Liquid Glass Redesign Brings Stunning Visual Upgrades and Smarter Features to iOS 26

What you need to Know

• Apple announces Liquid Glass design as part of iOS 26.

• Lock Screen gets adaptive San Francisco font and AI-powered 3D wallpapers.

• Home Screen features redesigned native app icons for dark and clear modes.

• FaceTime introduces personalized contact posters and video messages.

• Apple CarPlay adds widgets, pinned chats, and tapback support.

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At WWDC 2025, Apple unveiled the next major design shift for iPhones the Liquid Glass redesign with the iOS 26 update. This new design direction combines fluid motion, AI improvements, and personalization to take the overall user experience to the next level. As part of the redesign, Apple is rewriting several core features and applications to make both the Lock Screen and Home Screen more dynamic, smarter, and stunningly modern.

iOS 26's Lock Screen gets a chic revamp with a new custom font named San Francisco for showing the date and time. What's interesting is how this font adjusts to your wallpaper. For example, if your background is an image of your dog under a blue sky, the time text will stretch across the open sky space in an intelligent way without hitting important parts of the image, such as your pet. This introduces a more integrated and fluid design look, keeping with the "Liquid Glass" theme.

Apple has also introduced an AI-driven 3D effect to Lock Screen wallpapers. This effect makes photos look as if they're jumping out in 3D when you move your iPhone around, with the subject in the background appearing to pop out. This feature is all about "bringing favorite memories to life," Apple's SVP of Software Engineering Craig Federighi says.

On the Home Screen, personalization does not stop there, with newly designed native app icons that now appear improved in dark mode or the new all-clear theme. This maintains continuity throughout the interface, with improved visual harmony. Apple is also providing users with greater control to adjust the look of their apps a welcome feature for users who enjoy customizing the look of their device.

Musicians will appreciate another large visual difference when they listen to tracks with the screen locked. Apple is launching animated music visuals, just like Spotify's Canvas feature. These looping video clips, submitted by artists, will play behind the Lock Screen while music is being played, giving yet another visual aspect to audio playback.

Apple's default apps are also getting improved. The Camera app is now simpler, providing faster access to important settings like brightness, aperture, and mode switches. The Photos app will also bring back the much-requested tabs feature, enabling users to quickly switch between their entire library and curated collections.

In iOS 26, Safari is given a facelift wherein pages now occupy the screen edge-to-edge, providing a cleaner and more immersive browsing experience. It maximizes the iPhone's screen space and fits in with the Liquid Glass design philosophy of today's times.

FaceTime will also now display a personalized home page with contact posters from the folks you talk to most. These posters can even be autoplaying video messages, bringing warmth and personality to the FaceTime experience as you scroll through contacts.

The Phone app is also taking this same approach by bringing favorites and contacts into a single view. This new design places the individuals you communicate with most front and center, making it more user-friendly and easier to communicate frequently.

Even Apple CarPlay is not left out. It will now enable users to show widgets, tapback on messages, and pin essential conversations. These widgets may comprise useful information such as flight status, thus enabling users to be updated on the move particularly useful for activities like airport pickups.

With iOS 26 and Liquid Glass redesign, Apple is not just making the iPhone look more stunning but also more responsive and emotionally rich. From smart font expansion to animated music playback, and from richer app icons to deeply personal communication tools, this update represents one of Apple's most daring UI overhauls in years.