Apple's innovative "Liquid Glass" design for iOS 26 was introduced at WWDC 2025, featuring a striking, see-through appearance that adjusts to its environment. Though Apple celebrates it as their most extensive visual redesign to date,

Liquid Glass design, Apple Intelligence APIs, and visionOS 26 tools highlight Apple’s 2025 State of the Union for developers.

Who did the glass-like design first? Was it Apple with its Aqua transparency effects in 2000, or Microsoft with its Aero Glass theme in Windows Vista in 2007? Either way, Microsoft seems to think Apple’s Liquid Glass design bears some resemblance to its glass look in Windows Media Center,

Apple introduced a new, compact design for Safari in iOS 26 that serves as the default layout, but there are two other design options available

What I’m getting at is that the main features of watchOS 26 are the design and name. Apple Watch will get the same Liquid Glass design as the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Vision Pro.

At WWDC, Apple announced its new Liquid Glass design language, which is coming to all of its devices, including Macs. I’ve been tinkering with the macOS Tahoe 26 developer beta on the M4 MacBook Air for about a day. So far, the aesthetic changes range from slick to slightly overwrought, but the new Spotlight search features are nifty and useful.

Apple’s forthcoming upgrades will solidify the company’s device leadership, but they arrive just as the tech industry questions whether devices will matter at all. The rise of generative AI has given us a new mode of interacting with technology.

With iOS 26, Apple has introduced some major changes to the iPhone experience, headlined by the new Liquid Glass redesign that's available