If you’re an iPhone user and have been for several years, you might feel that even when you upgrade to a new handset that it feels like you have a very similar phone to before. That’s largely down to iOS, the software that Apple runs on all its iPhone models.
This familiarity could be set to change, according to a report from Bloomberg, which claims Apple is “preparing one of the most dramatic software overhauls in the company’s history” by updating the look and feel of the iPhone, iPad and Mac by redesigning iOS, iPadOS and macOS respectively.
A major advantage to buying an iPhone is Apple’s excellent software support. Although the firm doesn’t confirm how long it will keep certain models updated, right now the iPhone XR from 2018 can run iOS 18, the latest version that also runs on 2024’s iPhone 16. It’s great for consumers, but means iPhones often all feel very alike, even if the hardware is different.
That has been the case, arguably, for more than a decade. Apple last fully overhauled the design of iOS in 2013 when it introduced iOS 7, a design that while tweaked since has carried through to iOS 18 today.
Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman said the new designs will be unveiled at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), likely to take place in June.
“The revamp — due later this year — will fundamentally change the look of the operating systems and make Apple’s various software platforms more consistent, according to people familiar with the effort,” Gurman said. “That includes updating the style of icons, menus, apps, windows and system buttons.”
Apple supposedly is “loosely” basing its design overhaul for its three major product lines on the software it developed for the Vision Pro, the £3,499 augmented reality (AR) headset released last year.
The report said Apple wanted to “simplify the way users navigate and control their devices”, though it’s not clear exactly what this means. But it does seem as though, if accurate, this could be the biggest update to the look of the iPhone’s software in several years, as well as the iPad and Mac.
As Gurman points out, Apple’s operating systems look different depending on the device. App and their icons as well as buttons and window styles can look quite dissimilar as the user moves from iPhone to iPad to Mac, and Apple reportedly wants to unify the aesthetic – though notably does not want its devices to run the same operating system, and is said to want to keep the tech separate.
VisionOS on the Vision Pro breaks from some Apple norms in design, for example by using circular app icons and more rounded keys on the virtual keyboard. But the Vision Pro’s headset, virtual world experience is in 3D and very different to how people operate screens on phones, tablets and computers, so this doesn’t necessarily mean your iPhone’s app icons will suddenly be circles.
More likely is that the recent update to apps such as Photos and the introduction of app design seen in Apple Invites or Apple Sports are clues to the aesthetic direction Apple may be going in, with less white space in apps, more opaque windowing and button redesigns.
Big changes to the look of software and apps can often cause public outcry, even if temporary. Whenever Meta changes the look of Facebook, WhatsApp or Instagram there is a lot of online moaning, indicating many users do not in fact like the changes. But after a time people get used to the new look, and the outrage dies down.
iOS 7 in 2013 ditched iOS’s earlier skeuomorphic design language, which imitated real life objects in the look and how users interact with them. The newer design was flatter and more computerlike, and though it has evolved since then, Apple has been cautious in overhauling it.
When Jony Ive and his team designed iOS 7, Ive described it as, “profound and enduring beauty in simplicity”. The design has certainly endured, but if Apple is reportedly hoping to simplify with this reported update, the firm may feel that the iPhone’s software has become too convoluted over the past 12 years as the device has matured.
