John Gruber announced The Talk Show Live From WWDC 2025 with one notable adendum:

in recent years the guests have seemed a bit predictable: senior executives from Apple. This year I again extended my usual invitation to Apple, but, for the first time since 2015, they declined.

And Parker Ortolani: Apple’s Silence at "The Talk Show" Will Speak Volumes

Apple refusing to participate feels like more than just snubbing Gruber, it’s a missed chance to engage with the very community that cares the most.

And Marco Arment: Retreating to Safety

In the absence of any other information, it’s easy to assume that Apple no longer wants its executives to be interviewed in a human, unscripted, unedited context that may contain hard questions, and that Apple no longer feels it necessary to show their appreciation to our community and developers in this way.

I’ve always enjoyed The Talk Show Live from WWDC. It’s never been a hardball interview, which I think some people wish it was, it’s generally been a friendly interview with a couple jabs at sore spots here and there.

What I hadn’t really thought about until just now is that since 2020, this is basically the only time anyone in the public gets to see Apple executives in front of other people. Its literally the only time we see them talking to other people like humans, the only time they have to think on their feet, and the only time they’re in front of a live audience whose opinion they get to absorb in real time. This will be the 6th year in a row where the entire customer-facing appearances from these execs is in scripted videos.

Except for these WWDC Talk Shows.

I have no idea why Apple declined to participate this year after a decade of it being as reliable a thing as Craig making a “crack team” joke in the macOS segment of the keynote. Maybe schedules didn’t work out or maybe they’ll be participating in someone else’s interview show this year.

But I agree with Marco that it’s impossible to ignore the fact that this year more than any other I can remember, Apple is seen negatively by many people in the audience for this show, and Gruber wrote what might be the most scathing article about Apple in 2025. Maybe it's all a complete coincidence, but that doesn't seem like the smart money given everything else going on.

I'll once again use this time to call for Apple to bring back live events. Almost every other big tech company has done it and people seem to enjoy them. No, you're not going to be as perfectly buttoned up as you can be in video, but I think it humanizes you in a way scripted videos with every one of your presenters being completely alone on a (beautiful) set just doesn't.