Apple is planning a major overhaul of its operating systems, including a visual and naming scheme. After failing to bring the promised AI features to the public, which were announced at WWDC 2024, the company is planning to focus this year’s WWDC on UI (fail at AI, fallback on UI). All the OSes will reportedly features design language from visionOS.
Translucent Design Language: Inspired from visionOS
The last major redesign of iOS was in 2013 when the industrial designer Jony Ive took reins of software design. Since then, Apple has tried different styles and designs, however has not gone with a full-scale redesign. The upcoming version of iOS will bring a fresh coat of paint with translucent panes and system icons.
New naming scheme
iOS will move away from the standard naming scheme, as Apple looks to streamline the naming scheme across its operating systems. All OSes will reportedly will have the naming / version numbering based on the next year. As a result, iOS 19 will be named iOS 26 – the same will be followed for all other Apple OSes.
No AI / minor Siri enhancements
Apple is not expected to announce any major AI (aka Apple Intelligence) features after it turning out to be a major launch failure. The company teased the AI features at its last year’s developers conference with a ‘coming later this year’ tag. However, the company could not meet its deadlines, having released minor features which do not work well either.
The recent Apple OS updates have also seen users report bugs / performance issues. While it is a common phenomenon across other OSes as well, such as Android, Windows, Mac, it is not something users expect when they buy a premium phone. Apple might also bring many under-the-hood enhancements with iOS 26 resulting in smoother and consistent system performance.
