Latest news with #LiquidGlass
WIRED
19 minutes ago
- WIRED
‘Beautiful' and ‘Hard to Read': Designers React to Apple's Liquid Glass Update
Software designers, even those impressed by Apple's refreshed look at WWDC 2025, are concerned about the readability of the company's new see-through aesthetic. Apple's overhaul of its user interface changes the look and feel of all of its platforms: Apple TV, Mac, iPad, iPhone, and Watch. Courtesy of Apple Apple's translucent design update for iOS 26, called Liquid Glass, is now available to developers, with a public beta scheduled for next month. The refresh—Apple's first major interface overhaul in 10 years—makes app icons, buttons, menus, and pop-ups look like they are made of frosted glass, with blurred background colors peeking through. The sweeping software changes are not just for iPhones. This glassy look—inspired by the operating system in the Vision Pro headset—will eventually roll out to the entire suite of Apple devices, from smartwatches to iPads. After the WWDC 2025 keynote concluded on Monday, many design-focused developers WIRED spoke with were impressed by the major update, but had lingering questions about how this translucent look could impact readability for users. 'It's hard to read some of it,' says Allan Yu, a product designer currently building the workplace messaging app Output. 'Mainly because I think they made it too transparent.' Yu suggests bumping up the blurring or adjusting the backgrounds to make on-screen designs more readable. 'Similar to the first beta for iOS 7, what we've seen so far is rough on the edges and potentially veers into distracting or challenging to read, especially for users with visual impairments,' says Josh Puckett, cofounder of Iteration, which helps startups with designs. Still, Puckett is optimistic, based on Apple's past accessibility features, that readability will improve over time. Controls and navigation transform as you interact with the user interface. Courtesy of Apple Serhii Popov, a design-first software engineer at MacPaw, the company behind the CleanMyMac app, is curious to see how the new operating system will look on Macs in bright light situations, where glare already impacts visibility. But overall, Popov is enamored with this 'really fresh' look from Apple. 'I think it will make everything look bigger and allow you to read or interact with the UI with more comfort,' says Popov. For him, the new design and updates look especially sleek on iPads. Beyond readability concerns, the first impression from some designers is that this new look could be unnecessarily distracting for users. "From a technical perspective, it's a very impressive effect. I applaud the time and effort it must have taken to mimic refraction and dispersion of light to such a high degree,' says Adam Whitcroft, a designer at which makes apps and websites for restaurants. 'But, sadly I haven't seen a single example of where it's pulled off in a way that's complementary to the broader context it's presented in.' Whitcroft points to the dispersion and refraction of layers beneath the apps as visually distracting, especially as the user interface is changing layouts. 'If you've designed a UI that draws the attention of the eye away from the wider context, you've gone down the wrong path,' he says. The Icon Composer tool for developers lets them create icons with the Liquid Glass aesthetic that remain consistent across various platforms and themes. Courtesy of Apple Puckett's initial reaction to the revamp is more positive than Whitcroft's. He thinks the shift away from flatness is the right design move. 'I'm excited that Apple is re-introducing feelings to their digital surfaces, creating interfaces that shimmer, bend, and breathe.' Puckett hopes this ignites a larger design trend of more expressive, experiential software. Now, the hard part for developers begins: incorporating this new look. As Yu works on building Apple apps, he also appreciates the 'beautiful' new aesthetic, but is anxious about the feasibility of matching this vibe as a small team. In general, Yu remains unsure about how well Apple's new suit is going to fit. 'Apple is doing a great job in trying to pull us forward somewhere. It's very brave to do this. I just don't know if the direction is the right place,' he says. 'If anyone can do it, Apple can do it. I'm just scrambling to make our designs work.' Liquid Glass adds subtle changes to FaceTime. Courtesy of Apple The iOS Photos app with new menus and controls. Courtesy of Apple
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Apple's Liquid Glass Interface Set To Revolutionize iOS 26, Hints At 20th Anniversary iPhone
Benzinga and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is poised to unveil a groundbreaking software design, dubbed 'Liquid Glass,' at its upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, in his latest weekly 'Power On" report revealed that, the innovative interface, which will be incorporated into the forthcoming iOS 26, is a significant departure from the existing 'flat design'. It will feature a glossy, translucent aesthetic, akin to a glass surface, and will be consistent across all of Apple's operating systems, including iPadOS 26, tvOS 26, visionOS 26, watchOS 26, macOS 26, and CarPlay. Don't Miss: Maker of the $60,000 foldable home has 3 factory buildings, 600+ houses built, and big plans to solve housing — you can become an investor for $0.80 per share today. Invest Where It Hurts — And Help Millions Heal: Invest in Cytonics and help disrupt a $390B Big Pharma stronghold. Alan Dye, Apple's vice president of human interface, is slated to discuss the transition at the conference. The 'Liquid Glass' interface is also expected to lay the groundwork for new hardware products, including a 20th-anniversary iPhone, internally known as the 'Glasswing', which is set to launch in 2027. The 'Glasswing' will boast curved glass sides and incredibly slim bezels. The Liquid Glass interface is considered the highlight of this year's developer conference. Besides the interface revamp, Apple is gearing up for its annual back-to-school offer, which is set to kick off on June 17. The tech giant is also planning to broaden iPhone carrier promotions in its retail stores from June 26. The introduction of the 'Liquid Glass' interface marks a significant milestone in Apple's design evolution. This shift not only enhances the visual appeal of Apple's software but also paves the way for future hardware innovations. The anticipation surrounding the 20th-anniversary iPhone, coupled with the new interface, underscores Apple's commitment to maintaining its leading edge in the tech industry. Read Next: In terms of getting money back, these bank accounts put traditional checking and savings accounts to shame. Maximize saving for your retirement and cut down taxes: Schedule your free call with a financial advisor to start your financial journey – no cost, no obligation. Image: Shutterstock/Xeniia X This article Apple's Liquid Glass Interface Set To Revolutionize iOS 26, Hints At 20th Anniversary iPhone originally appeared on
Hindustan Times
an hour ago
- Hindustan Times
WWDC 2025: Apple recalibrates AI approach, all OS get redesigned and app focus
Apple unveils iOS 26 with major AI and design upgrades. Features include Liquid Glass interface, Apple Intelligence, enhanced Messages, Phone, and Maps apps, on-device AI processing, and a new Games app. Developer beta available now, public beta in July, full release expected September 2025.
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Business Standard
an hour ago
- Business Standard
WWDC 2025 roundup: Liquid glass design to iOS26, everything Apple announced
Apple kicked off its Worldwide Developers Conference 2025 (WWDC25) with a keynote event, unveiling a series of platform updates across its ecosystem. The spotlight was on its new design language—Liquid Glass—which brings dynamic translucent UI elements across iOS, macOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and more. Apple also introduced new naming conventions for its software and previewed major upgrades to native apps, AI tools, and cross-platform continuity. Apple WWDC25 Keynote: Highlights Liquid Glass design language Apple introduced its new design language, Liquid Glass, describing it as more expressive, immersive, and cohesive across devices. The interface features translucent layers, dynamic reflections, and fluid animations that react to movement and surroundings. These changes extend from small UI elements like buttons and sliders to full app panels, toolbars, and navigation bars. The new design language is consistent across platforms, bringing a unified aesthetic to iOS 26, macOS 26 (Tahoe), iPadOS 26, watchOS 26, tvOS 26, and even Apple CarPlay. Platform updates Apple has previewed new operating software for its devices based on the new 'Liquid Glass' design language. Apple has also made changes to the naming convention of its OS. For example, the new iOS version is now called iOS 26 instead of iOS 19. Similarly the new OS for Macs is called macOS 26, and not macOS 16. iOS 26 The iPhone's new OS gets a major redesign under the Liquid Glass theme. Menus, panels, and widgets appear semi-transparent with shimmering effects. The Home Screen and Lock Screen are also updated, with widgets offering new customisation options including a 'clear look.' The lock screen now dynamically adapts the clock placement based on the wallpaper, while new spatial effects bring wallpapers to life with subtle depth. iOS 26 also introduces updates across key native apps, including Phone, Camera, Messages and more: Revamped Messages: AI-powered live translation, conversation screening from unknown senders, custom chat backgrounds, and group chat polls. Apple Music: Full-screen animated Lock Screen artwork, plus real-time lyrics translation. Phone and Camera Apps: Redesigned interfaces with simplified layouts and new features like Call Screening and Hold Assist. Safari and Maps: New transparent UI in Safari; Apple Maps adds a 'Visited Places' section and intelligent routing. iPadOS 26 While the new iPadOS version gets UI changes based on Liquid Glass, it brings iPad closer to Macs with new productivity and multitasking features. This includes a new intuitive windowing system with new features that help users control, organize, and switch between apps. Additionally several mac features such as intelligent Shortcut actions, Preview app also comes to iPads. With a new menu bar, users can also access the commands available in an app with a swipe down from the top of the display, or by moving their cursor to the top. With iPadOS 26, iPads can also perform computationally intensive tasks in the background. Other notable features include new audio features that offer more flexible input and streamlined recording, Local Capture from any video conferencing app, Journal app support, and more. macOS 26 (Tahoe) While Apple has changed the nomenclature of naming its operating systems, it continues with the tradition of naming macOS versions after landmarks in the US state of California. macOS 26 is named 'Tahoe' after Lake Tahoe. macOS also adopts the Liquid Glass design with translucent UI elements, personalized Control Center, and updated icons. It gets a Phone app with familiar iPhone features like Recents, Contacts, and Voicemails—plus Call Screening and Hold Assist. Other notable upgrades include an update to Spotlight, which can now be used to take more actions like sending an email, creating a note, or playing a podcast — without jumping between apps. Shortcuts is also getting updated with a new class of intelligent actions that let users create shortcuts for actions like summarising text with Writing Tools and creating images with Image Playground. watchOS 26 Apple Watch also gets an iOS-like aesthetic overhaul with watchOS 26. Apple said that the new design with Liquid Glass makes features like the Smart Stack, Control Center, the Photos watch face, and in-app navigation and controls more expressive. As for the new feature, Apple introduces Workout Buddy, which provides personalized, spoken motivation. The Workout app features a new layout, and offers music to listen to based on a user's tastes and the workout type. The new software version also introduces a new one-handed wrist flick gesture to dismiss notifications. VisionOS Apple also previewed visionOS 26 for Apple Vision Pro headsets. Apple said that everyday interactions become more immersive and personal, with widgets that integrate into a user's space, spatial scenes that use generative AI to add stunning lifelike depth to photos, striking enhancements that make Personas feel more natural and familiar, and shared spatial experiences for Vision Pro users in the same room. visionOS 26 also adds support for 180-degree, 360-degree, and wide field-of-view content from Insta360, GoPro, and Canon Other Apple also previewed redesigned UI and new features to other platforms such as tvOS and Apple CarPlay. New Game app Apple has announced a new Game app focused on video games across its ecosystem including the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV. The app acts as a central hub for gaming on Apple devices. Users can launch games they have already installed, view achievements, track leaderboard standings, and explore editorial content related to games. Users can also set up competitions with friends, bringing multiplay experience to single player games. Apple Intelligence While not the main focus this year, Apple Intelligence still gets important updates. A new Foundation Models Framework allows any third party app to tap-into on-device AI models for intelligence features. For consumers new features include: AI-powered Live Translation feature integrated into Messages, FaceTime, and Phone. In addition to turning a text description into a Genmoji, users can now mix together emoji and combine them with descriptions to create something new. In Image Playground, users can tap into brand-new styles with ChatGPT, like an oil painting style or vector art. Visual Intelligence can now be accessed on supported iPhones when taking a screenshot. Users can ask ChatGPT questions about the screenshot content, or can perform a visual search with Google, Etsy or other supported apps. Visual intelligence also recognizes when a user is looking at an event and suggests adding it to their calendar. AI-powered Workout Buddy on Apple Watch that generates personalised spoken motivation
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Apple's software makeover was years in the making
Apple (AAPL) unveiled the biggest software changes to its line of products in years on Monday, making sweeping updates to each of its operating systems for devices ranging from its iPhone to the Apple Watch, as part of its WWDC developer event on June 9, 2025, at the company's headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. The redesign, which focuses on a new aesthetic Apple calls Liquid Glass, is meant to make the company's hardware feel new and exciting while providing a more streamlined interface. It's an enormous change for the company's massive user base, and one that Apple believes brings its software more in line with its hardware. 'I think as the devices have evolved themselves—larger screens, rounder bezels, higher resolution, HDR [high dynamic range]—there are these individual moments where we say, 'Oh, we could change this in this way to take advantage of this. We could change this.' But you realize, if you did it piecemeal, you're missing the opportunity to do something holistic and coherent,' Apple SVP of software engineering Craig Federighi said during a design roundtable. 'And when the opportunity to take Liquid Glass … then all of its applications across the system, it suddenly allowed us to go back and answer many of those desires that had been built up as the software that we've been building, and the devices we've been building them on, had evolved over many years,' he added. Apple last overhauled its iOS software in 2013 with iOS 7. And while the company has been making steady updates and improvements throughout the years, including adding features like its Dynamic Island and changing its Control Center layout, among other things, its latest enhancements go beyond that. Liquid Glass, as its name sounds, makes various elements of Apple's software look as though they're made out of glass. App icons, menus, the clock on your phone's lock screen all have a translucent glass-like look. Scroll through a web page in Safari and the address bar will refract and warp the content below it, as if it's passing beneath a sheet of acrylic. The new design also cleans up some of the feature bloat that's crept into Apple's app interfaces over the years. The Camera app now prominently features just the Photo and Video options rather than the variety of camera functions in the current app. You can still access those additional options with a quick tap, but whittling them down to Photo and Video should make quickly snapping a picture or shooting a video far easier. Of course, making such wide-ranging changes to Apple's software platforms is a risky move considering how many people use the company's products each day. That's something Alan Dye, Apple's VP of human interface design, says the company was acutely aware of from the start. 'I think one of our goals here was that we consider it such a privilege to design for 2.4 billion users of our products. And so we understand that the cost of change is quite high. So one of the goals we had with the redesign from the onset was we wanted to kind of keep a lot of patterns that we've created over the years familiar,' Dye said. 'We wanted people to be able to pick this up and have it feel very familiar to them, and in terms of how they're currently using the product, and at the same time, and this is the hardest part, we really wanted also to feel very new and feel fresh,' he added. Apple isn't just updating the look of its operating systems. The company is also changing the naming scheme of its software. Instead of version numbers, the company will now use the year the platform will be most in use. So instead of Apple updating iOS 18 to iOS 19, it will now refer to it as iOS 26. Yes, the software comes out in the fall, but it will be available throughout the majority of 2026. For Apple, the operating system updates represent an opportunity to give its products a far more modern look and feel, and lay the groundwork for its next-generation devices. According to Bloomberg, the company's iPhone 17, due later this year, will feature a completely new design including a much thinner body. And that, coupled with iOS 26, could help serve as the kind of catalysts Apple needs for a sales bump in 2026. Email Daniel Howley at dhowley@ Follow him on X/Twitter at @DanielHowley. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
