Apple announces iOS 26 with liquid glass redesign, CarPlay updates, gaming apps and more

Apple has officially announced iOS 26, the successor to iOS 18. Renamed software updates start with a new design.

iOS 26 continues with iOS 18 as Apple shifts its version naming scheme to reflect this year. This will result in iOS, iPados, macos, watchos, visionos, and vos in version 26.

The most obvious update is a design change. During the keynote speech, Apple called a callback to iOS 7 in 2013 and finally released a major redesign for iPhone software. iOS 26 replaces the appearance with what Apple calls Liquid Glass. The new look is similar to the Aqua design language used by Macs in early versions of Mac OS X, rather than the classical design of the original iPhone software via iOS 6.

In terms of features, iOS 26 introduces Carplay updates, new gaming apps, and more Apple Intelligence Tools, Apple Music, Maps, and Wallet updates. Click the press release below to read all the details.

iOS 26 Press Release:

Press Release June 9, 2025

This release offers stunning new designs, powerful Apple intelligence features, new ways to stay connected with phone and messaging apps, and exciting updates for CarPlay, Apple Music, Maps and Wallet

Cupertino, California previewed iOS 26 today. This is a major update that brings beautiful new designs, intelligent experiences and improvements to app users that users rely on every day. The new design provides a more expressive and enjoyable experience throughout the system, while maintaining the instant familiarity of iOS. Apple Intelligence is even more capable as it is integrated throughout the system and has privacy built from scratch. Updates to the phone and messaging app help users to eliminate distractions like unnecessary calls while still staying connected. iOS 26 also introduces new features for Carplay, Apple Music, Maps, Wallet, and Apple Games, a brand new app that gives players a single destination for all games.

” iOS 26 shines with luxurious new designs and meaningful improvements to the features users rely on every day, making the iPhone even more useful,” says Craig Federighi, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Software Engineering. “From the lock screen and home screen to new features that help users focus on their most important connections, the experience is more expressive and personal. With powerful new Apple intelligence features integrated throughout the system, users can succeed more easily than ever.”

Beautiful new look

The new design makes your apps and system experiences more expressive and enjoyable, making iOS instantly familiar. Made from liquid glass. A new semi-transparent material that reflects and refracts the surroundings, focuses on content, and offers a new level of vitality with controls, navigation, app icons, widgets and more. The new design has been expanded to the home screen and lock screen, making it more personal and expressive than ever. Liquid Glass brings new customization options to app icons and widgets, including an incredibly clear look.

On the lock screen, time fluidly adapts to the available space in the image, and spatial scenes realize wallpaper with 3D effects as the user moves the iPhone. Updated design elements also provide a fresh experience in the app. Simplified, streamlined camera layouts help users maintain attention at the moment they are capturing, and the Photos app is updated and individual tabs are posted for the Library and Collection views. In Safari, web pages flow from the top to the bottom of the screen, allowing users to view more pages while still maintaining access to frequently used actions such as updates and searches. In Apple Music, News, and Podcasts, the Tab Bar has been redesigned to float above the user’s content, shrinking dynamically as users browse and place content in front and center, expanding as they scroll.

On the lock screen, time adapts fluidly to the available space within the image to get a more dynamic feeling.

The updated set of APIs allows developers to access liquid glass materials and components, making your app dynamic and fun.

New features with Apple Intelligence

Apple Intelligence enhances the iPhone experience, helping users succeed easier than ever, unlock new ways to communicate and do more of what’s on your screen. Live translation is integrated into messages, FaceTime, and phones to help users communicate across languages and translate text and audio on the fly.¹ Live translation is enabled by Apple-made models that run entirely on the device, so users’ personal conversations remain personal.

Based on Apple Intelligence, Visual Intelligence is extended to the user’s iPhone screen, allowing you to search for what you are viewing across your app and take actions. Users can ask about what CHATGPT is looking at on screen and search for Google, Etsy, or other supported apps to find similar images and products. Visual Intelligence also recognizes that users are considering events and recommends adding them to the calendar, reorganizing important details such as dates, times, and locations.²

Genmoji and Image Playground offer users more ways to express themselves, such as mixing their favorite emojis, Genmoji and descriptions to create new ones.³

Shortcuts are now more powerful and intelligent than ever. Users can take advantage of Intelligent Action, an all-new set of shortcuts enabled by Apple Intelligence, and see actions dedicated to features such as writing tools and image playgrounds.

Apple Intelligence will now be able to automatically identify and summarize order tracking details from emails sent by merchants and delivery personnel, allowing you to view all order details and progress notifications in one place, even for purchases not made with Apple Pay.

Additionally, the new Foundation Models Framework now has access to the new Foundation Models Framework for direct taps to on-device foundation models at the core of Apple Intelligence, allowing developers to directly access powerful intelligence, fast, fast, fast, built in privacy at the core and offline using free AI inference.

Features to maintain connection and eliminate disruptions

The basic phone app for iPhone Experience now offers an integrated layout that combines favorites, concepts and voicemail all in one place. Call screening is built on live voicemail and helps eliminate interruptions by gathering information from callers and providing users with the details they need to decide whether to receive or ignore calls.⁴ Also, in an age where users are pasted on hold, you will notify users when a live agent becomes available to Hold Assist.⁵

Messages now allow users to screen messages from unknown senders, giving them more control over who appear in conversation lists. Messages from unknown senders appear in a dedicated folder where users can mark numbers, ask for more information, or delete them as they are known. These messages are silenced until the user accepts them.

iOS 26 also offers enhanced conversations, including the ability to create custom backgrounds and votes. With Apple Intelligence, messages can be properly made and suggested, allowing users to generate unique backgrounds that suit their conversations with Image Playground. Additionally, group chat allows users to check typing indicators and request, send and receive Apple Cash.⁶

CarPlay extensions

CarPlay – A smarter and safer way to use your iPhone while driving – is used more than 600 million times a day. Currently, iOS 26 receives updates that are even more beautiful and easier to use. The stunning design includes a new compact view of incoming calls, allowing users to see who is making the call without missing any important information like future instructions. iOS 26 also brings tapbacks, pins conversations to Carplay messages, and with widgets and live activities, users can stay in the loop without focusing on the road. These updates will also arrive at Carplay Ultra. This brings the best iPhone and the best cars together for a deep, integrated experience across all screens.

Updates to Apple Music, Maps and Wallets

On Apple Music, lyrics translations help users understand the words of their favorite songs, but the pronunciation of lyrics allows anyone to sing together regardless of language. Automix uses intelligence to move from one song to the next, like a DJ. Seamlessly move from one song to the next, using time stretching and beat matching.

Apple Maps helps you remember where you visit and where you have gone. Users can choose to detect when their iPhone is in a location like a restaurant or shop, and see all the locations they visit on the map. The locations you visit are protected with end-to-end encryption and are not accessible by Apple. Additionally, iPhones can use on-device intelligence to better understand users’ daily routes, present preferred routes when heading to their home or office, notify them of delays, and provide alternative routes.

Updates to Apple Wallet help make everyday interactions with the physical world easier than ever. Users can choose to pay in installments or in compensation when making in-store purchases with Apple Pay using their iPhone. Updated boarding pass in your wallet provides the ability to watch and share live activities for real-time updates on your flight. It also provides convenient access to most relevant information for travelers, including maps to navigate the airport, tracking important items, and reporting missing bags.

Additional features in iOS 26:

• Apple Games A new app that gives players an all-in-one destination in the game. It helps players return to the title they love, find their next favorite, and become even more enjoyable with their friends. They will find out what’s going on in all the games, including major events and updates, so you won’t miss a moment. Game apps are also the best way to experience Apple Arcade and Apple’s game subscription services.

• AirPods With new features in AirPods 4, Active Noise Cancellation (ANC), and AirPods 4’s new features in AirPods Pro 2, it builds on the benefits of audio separation, so studio-quality audio recording allows iPhone, iPad and Mac users to record content with great sound quality and enjoy even more clear calls. Camera Remote allows users to press and hold the AirPods stem to take a photo, or start and stop video recording on an iPhone or iPad.

• Parents can now create or move children’s accounts even easier. Parent control It is designed to keep your children safe. Communication restrictions, communication safety, and the extension of the APP store-wide, will include parental approval of contact requests from children, obscuring sensitive content in fassety time calls and shared album photos, allowing parents to download apps with age ratings that exceed the app content limits set by their children.

• browsing Safari By default, advanced fingerprint protection extended to all browsing makes it even more private.

• Powerful Accessibility Features include accessibility readers that provide a customized, system-wide reading experience, and Braille Access, an all-new interface for iPhone devices with connected nelle displays. Updates to live listening, background sound, personal voice and more bring a new level of accessibility throughout the Apple ecosystem.

Liquid Glass Design Press Release:

Press Release June 9, 2025

Universal design across the platform focuses more on content and new levels of vitality while maintaining the familiarity of Apple’s software

Cupertino, California Today, Apple has previewed new software designs that are familiar to you right away, making apps and system experiences more expressive and fun. It is made from a new material called Liquid Glass. This translucent material reflects and refracts the surroundings, but is dynamically transformed to focus on content, providing a new level of vitality beyond controls, navigation, app icons, widgets and more. For the first time, the new design will be extended across the platform – iOS 26, iPados 26, Macos Tahoe 26, Watchos 26, and TVOS 26¹ – Establish further harmony while maintaining a clear quality that makes each unique.

“We’re excited to introduce you to our customers,” said Alan Dye, vice president of Apple’s Human Interface Design. “This is the widest software design update to date. Meticulously created by rethinking the fundamentals that make up the software, the new design features an entirely new material called liquid glass. It combines the optical quality of the glass with the fluidity that can be converted according to the content or context.

Introducing liquid glass: new expressive materials

Inspired by the depth and dimensions of Visionos, this new design draws on powerful advances in Apple’s hardware, silicon and graphics technology. The new material, liquid glass, is translucent and in the real world, behaves like glass. Its colour is notified by surrounding content and intelligently adapts between bright and dark environments. Born from a close collaboration between design and engineering teams, Liquid Glass uses real-time rendering and dynamically responds to movement with mirror highlights. This creates an even more enjoyable and lively experience with your iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple TV.

This gorgeous new material extends from the smallest elements that users interact with each day, such as buttons, switches, sliders, text, media controls, and more, to larger elements such as tab bars and sidebars for navigating apps. It also shines in system experiences such as the lock screen, home screen, notifications, and control center.

Updated app design

Based on the goal of focusing on content that is immediately familiar to you, Apple’s design team has looked at every aspect of Apple’s platform and identified improvements that can be made across the board.

The controls, toolbars and navigation within the app have been redesigned. Previously configured for rectangular displays, it now fits perfectly concentric with the round corners of modern hardware and app windows, establishing a greater harmony between hardware, software and content. The controls are made of liquid glass and act as a distinct functional layer above the app. It takes it into content and dynamically morphs as users need more options or moves through different parts of the app. And thoughtful grouping makes it easy for users to find the controls they need.

The tab bar and sidebar have been redesigned with the same approach. In iOS 26, the tab bar can shrink as the user scrolls, bringing focus to content, providing immediate access to navigation. The tab bar expands in fluid form when the user backs up. On iPados and Macos, the updated sidebar makes apps like Apple TV even more immersive. They refract the content behind them – ensuring that users always have a sense of their context, reflecting the content and the user’s wallpaper from around them.

These updated design elements apply to fresh new experiences with apps such as Camera, Photography, Safari, FaceTime, Apple Music, Apple News, Apple Podcasts and more.

The fresh new designs provide a fun experience with apps such as camera, photography, safari, FaceTime and more.

Enhanced experience across the platform

The new design will be extended to iOS, iPados, MacOS, Watchos, and TVO for updates to system experiences such as lock screen, home screen, desktop, and dock. To focus on the theme of lock screen photo wallpaper, this time is made of liquid glass and adapts fluidly to fit elegantly behind the subject.

On the home screen and desktop, docks, app icons, and widgets are all created from multiple layers of liquid glass. They look stunning with mirror highlights, allowing for more personalization options while maintaining the familiarity that users rely on. For example, the Macos Tahoe 26 allows users to customize their desktops and docks with widgets and app icons that bring to life with bright and dark appearances, colorful new light and dark shades, and elegant new clear appearances. And it’s even better with a completely transparent menu bar that makes your Mac display feel even bigger.

Building a dynamic app

For developers using Swiftui, Uikit, and Appkit, the updated set of APIs makes it easy to adopt new designs. With Liquid Glass Materials and new updated controls, developers have the opportunity to update their app designs to make all their user interactions even more intuitive and fun.

For all the news announced today, please see the WWDC 2025 News Hub on 9to5Mac.