The tech giant just revealed its biggest design shift in a long time, bringing a glassy, translucent look to all its devices with iOS 26 and macOS 26.
This week’s WWDC (Worldwide Developer Conference) saw Apple reveal a big visual overhaul for its operating systems, introducing a new design language called “Liquid Glass”. It’s, uh, not going over well on social media.
TLDR: Apple’s announced its biggest visual refresh in years, a new design language called ‘Liquid Glass’ that’s coming to iPhones, iPads, and Macs. Inspired by the fancy graphics of the Vision Pro, it’s all about translucent layers and a unified look across all devices.
Drawing inspiration from the advanced graphics of the Vision Pro (Apple’s virtual reality headwear thing), this update is intended to deliver a unified and consistent aesthetic to iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and even CarPlay.
The core of Liquid Glass is the use of translucent, layered elements that promise to adapt to surrounding content and switch between light and dark modes as needed.
The design supports effects like real-time rendering and specular highlights—those bright, shiny reflections you see on glossy surfaces.
Across the board, navigation controls and toolbars have been softened with rounded corners to match the hardware, and they can shrink to prioritise on-screen content.
iOS 26 receives a major home screen refresh with redesigned app icons, including new transparent options, and more dynamic wallpapers.
Key applications are also getting makeovers: the Phone app gains a floating toolbar and AI-powered features like Call Screening and Hold Assist, while the Camera app’s interface has been simplified for easier navigation, although power users might dislike that a lot of features are now further buried.
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For macOS 26 Tahoe, the update brings more desktop and dock customisation through new Liquid Glass widgets and icons, along with transparent menu bars to create a sense of more screen space. (And, apparently, draw attention away from the screen notch.)
CarPlay also gets the Liquid Glass treatment, featuring a refreshed home screen, widgets for Live Activities, and less intrusive call notifications that no longer take over the entire display. Users can also pin conversations and use new “tapback” responses for quick replies.
These system-wide visual updates are scheduled to launch with the new OS versions later this year.
You can watch the full one-hour, 35-minute keynote below
One final detail raising some eyebrows is the new ‘26’ version number.
Apple has followed the car industry into using year names, particularly the coming calendar year (or the current financial year, if you prefer that perspective).
There’s some sense in it, too, because it’ll now be much easier for folks to know if they’re using the latest version, rather than having to remember what the current version is.
Why not call it 25? That’s easy: If you’re going to launch something in the middle of the year (or September, by the time these updates come out of beta testing), you’re better off sounding futuristic than rolling into the next year with a suddenly outdated name.
Whether Liquid Glass wins over the skeptics or not, one thing is certain: your iPhone is in for its biggest visual change in years.
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