Apple Unveils 'Liquid Glass' iOS 26 Interface At WWDC 2025—Redesigned iPhone Experience Ahead

Apple's iOS has been redesigned in the biggest software overhaul in the company's history, and with it, the iPhone’s look and feel is about to transform unlike ever before.

Apple kicked off its 2025 Worldwide Developers Conference today with Tim Cook’s introduction and keynote address broadcast live from Apple Park in Cupertino, California. The show-stopper of this year’s keynote: iOS 26, boasting "Liquid Glass" software interface and translucent, visionOS-inspired redesign of the iPhone’s operating system, making the interface more fluid and personal, at the same time keeping a unified design language.

Below are the key iOS 26 design and feature updates announced at WWDC:

iOS 26 Revealed: Apple announced its rebranded OS—iOS 26—with iOS now being identified by year and not by version number. The new branding aims to offer consistency across all Apple OS, which will also be renamed by year.

New Liquid Glass Interface: The new iOS interface is made with Liquid Glass, a new translucent material that reflects and refracts its environment, enhancing content focus and adding a new dimension to Lock Screen, Home Screen, Control Center, navigation, app icons, widgets, and other elements.

Widgets: The new UI has been reflected in the iPhone widgets makeover with liquid glass, which is customisable views on the home screen for news, weather, appointments, and stock tickers.

Lockscreen: Updated with liquid glass design, Lockscreen is more responsive, fluidly adaptable, along with boasting a spatial screen option and 3D effects for using photos in the phone.

Camera App: The app’s navigation bar has been made minimalistic, with Photo and Video showing options in a menu for users to scroll horizontally. The restoration of some tab controls also gives Photos a new look. Additionally, the redesign of Liquid Glass has enabled a 3D effect.

Phone App: The Phone app will now integrate recent calls, favourites, and voicemails in one place that can be easily scrolled by a user. Apple is also introducing a Call Screening function that answers the phone in the background and displays the caller’s identification. By identifying hold music, Hold Assist assists you while you are on hold.

App Icons: Multiple layers of liquid glass integrated into app icons.

Safari: Safari’s appearance is being transformed with a glass-like, transparent address bar, which dynamically shrinks when scrolling. Web pages span from the top to bottom of the screen, enabling users to see more and access actions as well.

Messages: Users can now create polls in group chats and put up a background image using Image Playground. Messages get on-device spam detection, along with more privacy options for messages sent by unknown senders. The send cash feature, which allows you to give and receive money, is also supported in group chats. 

CarPlay: With iOS 26, CarPlay gets upgrades of the new design, including new compact view for incoming calls, Tapbacks and pinned conversations to Messages, and widgets and Live Activities for user information.

Gaming App: A dedicated gaming app for iPhones and other devices will promote Apple Arcade and third-party App Store titles.

Maps: Maps has features like Preferred Routes, which identify your preferred route, and Visited Places, which saves the locations you have been to for convenient access at a later time. 

Apple Intelligence: Apple Intelligence is now more integrated with iOS 26, powering everything from Live Translation in Messages, FaceTime, and Phone to Messages and voice mail summaries. Visual Intelligence is more expansive in iOS 26, allowing users to search screenshots.