WWDC 2025: On-Device Models and a Design Language Reset
Two things from WWDC land on client roadmaps: a new visual design language across Apple’s platforms, and developer access to on-device foundation models.
The design refresh is a scheduling problem
Interface language changes are not optional in practice. Apps that ignore them look dated within a release cycle, and custom components that emulated the old system look broken first. Budget the work; do not let it arrive as a surprise in a sprint.
On-device models change the economics
Inference that runs locally has no per-token cost, works offline, and keeps data on the device — which resolves an entire category of privacy review for health, finance, and any regulated context.
- Good fit: summarization, classification, extraction, and suggestion features on modest inputs.
- Poor fit: anything needing frontier reasoning, broad world knowledge, or long context.
- Design for both. Local by default with a cloud path for hard cases gives you cost control and capability.
For any app handling sensitive data, this is the most interesting thing Apple shipped in years — the compliance conversation gets dramatically shorter when the data never leaves the phone.