Apple has officially unveiled iOS 26, the next iteration of the operating system following iOS 18. The rebranded update introduces a fresh new design.
With the release of iOS 26, Apple has transitioned to a naming convention that aligns with the upcoming year. This new version impacts iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, visionOS, and tvOS, all now on version 26.
One of the most noticeable changes in iOS 26 is the revamped design. During the announcement, Apple harkened back to the redesign of iOS 7 in 2013 as the last major overhaul of the iPhone software. iOS 26 introduces Liquid Glass, a more sophisticated design with enhanced depth and realism. This new aesthetic is reminiscent of the Aqua design language used in early versions of Mac OS X, diverging from the skeuomorphic design of the original iPhone software up until iOS 6.
In terms of features, iOS 26 brings updates to CarPlay, a new Games app, enhanced Apple Intelligence tools, and improvements to Apple Music, Maps, and Wallet. For more detailed information, refer to the press release below.
iOS 26 press release:
PRESS RELEASE June 9, 2025
Apple has unveiled iOS 26, a significant update that includes a stunning new design, powerful Apple Intelligence capabilities, improved connectivity features in the Phone and Messages apps, and exciting enhancements to CarPlay, Apple Music, Maps, and Wallet.
CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA Apple has provided a preview of iOS 26, a major update that delivers a visually appealing new design, intelligent features, and enhancements to the apps that users rely on daily. The new design offers a more expressive and delightful experience across the system while retaining the familiar feel of iOS. Integrated throughout the system and prioritizing privacy, Apple Intelligence has been further enhanced. Updates to the Phone and Messages apps assist users in staying connected while minimizing distractions. iOS 26 also introduces new features in CarPlay, Apple Music, Maps, and Wallet, along with Apple Games, a new app that serves as a central hub for all gaming activities.
Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering, remarked, “iOS 26 stands out with its beautiful new design and significant improvements to everyday features, making the iPhone even more helpful. The experiences are more personal and expressive, from the Lock Screen and Home Screen to new capabilities across Phone and Messages that help users focus on their most important connections. With the powerful new Apple Intelligence capabilities seamlessly integrated across the system, users can accomplish tasks more efficiently than ever.”
A Beautiful New Look
The new design enhances the expressiveness and delightfulness of apps and system experiences while maintaining the instant familiarity of iOS. Crafted with Liquid Glass, a new translucent material that reflects and refracts surroundings, the design brings greater emphasis to content and introduces a new level of liveliness to controls, navigation elements, app icons, widgets, and more. The new design extends to the Home Screen and Lock Screen, adding a more personal and expressive touch. Liquid Glass offers new customization options for app icons and widgets, including a visually striking clear appearance.
On the Lock Screen, the time adjusts dynamically to the available space within an image, while spatial scenes bring wallpapers to life with a 3D effect as users move their iPhone. Updated design elements provide fresh experiences in various apps, such as a simplified Camera layout for capturing moments and separate tabs for Library and Collections views in the Photos app. Safari now allows web pages to flow smoothly from top to bottom, enabling users to view more content while retaining access to frequently used actions like refresh and search. In Apple Music, News, and Podcasts, the tab bar has been redesigned to float above content, shrinking when browsing to highlight content and expanding upon scrolling up.
The time on the Lock Screen adjusts dynamically to fit within the available space and provide a more dynamic experience.
Developers now have access to a new set of APIs that allow them to incorporate Liquid Glass materials and components into their apps, enabling them to create dynamic and delightful experiences.
New Capabilities Powered by Apple Intelligence
Apple Intelligence enhances the iPhone experience by making tasks easier and unlocking new ways to communicate and interact with on-screen content. Live Translation has been integrated into Messages, FaceTime, and Phone to facilitate communication across languages, translating text and audio in real-time. This feature is powered by Apple-built models that operate entirely on the device to ensure the privacy of personal conversations.
Expanding on Apple Intelligence, visual intelligence extends to the user’s iPhone screen, enabling them to search for and act on anything visible on the screen across apps. Users can ask ChatGPT questions about on-screen content, search for similar images and products on Google, Etsy, and other supported apps, and even receive suggestions for adding events to their calendar. Genmoji and Image Playground provide additional avenues for self-expression, allowing users to create unique combinations of emoji, Genmoji, and descriptions.
Shortcuts have been enhanced to offer more powerful and intelligent actions. Users can access intelligent actions enabled by Apple Intelligence and discover dedicated actions for features like Writing Tools and Image Playground.
Apple Intelligence can now automatically identify and summarize order tracking information from emails sent by merchants and delivery carriers, consolidating order details and progress notifications in one place, including purchases made without Apple Pay.
The introduction of a new Foundation Models framework allows any app to leverage the on-device foundation model at the core of Apple Intelligence, providing developers with direct access to fast, privacy-centric, offline AI inference capabilities at no cost.
Features for Staying Connected and Minimizing Interruptions
Central to the iPhone experience, the Phone app now features a unified layout that combines Favorites, Recents, and Voicemails in a single location. Call Screening, in conjunction with Live Voicemail, helps users manage interruptions by gathering caller information and presenting it to users, allowing them to decide whether to answer or ignore calls. Hold Assist notifies users when a live agent is available while they are on hold.
In Messages, users can screen messages from unknown senders, granting them more control over their conversation list. Messages from unknown senders are segregated into a dedicated folder, where users can mark numbers as known, request more information, or delete messages. These messages remain muted until users accept them.
iOS 26 also brings enhancements to group chat conversations, including custom backgrounds, the ability to create polls, and typing indicators in group chats. Apple Intelligence can suggest polls when appropriate and users can create unique backgrounds using Image Playground. Additionally, users can request, send, and receive Apple Cash in group chats.
Enhancements to CarPlay
CarPlay, designed to provide a smarter, safer way to use the iPhone while driving, has been utilized over 600 million times per day. With the release of iOS 26, CarPlay receives updates that enhance its visual appeal and ease of use. The redesign includes a new compact view for incoming calls, enabling users to view caller information without missing important details like upcoming directions. Messages in CarPlay now support Tapbacks and pinned conversations, and widgets and Live Activities keep users informed without distracting them from the road. These enhancements are also available in CarPlay Ultra, offering a deeply integrated experience that combines the best of iPhone and car technology across all screens.
Updates to Apple Music, Maps, and Wallet
In Apple Music, Lyrics Translation helps users understand the lyrics of their favorite songs, while Lyrics Pronunciation allows users to sing along regardless of the language. AutoMix leverages intelligence to seamlessly transition between songs like a DJ, using time stretching and beat matching for smooth transitions.
Apple Maps now includes Visited Places, which helps users recall locations they have visited. Users can choose to have their iPhone detect when they are at a particular location, such as a restaurant or shop, and view all their Visited Places in Maps. This feature is protected with end-to-end encryption and inaccessible to Apple. Additionally, the on-device intelligence in iPhone enhances route suggestions, providing users with their preferred routes when heading home or to the office, along with notifying them of delays and offering alternate routes.
Updates in Apple Wallet simplify interactions with the physical world. Users can opt to pay with installments or rewards when using Apple Pay for in-store purchases. Refreshed boarding passes in Wallet offer Live Activities for real-time flight updates, as well as convenient access to navigation tools like Maps and Find My.
Additional features in iOS 26:
Apple Games: A new app that serves as a central hub for all gaming activities, allowing players to stay updated on major events and updates across their games.
AirPods: Enhanced features for AirPods 4, AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation (ANC), and AirPods Pro 2, including studio-quality audio recording and camera remote functionality.
Parental Controls: Simplified creation and management of Child Accounts, along with enhanced parental control features across Communication Limits, Communication Safety, and the App Store.
Safari: Advanced fingerprinting protection by default to enhance browsing privacy.
Accessibility: Introduction of Accessibility Reader and Braille Access, along with updates to Live Listen, Background Sounds, and Personal Voice to improve accessibility across the Apple ecosystem.
Liquid Glass Design Press Release:
PRESS RELEASE June 9, 2025
Apple has introduced a universal design across platforms that emphasizes content and vitality while maintaining the familiarity of Apple’s software.
CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA Apple has unveiled a stunning new software design that enhances the expressiveness and delightfulness of apps and system experiences while retaining the familiar feel of Apple’s software. Crafted with a new material called Liquid Glass, this translucent material reflects and refracts its surroundings, dynamically transforming to emphasize content and infuse vitality into controls, navigation elements, app icons, widgets, and more. For the first time, this new design extends across platforms, including iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS Tahoe 26, watchOS 26, and tvOS 26, creating greater harmony while preserving the unique characteristics of each platform.
Alan Dye, Apple’s vice president of Human Interface Design, stated, “At Apple, we have always believed in the seamless integration of hardware and software to make technology interaction intuitive, beautiful, and delightful. This software design update is the most expansive one we have ever undertaken, meticulously crafted by reimagining the fundamental elements of our software. The new design features a revolutionary material called Liquid Glass, which combines the optical properties of glass with the fluidity unique to Apple, adapting dynamically to content and context. This sets the stage for future experiences and makes even the simplest interactions more enjoyable and magical.”
Introducing Liquid Glass: A New and Expressive Material
Inspired by the depth and dimensionality of visionOS, the new design leverages Apple’s advancements in hardware, silicon, and graphics technologies. Liquid Glass, the new material, is translucent and behaves similarly to real-world glass. Its color adapts to surrounding content and adjusts between light and dark environments intelligently. Developed through close collaboration between design and engineering teams, Liquid Glass utilizes real-time rendering and reacts dynamically to movement with specular highlights. This results in an engaging experience that enhances the enjoyment of using iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple TV.
This stunning new material extends across various elements users interact with daily, such as buttons, switches, sliders, text, and media controls, as well as larger elements like tab bars and sidebars for app navigation. It shines in system experiences like the Lock Screen, Home Screen, notifications, Control Center, and more.
Updated App Designs
With the goal of emphasizing content while retaining familiarity, Apple’s design team scrutinized every aspect of the platforms to identify potential enhancements.
Controls, toolbars, and app navigation have been redesigned to align perfectly with the rounded corners of modern hardware and app windows, establishing a harmonious relationship between hardware, software, and content. Crafted from Liquid Glass, controls serve as a distinct functional layer above apps, dynamically morphing to accommodate user needs and transitions between app sections. Thoughtful grouping makes it easier for users to locate necessary controls.
Tab bars and sidebars have been revamped with a similar approach. In iOS 26, tab bars shrink when scrolling to focus on content while keeping navigation accessible. Upon scrolling back up, tab bars expand seamlessly. In iPadOS and macOS, updated sidebars enhance apps like Apple TV, refracting content and the user’s wallpaper for an immersive experience.
These redesigned elements manifest in fresh app experiences in Camera, Photos, Safari, FaceTime, Apple Music, Apple News, and Apple Podcasts.
The new design provides an enjoyable experience in apps like Camera, Photos, Safari, and FaceTime.
An Enhanced Experience Across Platforms
The new design extends across iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS, with updates to system experiences like the Lock Screen, Home Screen, desktop, and Dock. The Lock Screen now features a time element crafted from Liquid Glass that adapts dynamically to fit elegantly with the wallpaper subject.
On the Home Screen and desktop, the Dock, app icons, and widgets are composed of multiple layers of Liquid Glass, showcasing specular highlights and offering personalization options while preserving familiarity. For instance, in macOS Tahoe 26, users can customize the desktop and Dock with widgets and app icons that feature light or dark appearances, new tints, and a clear look. An entirely transparent menu bar adds to the immersive display on Mac.
Building Dynamic Apps
For developers utilizing SwiftUI, UIKit, and AppKit, a revised set of APIs simplifies the adoption of the new design. By incorporating Liquid Glass materials and updated controls, developers can refresh their app designs to create more intuitive and delightful user interactions.
