shape they take—you log in, and it's a single entity. I'm not even banking on that yet, but I just want improved synchronization. As it stands, you get a new computer, and even if you fully restore from a backup, you still have to spend at least a day setting everything up. And if it's without a backup restore, it takes a whole week. During that time, you'll be asked for your password 186 times. I want them to ask thoroughly during the initial login, I confirm everything, and then I don't have to go around making the exact same settings I've already made dozens of times. Starting from how Finder is set up completely, all the way to icons in the Dock, the menu bar, fonts, and dictionaries. Every setting should come with a small option: make it like in the cloud, keep it unique to this device, or update the cloud (i.e., apply to other devices based on this one). That means having a local profile and a cloud profile. Ideally, of course, there could be several cloud profiles—for example: minimalist, work, mobile, etc.

4. I've already accepted that they want to push the new trendy "liquid glass" theme, but I want them to improve its usability. Make the overly rounded corners a bit less rounded. Let the animations stay, but I want an option to significantly speed them up. In general, just let them follow their own ancient HIG (Human Interface Guidelines).

5. I already mentioned that they ask for passwords too much, but it's not just about that. It's that there are too many different prompts, pop-up requests for permissions, and warnings. I am forced to click them many times every single day. It's inefficient, degrades the core purpose of security, and everyone has grown accustomed to it just being a nuisance. Yet at the same time, companies like Google, Adobe, Figma, and Microsoft can install their auto-updaters and agents that constantly sit there and download stuff without my permission, and trying to delete them is useless because they immediately restore themselves. So, where it's not needed, they constantly bother you with confirmations, but where it's actually needed, it's a free-for-all for god-knows-what. Why does Chrome need to update itself when Chrome is closed? If I use it frequently, it's perfectly sufficient for it to do its thing when it's open, and if I use it rarely, it shouldn't be constantly updating itself and eating up memory. Here, I wish they would deal with this inconvenient situation and make it so that devices, and especially the Mac, can be used without these excessive confirmations while still protecting against the unwanted. Perhaps this could be solved with a special mode—for developers or advanced users. Let it be riskier, but without the extra hand-holding.

6. I also want more automation. I want simple ways to automate things that have to be done repeatedly. There is already something in this direction, but it's unintuitive, complicated to use, and doesn't cover a lot. Modern computers should think well and help me with exactly these kinds of recurring routines. This is much better implemented in various developer tools, but much of it would easily suit regular users as well.

7. iPadOS needs to go. Alright, we've experimented with it enough. Here's what I want instead: for the iPad, you should be able to choose a mode. Either it runs iOS, which includes extra features for a larger screen (this will be needed anyway when foldable iPhones eventually arrive), or it's a mode that is essentially macOS. Those who are fine with a basic iPad don't really use the newly introduced features like multi-window management anyway; it only gets in the way for most regular users. In those cases, let everything just be simpler. But for those for whom the iPad is like a computer just in a tablet format, a full operating system would be a much better fit. Where there is full multitasking, proper file management, the ability to install full desktop apps, multi-user support, and everything else that makes a computer a computer.

I know they will significantly improve Siri anyway and do plenty of other things. I don't see any point in wishing for anything there, other than the hope that they do it well. Hardware also needs to be written about separately. My absolute main, overarching, and very long-standing wish is for them not to abandon what they are already doing, but to support everything in a timely manner. As it is, many parts of the OS, or services, or even entire apps don't get updated for years. They have become outdated and interface poorly with the rest. I want all of this to be assigned to some engineer so that it keeps moving forward, even if just bit by bit.

Of course, I still have plenty of other wishes, but I'll limit myself to these. The list turned out long enough as it is.

Tags: appletechnologyux