Liquid Glass and windowed apps: All the changes coming to your iPhone

Sydney Morning Herald

a day ago

Your iPhone and other Apple devices are set to undergo a major design overhaul this September, with the arrival of the company's new Liquid Glass visual language, along with a host of new features and app updates. The changes, first announced in June, are now available for those enrolled in Apple's public beta program.
Apple cautions that early versions of the software can be unstable; in my early testing, I have noticed some visual glitches and choppy performance. While I haven't had any major issues or lost any data, it's best to be careful and avoid putting it on the primary devices you rely on.
The visual overhaul is significant and touches every part of the device software, as well as all of Apple's own apps. The design is very much inspired by the Vision Pro headset, with its glassy round elements and its augmented reality; in iOS 26, that begins on the iPhone's lock screen.
Previously, your clock has been able to partially disappear behind subjects in your wallpaper, but that's taken to another level here. Using your recent iPhone photos, you can choose to generate a spatial scene and/or let the phone extend the image, which utilises AI to create extra visual information around the edges or behind the subject.
When you move the phone, the angle of the photo shifts, giving the impression of depth, like you're looking at real life through AR goggles.
The clock will also change height to suit the photo, which sounds silly, but it does make your lock screen look like a professionally laid-out magazine spread, and I like the way the clock looks when it's super tall. It shrinks up if your notifications fill the space or you scroll them.
On the home screen, almost every element has been given a glassy update. Icons become 3D stacks of shiny material, widgets look like big round panes with information printed on them, and the lighting changes as you move your phone.
Elements like the highlight magnifier, search bar and Safari menus have been transformed into translucent bubbles that realistically refract what's underneath, complete with warping and rainbow effects at the edges.