Based on the reports of several knowledgeable sources, Apple appears to be prepping for major design overhauls to each of its primary operating systems.
The changes are said to be coming in iOS 19, iPadOS 19, and macOS 16, which are expected to be released later this year. The changes are said to include a complete overhaul of the look of each OS and will bring more uniformity between the designs of each OS.
The report that seems to confirm these coming changes is from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. However, YouTuber Jon Prosser—as pointed out by John Gruber of Daring Fireball—is likely the first to talk about the upcoming redesigns.
In his January video on the redesigns, Prosser shows a rendering of the redesigned Camera app coming in iOS 19. Based on this, Prosser posits that Apple is going to extend the design of visionOS—the operating system that powers its Vision Pro headset—across iOS, iPadOS, and macOS.
The most commonly seen hallmarks of Apple’s design language in visionOS are circular icons, transparent glass-like UI elements, an increased use of shadows and an overall increased sense of depth to the UI. That’s because the aim of the headset is to blend virtual elements with your surrounding environment.
The changes would be the first major changes to the design and look of iOS since the introduction of iOS 7 in 2013, which eschewed the then-popular skeuomorphic design language for one that was more flat and more minimalist. At the time, the changes were lauded, but over the intervening years, many have wished Apple would again embrace more skeuomorphic design elements as a complete embrace of minimalism seems to have removed a lot of the color and fun from Apple’s design language. A pivot to the more 3D design language of visionOS might do the trick.
And because these changes are said to be rolling out across each major OS, each OS is expected to look a lot more like the other than is currently the case, in order to make it easier for users to transition between devices in their workflow. Gurman’s report says that the redesigns include overhauls to “icons, applications, and window styles” within each OS.
Be sure to check out Prosser’s video for a better understanding of what to expect. What do you think of these rumored changes? What would you like to see Apple do instead? Let us know in the comments.
I’m old fashioned, well, just old. i hate the cartoonization of Macs. and the way they keep hiding things we use a lot. I’d like to see a return of OS9!
The last truly user friendly OS, period.
Instead of a new OS with more eye candy and less functionality every !#$!%&!#$!!! year, with bugs and inconsistent behavior, spend that year debugging and fixing the kludge as first issued, then and only then work on a new OS. Mail is worse with every new OS, Calendar is unusable across devices unless Apple keeps and controls all your data (iCloud should be called iClout).
I just learned that the maker of the software I use most is going to support Linux. When that happens I’ll leave the Mac OS so fast there may be a minor implosion, or at least a sonic boom. This from someone who has been a loyal and faithful Mac user since 1982. EJECT! EJECT! EJECT!
Round icons? Tacky, makes it look like a cheap Android phone.
What would I like to see Apple do instead?
Fix Mail. It’s still a quirky kludge.
Fix Music. Since they ripped it out of iTunes, it’s quirky and inconsistent in it’s behavior. They also truncated the feature set, and left most of the bugs in.
Less eye candy. It’s supposed to be an OPERATING system, not an entertainment system.