Twenty years ago, Apple ushered in the smartphone era with the original iPhone’s iconic skeuomorphic interface—complete with faux leather stitching and realistic folder icons. Fast-forward through the flat-design revolution of iOS 7, the introduction of translucent layers in Control Center, and even the 3D-style depth cues of visionOS, and you arrive at today’s big reveal: Liquid Glass, the next phase of Apple’s software makeover, set to debut at WWDC 2025.

According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Liquid Glass will lean heavily into translucency and fluidity—think shimmering menus that appear to float over content, toolbars that bend light, and widgets that catch the eye like frosted glass panes. It’s a design language inspired by the Vision Pro headset’s interface, reimagined for the smaller screens of iPhones and iPads. You’ll notice softer corners, subtler shadows, and an overall sense that the UI is “built out of light” rather than flat shapes.

Behind the scenes, Apple’s human interface team—led by VP Alan Dye—is said to have spent the last year prototyping these effects on internal devices, ensuring they run smoothly on older hardware as well as the latest A-series chips. Early builds hint at floating context menus, translucent notification banners, and even a retooled Control Center where toggles appear as glass-like lenses you can tilt with a finger swipe.

In a departure from its long-standing numbering scheme, Apple will officially brand its next-generation software as “iOS 26,” aligning with the current year rather than counting up sequentially. The same convention applies to macOS, watchOS, tvOS, and iPadOS—an indication that Apple views its software updates as yearly chapters in an ongoing story, rather than occasional leaps.

If Liquid Glass is the appetizer, the main course is the so-called Glasswing iPhone, slated for a September 2027 debut to mark two decades since the device’s inception. Inside Apple, this codename nods to the butterfly species whose transparent wings seem to vanish against any backdrop—an apt metaphor for a phone designed to blur the line between screen and shell.

Design highlights:

• Curved glass edges: Unlike any iPhone before it, Glasswing will reportedly feature glass that wraps seamlessly around the sides, leaving no visible seam or aluminum rail. The result is an uninterrupted, glass-only exterior.
• Ultra-slim bezels: Apple aims for bezels so fine you might forget they exist. Early schematics show infinity-style edges that extend the display almost all the way to the phone’s very corners.
• No cutout: By 2027, Face ID hardware is said to become invisibly embedded beneath the display, eliminating the notch or Dynamic Island entirely. This “true edge-to-edge” experience has been a holy grail for smartphone design.

Despite its beauty, such a glass-centric build raises questions about durability. Industry observers predict Apple will pair Glasswing with a custom-form case—perhaps a new titanium alloy bumper—to safeguard those delicate edges. It wouldn’t be the first time Apple balanced avant-garde design with protective accessories.

On the surface, Vapor Glass and Liquid Glass may sound like marketing slogans, but they signal a deeper shift at Apple: a tighter fusion of hardware and software design. By previewing the Liquid Glass interface in iOS 26, Apple primes consumers for the all-glass hardware to come, ensuring that the look and feel of the software matches the aesthetics of future devices.

This strategy echoes Apple’s previous playbooks: remember how macOS Catalina introduced Catalyst apps to ease the transition to Apple Silicon? Or how watchOS 7’s redesign laid the groundwork for the Series 6 hardware changes? Liquid Glass is the spiritual successor—a bridge between today’s iPhones and tomorrow’s engineering feats.

What to expect at WWDC 2025

On June 9, 2025, at 10:00 am PT, Apple’s WWDC keynote will showcase Liquid Glass in action. We’ll likely see demos on iPhone, iPad, and maybe screenshots of a revamped Mac interface. Developers will get early betas soon after, along with updated Human Interface Guidelines to help them adopt the new style.

Beyond aesthetics, analysts expect Apple to lean into AI-driven features—contextual automations, smarter Siri interactions, and battery management enhancements—all wrapped in the new glassy shell. And if history repeats, some of these features may be exclusive to the latest devices, nudging users toward an upgrade path that culminates in Glasswing.

In less than three years, the iPhone will celebrate its 20th birthday. From the original’s circular home button to the haptic-free gesture system of today, Apple has continually reinvented its flagship product. Liquid Glass and Glasswing are the next steps in that journey—bold, beautiful, and perhaps a bit breathtaking. Whether you’re a design aficionado or a tech pragmatist, WWDC 2025 promises a glimpse of the future where software isn’t just a frame for content, but a shimmering, light-bending canvas all its own.