WWDC25: What’s new in App Services

Apple just made life a whole lot easier with the updates in iOS 26. From smarter payments to better road trip features, there’s plenty here for gamers and everyday users to love. 🎮📲

🧠 Apple Wallet Just Got Smarter

• 💳🪪 Smarter Apple Pay Button now shows your actual card design before you double-press, so you always know which card you’re using.
• 🧠 Automatically selects the best card for each purchase, like one with store perks or higher cashback.
• 🚫 If a card fails, it instantly switches to another, no more checkout panic!
• 📂 Pre-Authorized Payments Tab shows all your subscriptions and auto-payments in one place.
• 🛍️ Features merchant logos, names, and even product images.
• 🔔 Sends alerts before charges happen, so you can cancel or update in time.
• 🧾 More Personalized Branding helps you quickly recognize who charged you.
• 🖼️ Merchants can now show logos, photos, and custom names.
• 🗺️ Info syncs across Wallet, Maps, Mail, and more using Apple Business Connect.
• 📦 Automatic Order Tracking pulls info from your email receipts with zero setup.
• 🚚 See delivery windows, tracking numbers, and link back to the original email.
• 🔗 Shipping updates and related messages are grouped.

✅📆🧠📦 Why it matters: You get faster, smarter payments, clear charge info, real-time subscription alerts, and automatic order tracking, all in one clean, easy Wallet experience.

🌍 FinanceKit Upgrades for Smarter Money Management (UK Only)

• UK users can now securely link their bank accounts using Open Banking.
• View account balances and transactions from supported finance apps.
• Spending widgets update automatically; no need to open the app to get the widget to update.
• Track budgets and purchases in real time right from your home screen.

🇬🇧📈 Why it Matters: Stay on top of your money effortlessly with live updates and smart insights.

Hopefully this comes to the US

🛩️ Travel with Wallet

• ✨ Sleek new boarding pass design with live flight updates.
• ⏰ Real-time changes for delays, gate updates, and boarding times.
• 📲 Lock Screen Live Activities keep you in the loop, and you can share updates through Messages.
• 🧳 Track luggage right in Wallet with Find My support.
• 🏷️ See seat details, fare class, and accessibility options at a glance.
• 💺 View upgrade options (like Wi-Fi or lounge access) directly on your pass.
• 📤 Instantly jump to airline apps with one-tap buttons.
• 🗂️ A clearer, visual layout makes everything easier to find.
• 📥 Passes can be added automatically, just approve once, and you’re set.
• ⚙️ Manage pass access anytime in Settings.
• 📱 Still works great on older iPhones thanks to backward-compatible updates.

🧳📥📱 Why it Matters: Everything you need for your trip shows up exactly when you need it. No extra taps. No searching. Just smooth, stress-free travel, even if your phone’s not the latest model!

🏎️ Carplay Upgrades

• 🧠 CarPlay is now smoother, smarter, and more responsive.
• 📺 AirPlay to CarPlay lets you share videos and audio directly to your car’s screen (while parked). Perfect for games, movies.
• 🎯 CarPlay Ultra gives a unified layout across all your car’s displays, from dashboard to instrument cluster.
• 💬 Smarter Messaging now supports Tapbacks, lets you pin favorite convos, and shows compact call popups so maps stay visible.
• 📊 Live Widgets and activities show updates for food, sports, and more, even from apps not built for CarPlay.
• 🗺️ Navigation Upgrades include pinch, zoom, rotate, and tilt. You can even split maps across multiple screens or into a heads-up display.
• 🎵 Now Playing Gets Sports Mode, see team logos, live scores, and game clocks while listening to the action.
• 🧩 Modern App Interfaces bring cards, image lists, and pinned shortcuts. Apps feel fresher and easier to use on the go.
• 🎛️ Smart Display Zoom helps you scale layout sizes, and all apps now get an updated look in iOS 26.
• 🔥 Car-Friendly Smarts adjust visuals based on car temperature and battery, keeping things running cool and smooth.

🚗📲🎮 Why it Matters: Whether you’re jamming to your favorite game podcast, checking a score, navigating to a LAN party, or watching a quick video while parked, CarPlay now feels like a true sidekick on the road.

🔍 Bonus Features.

🌐 Enhance Your App’s Multilingual Experience

• 🧠 iOS now detects the languages you use across apps, music, texts, and browsing.
• 🗣️ Siri can suggest switching UI language, adding keyboards, or localizing content.
• ⌨️ New keyboards: Arabizi (Arabic in Latin letters), bilingual Arabic-English, Hindi transliteration, and a simplified Thai layout.
• 📅 Alternate calendars now include Gujarati, Marathi, Korean, and more, with dynamic UI support.
• 📝 Text selection now works naturally for right-to-left languages like Arabic and Hebrew.
• ✍️ Dynamic writing direction adjusts automatically as you type mixed-language sentences.

🌍📱🗓️ Why it Matters: Apps feel more personal, easier to use, and better suited to how people speak, type, and read, in any language.

⏰ AlarmKit – Real Alarms From Any App

• 🔊 Apps can now trigger ‘real’ alarms, not just silent notifications.
• 📅 Set alarms for a specific time or use countdown timers for things like cooking, workouts, or meetings.
• 🎛️ Alarms can include custom sounds, app branding, and action buttons like “Snooze,” “Dismiss,” or even “Open App.”
• 🖼️ Supports full visuals on Lock Screen, Dynamic Island, and StandBy Mode, so you always see what’s going on.
• 🔁 Alarms can repeat automatically, and you can snooze or trigger actions directly from the alert.
• 📲 Live Activities show countdowns and controls, keeping you on track even after snoozing.

⏳📣🕒 Why it Matters: Never miss a meal, meeting, match, or mission again. Alarms are louder, smarter, and tied directly to your favorite apps, so they show up exactly when (and how) you need them.

🖥️ Web Content in SwiftUI

• 🌐 Developers can easily embed a full-featured Web Browser in any app. No more half-baked Safari.
• 🔎 Built-in Find-in-Page support means users can search for keywords just like in Safari.

🌐🧩📄 Why it Matters: Web content feels fully integrated, not bolted on. Whether it’s for articles, product pages, docs, or guides, your app stays fast, interactive, and native.

Got a favorite? Let us know!

Sources: Settings icons created by Freepik – Flaticon, What’s new in Apple Pay, Turbocharge your app for CarPlay, Enhance your app’s multilingual experience, Wake up to the AlarmKit API, Meet WebKit for SwiftUI