Apple just held its massive annual World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC), revealing a tonne of new changes about to hit iOS devices.
Not to beat around the bush, but it was pretty mid. In what could only be summarised as “this could have been an email”, Apple laid out its roadmap for the next year and truthfully, it was mostly uneventful.
The tech giant shared that it’ll be changing how its devices are named, gave us an update on its upcoming $5000 VR headsets and some nice quality of life features hitting its apps. This was all just okay, but nothing that really gets the tech nerd breathing heavy from excitement. If this was a Cannes film festival, this film would only receive a five minute standing ovation (French for “this sucks”).
However, the biggest announcement was Apple’s new design philosophy called “Liquid Glass“. This new design will significantly alter the appearance of iOS devices, introducing transparency and glass-like shine effects to all in-app interfaces. Essentially, your phone, iPad, laptop, and TV will all feature cool water effects.
So, before you start dunking your devices in rice, here’s everything you need to know.
What did Apple announce at the WWDC?
The WWDC is Apple’s annual conference where the company announces significant updates to its devices.
Heading into the event, expectations were pretty low. Last WWDC, Apple announced a bunch of AI features that would be arriving this year. If you can’t remember what those features were or are wondering what happened to them, surprise! They were delayed. Even better, Apple confirmed that they’d be delayed once again. AI haters keep winning.
So, with these low expectations, Apple kept things pretty straightforward, focusing on reveals it knows it could deliver on.
One neat little bit of software Apple plans on bringing out this year is ‘Live Translation’. This update is looking to hopefully translate your FaceTime or phone calls quickly. For the kids in chat whose Dad made them watch Farscape instead of taking them to soccer matches, this update is like a universal translator from the show. (I don’t get to make a Farscape reference often, please let me have this.)
Apple also announced screen-sharing functionality for Visual Intelligence. In case you didn’t know, this is an Apple feature that lets you ask questions related to the content on your screen. It’s a bit like Google Lens if you need a quick comparison. Simply take a photo, and you can find out who that actor is from a show without Googling the character’s name and spoiling that they die later. You can also use it to translate other languages, which is pretty neat.
Apple will also finally homogenise how it names its updates. For those who don’t know, Apple’s products have some really inconsistent naming structures. Some devices would have iOS 19, the smartwatch had watchOS 12 and the Mac had macOS16. It’s a massive headache to Google solutions to specific problems around updates. Now, all iOS updates will now be called iOS 26. Except Mac, which gets macOS26 Tahoe. Like Lake Tahoe, which leads into the big influence behind Apple’s latest design philosophy: Liquid Glass.
Finally, Apple rounded up its keynote discussing changes to its Apple Intelligence and the rollout of Liquid Glass. You can find a full list of these features on Apple’s website.
What is Liquid Glass?
Now for what you’re all here for: what the hell is Liquid Glass? The short answer is that it’s a new design philosophy from Apple. It’s the biggest design overhaul the company has introduced in over 10 years, so you can expect some pretty mixed feelings on it.
Thankfully, it’s still keeping that recognisable iOS look without reinventing the wheel too much. With Liquid Glass, all aspects of the phone will look like they have a glass edge to it. It’s unclear how this will affect people’s connection to the phone, however, I feel like if my phone visually looks like glass I might start treating it like it is. But that’s just me.
Fitting with the translucent theme, there’s an almost ‘water-like’ feel navigating interfaces now. The translucent glass blends into the background of whatever you’re browsing.
As part of this update, Apple has resigned its controls, toolbars and navigation across all its apps and software to fit the new translucent design. So you can expect it on buttons, switches, sliders, text, media controls and more. Even apps like Camera, Apple Music, Apple News, Safari and more will be receiving this big design overhaul.
The update will be dropping in the American fall season (our spring), so be sure to treasure the current iOS design while you can.
Some are also concerned that these new effects will negatively impact readability. As Adam Whitcroft, a designer at Owner.com told Wired, “If you’ve designed a UI [user interface] that draws the attention of the eye away from the wider context, you’ve gone down the wrong path.”
Overall, I think the design looks… alright? I don’t hate it and I’m a sucker for rounded squares. Hopefully Apple is taking early impressions on board and will look to clarify some of these concerns before the update drops later this year.
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