It’s hard to believe the iPhone was released in 2007, or about 18 years ago. When CEO Steve Jobs famously unveiled Apple’s astonishing new design we were all wondering if we could live without a keyboard on our phones. I think that question may have been quite emphatically answered.
The most striking feature of the iPhone (and Android-based ones to follow as well) at the time was its touch-based UI. Interaction with the device was entirely driven by touch. Tapping, swiping and long pressing were all new to the world. It was a bold design choice, and one that set the standard to this day.
Over time, I admit, I’ve become less interested over new iOS releases. Of course I welcome improvements and bug fixes, but in terms of everything else: my iPhone just works and I can use it to get things done without thinking about it.
Again, with the much hyped iOS 26, the one that aligned the release cycle with the calendar year (like a car manufacturer), I was mildly in tune with what was happening. Yesterday, I noticed the notification and went ahead and installed it, expecting more of the same.
Liquid Glass is Subtle and Refined (by Default at least)
To my surprise the first thing I noticed was something Apple called Liquid Glass. Yes, I know. The rest of the world and tech sites all know about this new design aesthetic, but to me it was a pleasant discovery.
Look carefully at iOS 26’s new design ethos and you soon realize that the flat design that has dominated, perhaps, the last 10 or so years in the world of UI design (think Google Material Design) is singing its swan song. Most icons, for instance, now have delicately crafted lines to give them subtle lift from the background. The revamped look of group folders is more dramatic as seen below:
If you didn’t really care for these sorts of things, you might not even notice much of a change with the new release. Your phone will continue to function pretty much the same as before I discovered.
Poke around a little, though, like checking Settings and inspecting icon refreshes and Control Center and you realize just how much effort and coordination this took teams at Apple to get right. Fonts too look ever so subtly beautified — an impressive feat given Apple’s already golden reputation for typography.
The Circle of Tech
Funny how things go. Vinyl is back (and has been for a while). Retro gaming is here and thriving thanks to that dopamine rush of nostalgia. And silver vs. black HiFi components and skinny jeans? I have no idea. You can probably do what you want and life will go on.
No doubt, OS UI design will reinvent itself in the coming years several times over. My guess: by 2040 flat UIs will make a complete comeback, and be the cool thing once again. Let’s hope that generation doesn’t need to deal with skeuomorphism and that garish fake green felt look.
iOS 26 Design: A Winner
That the iOS 26 UI changes are so subtle (so long as you stick with the Default Liquid Glass option) is testament to where we are in the lifecycle of phone maturity. Designers have so nearly perfected every aspect of our interactions that we are in a new era of incrementalism. That doesn’t mean improvements can’t be made. They are and they will continue to be made. But the net effect will be refinement. And based on my experience with the new OS that’s absolutely fine by me.
Apple is leveraging Liquid Glass as its grand unification play across all its operating systems. By creating a new, global design language the user experience becomes (hopefully at least) more unified across devices. So, working on your iPhone and MacBook and iPad starts to feel essentially the same. So much so that you forget about what’s underneath making any of this happen and just work and get things done without a care about the tech stuff. Sprinkle on top the idea that Apple is slowly integrating its multiple OS’s and the you can see the long vision where all of this becomes one giant Apple OS — maybe one day replacing MacOS, WatchOS, iOS, tvOS, etc.
Either way, for now Apple knocked it out of the park with iOS 26. This is an elegant update that breathes fresh air into an otherwise sort of boring (but functional!) device without totally taking a sledgehammer to what already works so well.
Now that’s all left to do: go to Reddit and read about the complaints about Liquid Glass.