Eshu Marneedi

Mark Gurman, reporting for Bloomberg:

Apple Inc. is preparing one of the most dramatic software overhauls in the company’s history, aiming to transform the interface of the iPhone, iPad, and Mac for a new generation of users.

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. That includes updating the style of icons, menus, apps, windows, and system buttons.

As part of the push, the company is working to simplify the way users navigate and control their devices, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the project hasn’t been announced. The design is loosely based on the Vision Pro’s software, they said.

Gurman is incredible at writing long-winded diatribes (or puff pieces) with just about a paragraph of actually newsworthy information. I don’t read his reporting for details; I read it because I know it’s accurate. There’s nobody in the business like Gurman, whose rumors are accurate to a tee almost every single time. He rarely misses, and when he does, that in and of itself is newsworthy. So, I’m not commenting on Gurman’s article, which is over a thousand words of irrelevant backstory including how this redesign is somehow a push to invigorate sales after the pandemic — which is about the goofiest Apple commentary I’ve heard in a while, knowing the pandemic ended nearly three years ago and Apple has done fine since — but rather the prospect of a full redesign of Apple’s operating systems.

It’s true that iOS hasn’t received a major design overhaul since iOS 7, instead opting for minor revisions that bring it in line with modern aesthetics and trends. By contrast, macOS was only updated five years ago; macOS 11 Big Sur took the Mac from the OS X Yosemite 10.10 era into the modern iOS-like styling macOS carries today. The rounded corners are reminiscent of the post-iPhone X curves found throughout iOS; linear gradients and Gaussian blurs in the form of “frosted glass” follow iOS’ footsteps; and SF Symbols throughout the OS made the operating systems feel like they stem from the same family. Gurman says, by contrast, that window styles and buttons are markedly different across operating systems, when that’s the furthest from the truth.

The Mac has Mac-specific design idioms because it uses different input devices: keyboards, mice, and trackpads. If Apple brought, say, the visionOS aesthetic to the Mac, just toggling a few buttons would require moving the mouse way too much. The three platforms are as close as they feasibly can be while accentuating each device’s strengths — aside from iPadOS, which I agree needs a major rethinking. I’m still not a fan of the macOS Big Sur redesign as much as I’ve gotten used to it because I think it makes apps too spread out. A good example is System Settings, which is perhaps one of the most bizarre pieces of user interface that Apple has created in the last 15 years — it’s genuinely awful. Widgets on the Mac are visually identical to iOS, which makes no sense since the Mac prefers smaller, more detailed, and compact user interfaces due to Macs’ larger screens. SwiftUI, which normalizes UIs across platforms, is sometimes downright bizarre on the Mac. I think more of the same monotony on macOS would only throw Mac users into a fit of rage.

Don’t even get me started on iOS. Truth be told, I think iOS’ design is as perfect as it can be currently. Fundamentally, the OS feels intuitive — I know my way around it and if I know anything about iOS users, I know they like it that way. Here’s a question for the skeptical: What on iOS actively looks dated or out of place? It’s possible that iOS 19 looks and feels beautiful — more beautiful than iOS already is — but does it need to be more aesthetically pleasing? At a certain point, when a company hits over a billion daily active users, there comes a time where it should settle down and find itself a design to stick with.¹ People are inherently resistant to change, and now that iOS is an established platform, there’s no way for Apple to eloquently do an iOS 7-like radical redesign of basic system elements.

iOS 7 went from a skeuomorphic design modeled after physical objects to a flat, much more computer-like interface. visionOS, meanwhile, attempts to blend the real world into a flat design, incorporating translucency and generally omitting color. On iOS, color is a primary layer of texture — accent colors instantly tell a user what a button does. visionOS uses depth, both created using shades of gray and literal, stereoscopic depth, to differentiate elements. This “loose” resemblance Gurman writes about probably relates to the Apple Sports or Invites apps, which both look starkly out of place on iOS. I’ve been hesitant to say either app looks like visionOS because, really, neither does. They look stupid. They incorporate color where it makes no sense and borrow interface elements from visionOS, like the main picker in the Sports app or the translucency in the Invites Settings sheet, in a way that’s rudely uncanny. Neither app looks like one made by Apple.

Bringing this paradigm to the rest of iOS would be an unmitigated disaster, aside from screwing with people’s resistance to change. Let’s talk about that Settings sheet in Invites: Why is it translucent at all? What does translucency accomplish there? On macOS, translucent sidebars add depth and allow a sliver of a person’s background wallpaper to shine through. On visionOS, translucency blends the OS seamlessly with its surroundings, eliminating claustrophobia and allowing light into a person’s field of view. But what does that same translucency accomplish in Invites, where the only thing that shines through is an odd pop of color on the main Scheduled page, which seemingly overrides the OS’ light or dark appearance? I’m serious: the Ukrainian-themed yellow and blue gradient does not change with system appearance, and thus, the app looks the same in both settings. What is the point of this?

The Sports app irritates me beyond reason. It also doesn’t obey light and dark mode, much like its rebellious Invites cousin, and the app is centered around these awful cards that come in from the bottom and expand as a person scrolls down. This idea is mimicked on visionOS, where the goal is to have windows start small and engross a user if they choose, as immersion can be overwhelming on Apple Vision Pro, but iOS is finite. It doesn’t require interfaces to move around constantly. Similarly, swiping left to right is an atypical method of switching between content on iOS. Typically, most iOS apps use a segmented control displayed at the top. If there’s too much information to hide behind one, a nested navigational hierarchy is preferred, either using tabs at the bottom or a navigation view with a sidebar (Music and Mail are canonical examples). Sports has one lateral sliding mechanism, one atypical segmented control, and a toggle to switch teams. What is going on?

Even if Apple wanted to force this on users, it couldn’t force it on app developers, who are patently uninterested in following Apple’s lead on anything. Many of the major iOS developers still don’t support dark mode app icons, and they were introduced a year ago. This isn’t 2013. I’m all for apps incorporating whimsy and dabbles of skeuomorphism in their interfaces — I even encourage it — but that shouldn’t be forced anymore. The iOS design is fine, and if the plan is to roll back some of what Apple did over a decade ago, it won’t work. There are apps in 2025 that still don’t support dark mode. They will never, ever adopt a new set of guidelines for how to make apps. The result will just be a hodgepodge of design ideas that all look bad. Does this sound like a good idea? Any Apple designer who thinks it is should write an email to their manager listing every app on their iPhone that doesn’t support dark mode.

Good luck.