iOS 19's redesign had me worried — but now I think it will turn out fine

Tom's Guide

2 days ago

Change can be scary — especially when it's change to something you rely on every day. So I'm guessing that news of the impending iOS overhaul that Apple will announce next week at WWDC 2025 is being anticipated in some quarters like a trip to the dentist.
I mean, I'm certainly nervous about what's going to happen to the interface in iOS 19 (or iOS 26, depending on who's doing the rumor-mongering). And the natural inclination to distrust change only becomes heightened when you hear phrases like "the biggest iOS update in a decade" bandied about.
There have certainly been tweaks here and there, but the iPhone interface we have now looks a lot like the one we've been using since iOS 7. There's comfort in that, and the idea that it's all about to change later this year can be unsettling.
It doesn't help that it's really hard to assess interface updates until you actually get to see them in person. We can talk all about the rumored changes Apple is going to implement in iOS 19 and other software updates getting previewed at WWDC, but until we're actually using the update ourselves, who knows how smooth the transition will be.
We won't be entirely clear what Apple plans to do until the iOS 19/iOS 26 preview gets underway as part of the WWDC 2025 keynote on June 9. But I've been spending some time reviewing some of the leaks and rumors out there about the proposed changes. And I'm feeling a lot less worried about the prospects of an interface update as a result. Here's why.
Our best looks at potential iOS 19 changes have come from Front Page Tech videos posted by Jon Prosser, though not everyone's convinced some of those screen captures reflect Apple's final plans for its iPhone software. Still, an iOS 19 preview video posted about a month ago seems to be based on the most up-to-date info about Apple's plans, at least as Prossser tells it.
Watching the video, a few things stand out, starting with the rounded — though not perfectly circular — icons on the home screen. A lot of visual elements are rounder in the posted designs, particularly widgets and sliders in the Control Center. The animations when you interact with the interface get a refresh — Prosser describes them as more fluid and bouncy — and there's a glass-like shimmer to some elements like the lock screen shortcuts.
To me, the most noteworthy iOS 19 interface changes are the translucent menus that pop up on the home screen when you hold and press on an icon. Do that in iOS 18, and you'll see the same pop-up menu, but it's markedly more opaque. And you'll find a lot of elements at the bottom of your iPhone screen like search bars and a revamped dock that will be part of the iPhone's built-in apps.
This will all look very familiar if you've ever strapped on an Apple Vision Pro, as the interface changes seem to be inspired by the look of visionOS — the platform for Apple's spatial computing headset. I haven't had a go with the Vision Pro, but my colleague Mark Spoonauer has. And his Apple Vision Pro review notes a lot of the visual elements like translucent panels and streamlined menus that look like they're coming to the iPhone with the new iOS update.
If you're in the same Vision Pro-free boat as me, I'd suggest reading this MacRumors post on the visionOS elements likely to make their way to the iPhone. It helps explain how translucent menus, floating navigation bars and more work on the headset and how they might translate to a different device like an iPhone.
Having reviewed all that and taken a closer look at some of the iOS 19 redesign mockups, I'm a lot less nervous about what Apple's going to show off at WWDC 2025. In fact, at the risk of being very wrong in public, I'm not prepared to think that the iOS 19 redesign isn't that big of a deal after all. And I mean that in a good way.
When I say the iOS 19 interface update won't be a big deal, I'm not talking about the look of the software. From the images we've seen so far, iOS 19 is going to look radically different from the software currently running on the iPhone. And while that certainly is going to take getting used to, it doesn't seem like those interface changes are fundamentally altering how people use their iPhones.
Oh, there will be some changes in that regard. It sounds like search menus are being located to the bottom of the screen, at least in apps like Messages and Music. But that's not a bad thing if you like using your phone one-handed or are used to the Safari layout with the search bar already at the bottom of the screen.
From what I can tell, it looks like there's a more visually distinct animation when you switch tabs in one of Apple's built-in apps with that tab highlighted more prominently than it is in iOS 18. That sounds like a great change to me, as I appreciate anything that makes it easy to remember where I am in an app at just a glance.
There's one visionOS style element in particular that I'm hoping makes the grade in iOS 19 — less cluttered menus. Since you navigate the Vision Pro with your eyes, you need spaced-out menus so that it's clear what exactly you're looking at when you want to select something. I think the iPhone could benefit from that, too, as it might reduce the number of mistaken taps where you select the wrong item from a drop-down menu.
Again, changes like that aren't radically reshaping how you use your phone currently — they're fine-tuning the process you already have in place. To me, that will make the iOS 18 to iOS 19 transition a lot easier to manage.
I reserve the right to hoot and holler during the WWDC 2025 keynote if I'm wrong and it turns out Apple is trying to reinvent the wheel in terms of the iPhone's interface. But the changes floating around out there right now sound more evolutionary than anything. And that's change we can all get behind.