Apple WWDC ‘25: New OS names and Liquid Glass

If you’ve ever had a hard time recalling what OS version your Apple devices were on, you’re not the only one. That’s why Apple has officially announced at WWDC ‘25 that starting this year, the OS version name will coincide with the release year rather than the version number.

That means that all of Apple's products will now have a unified numbering system and we won't be left trying to recall what the latest MacOS version number was and which number iOS is currently on.

The new numbering system will begin with 26 so iOS26, iPadOS26, watchOS26, tvOS26, visionOS26, and macOS26 will be the first implementations of this numbering scheme.

With those software name changes, the ‘26 software updates will capitalize on a new system design language centered around something called Liquid Glass.

This is a design cue that makes menus, buttons, text bubbles, and essentially all functioning system notifications to have a layer of transparency behind them. Liquid Glass opens up the OS interfaces by removing an air of restriction through the departure of closed pop-up boxes. Being able to somewhat see through those boxes will supposedly make the experience feel more open and seamless during navigation of the phone’s interfaces.