At its WWDC 2025 keynote, Apple introduced its new design language, Liquid Glass, alongside updates across iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, Macs, and Vision Pro headsets. The updates focus on a sleek, semi-translucent look combined with enhanced productivity and integrated Apple Intelligence features.
Liquid Glass Design and New OS Naming
Apple’s Liquid Glass is its broadest design refresh yet, featuring semi-translucent interfaces with redesigned widgets, notifications, and other UI elements. This visual language will unify the look across iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS. Additionally, Apple is switching to year-based naming for its OS versions, with iOS 26, iPadOS 26, watchOS 26, and others launching this fall.
iOS 26
Inspired by visionOS, iOS 26 offers a cleaner interface with overlapping, rounded elements and see-through toolbars. The Phone app receives its largest redesign since the original iPhone, introducing a scrolling interface combining contacts, recent calls, and voicemails on one screen. A new feature called Hold Assist mutes on-hold music but maintains the call.
Messages adds customizable group chat backgrounds, polls, spam filtering for unknown senders, and Genmoji creation by blending emojis or generating them via ChatGPT. Live translate will automatically translate typed messages, with similar real-time captioning available in FaceTime. Apple Music gains live translation and pronunciation features. The Call Translation API will be open to third-party developers.
Maps, Wallet, and Games
Maps will learn user routines, suggest alternate routes, and track visited locations for easy rediscovery. The Wallet app adds support for a new Digital ID separate from driver’s licenses and passports, along with updated boarding pass features.
A new Games app consolidates all downloaded games and Apple Arcade titles, featuring a Library tab and a Challenges mode allowing competition with friends even in single-player games.
Visual Intelligence
iOS 26 integrates Visual Intelligence to enable image-based searches directly from screenshots. Users can highlight portions of images to refine their searches for items like clothing across the web and apps.
watchOS 26
watchOS 26 adopts Liquid Glass visuals and adds Workout Buddy, an audio coach that provides real-time fitness insights. The Apple Music app will suggest workout playlists. Smart Stack functionality will offer context-aware suggestions, such as prompting the workout app upon arriving at the gym.
macOS Tahoe
macOS Tahoe embraces the Liquid Glass aesthetic while maintaining familiarity for long-time users. It allows custom desktop backgrounds, folder color changes, and emoji additions. The redesigned Phone app from iOS becomes available on Mac with full feature support, including Hold Assist.
Shortcuts will incorporate Apple Intelligence, enabling AI-powered automation directly on-device. Spotlight gains enhanced capabilities, letting users execute multi-step Shortcuts and access clipboard history without opening other apps.
iPadOS 26
iPadOS 26 adopts Liquid Glass and inherits most iOS 26 features, including revamped Phone and Games apps. Unique to iPad is a new menu bar and window system resembling macOS, enhancing multitasking with resizable, snap-to-corner, and swipe-away windows optimized for touch, stylus, or trackpad input.
The Files app gains an updated list view and custom color options mirroring macOS Tahoe. Users can assign apps to open specific file types. A native Preview app arrives for PDFs, offering native management, annotation, and editing features.
New recording tools target podcasters, allowing “studio quality” vocal capture with AirPods. Press-and-hold AirPod controls can start and stop recordings, and local capture integrates with video conferencing apps for recording sessions.
visionOS 26
visionOS 26 introduces spatial widgets that stay fixed in the user’s field of view, supporting both native and third-party apps via the new Widgets visionOS app. Spatial scenes use AI to animate photos, enhancing experiences from personal snapshots to travel images.
The update enables Vision Pro compatibility with PlayStation VR2 Sense controllers, expanding its gaming potential. Eye-scrolling functionality allows users to navigate documents, apps, and webpages by eye movement.
tvOS 26
tvOS 26 incorporates Liquid Glass design with richer cinematic art in the Apple TV app. A new Profiles feature customizes experiences for different household members. Apple Music on Apple TV adds a karaoke mode letting users sing along using their iPhones as microphones.
Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference began June 9, with multiple resources available including liveblogs and keynote streams for those interested in following the announcements.