OS 26

Apple unveiled their next iterations of operating systems for all their devices

Not the Overhaul I was Expecting

From the rumours and curiosity surrounding this announcement, I thought we would be seeing a huge shift like with iOS 7 that ushered out Apple's skeuomorphic era. I wasn't expecting a revolutionary shift, but my initial impressions of OS 26 was that of subtlety and nuance added to the existing design language—a refinement more than a makeover. Although I wasn't terribly impressed, I can't say I was disappointed.

Let's boil down the Liquid Glass update to it's core elements: Integration, immersion, & refresh. Instead of rewriting the playbook, Apple took the route of seeing what they could do to improve upon their existing UI and take the opportunity to unify the design language across all their products for a more cohesive ecosystem.

While nerds like me would have liked to see a bit more of a shakeup here and there, I fully understand Apple's decision to implement OS-wide tweaks that add a bit of shine. If you think about it, there is so much about the operating system that is already paired down to its essential elements—how do you take something that is basically perfected (exaggeration) and make it better? More importantly, changing things too much will get a lot of people up in arms and alienate others.

Some Quick Thoughts

I'm gonna dive in with some thoughts tied to these screenshots from the reveal. I could speculate further, but I'll wait until I'm using OS 26 to be able to give more hands-on thoughts.

Liquid Glass at Its Core

This shot from the reveal captures the core concept for me. The warping of the edges in a teardrop fashion is a way to enhance the UI without largely changing up the UI layout itself—it's more about how it engages with the content on the screen. A lot of what we saw is how OS 26 is about blending in with whatever app you're in or whatever content you're looking at. Immersion is the name of the game.

Not Straying From the Path

I was thinking maybe some apps would be refreshed, but Apple played it safe and added in their liquid glass design language to their existing designs as a nice coat of polish. Unlike where skeuomorphism had served its purpose by helping people understand the new age of touchscreens and technology and was retired with the top-down redesign in iOS 7.

Well over a decade later, Apple is in a very different position. They aren't reinventing themselves to break away from a UI and UX that wasn't a fully realized version of them—they have now been exactly that for years and years. People are familiar with what makes them Apple. To purposely tear that down would be a detriment to their image and also cause accessibility issues.

Same design but elevated was the right move. Keep what people know and love, and elevate it.

Clear Icons

This wasn't made super clear (to my understanding), but after a bit of follow-up research, I found that you are able to switch between app styles. Maybe you want all your classic app designs and colours, but if you wanted to shake things up, can also switch your apps to a "clear" or "tinted" setting that unifies all the apps, capitalizing on the liquid glass design language.

I think this looks very cool, but we shall see how it works out in practice. Colour and contrast are also key factors in an accessible user experience, so I am curious to see how easy it will be to navigate apps in this mode. This is the biggest shakeup in OS 26 and I am happy to see it is optional.

OS 26 Beta & Full Release

I won't be taking the beta for a spin as I am perfectly fine with waiting until full release. But that doesn't mean I am not curious—I have a MacBook Pro and an iPad Pro, and I am strongly considering switch to iPhone when the 17 Pro gets released in September. At the rate time is moving, OS 26 full release is not far away!