Changes are necessary and Apple knows that well. It appears that the iPhone maker will have plenty to talk about at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference, which is likely to take place in June. Be it iOS 19, iPadOS 19 (both codenamed “Luck”) or macOS 16 (codenamed “Cheer”), important design updates are expected.

The company uses WWDC as a platform to announce updates. Ultimately, it is about getting developers excited about what they can build for the Apple ecosystem. There are more than two billion Apple products out there and there has to be a reason to upgrade.

The last year has been about introducing Apple Intelligence but many people in the tech circle have demanded more than what it is serving now. Users are getting Genmoji, Image Playground, proofreading of documents and more such features. But what many want is an update to Siri. If that is not going to happen in the near term, that is, in a few months, there have to be other reasons to update to Apple Intelligence. So an upgrade to the operating system may help.

A few days ago, Apple said some of the Siri features that were showcased at WWDC 2024 will be delayed. In a statement to Daring Fireball the company said: “We’ve also been working on a more personalised Siri, giving it more awareness of your personal context, as well as the ability to take action for you within and across your apps. It’s going to take us longer than we thought to deliver on these features and we anticipate rolling them out in the coming year.”

A new feel to the OS?

According to a report from Bloomberg, the update that could be announced at WWDC will fundamentally change the look of the operating system, introducing a more consistent cross-platform feel. The report states that it won’t just be a visual redesign, but also in the ways users will interact with Apple devices.

Apple plans to update the styles of the icons, menus, apps and system updates. The company will also simplify how users navigate and control their devices. The changes will go beyond a new design language.

In the history of the iPhone, Apple has given a major revamp to the look of iOS once — in 2013 when iOS 7 arrived. Apple removed all the shadows in favour of a flat design aesthetics. It focused on simplicity and bright colours. Over the years, iOS was refined. Without a doubt, minimalism defined iOS over all these years.

So the rumoured updates could be the biggest since iOS 7. According to rumours, there will be design elements from VisionOS — Apple’s operating system for its mixed-reality spatial computing headset — but the updates will be loosely based on that system.

Do Apple’s apps offer clues?

VisionOS features round app icons, a lot of translucency and a simple navigation system. Let’s look at a few of Apple’s recent apps to get an idea of what is in store.

Take the case of Apple’s Invites app or Sports app from last year. Invites use a lot of rounded, slightly transparent boxes to deliver important information. There is a card-style UI for Invites. It definitely borrows from the VisionOS design. The same thing goes for the Sports app. There is a transparent scrolling box and it kind of goes between a vertical scroll and a horizontal swipe. Many of these navigational elements are also present in the Invites app. It’s a clean look.

Apple perhaps won’t change the entire look of the OS because that will be too much for most users to take in. We may see some of the navigational elements and a few other tweaks while keeping some of the core designs that are already there.

Software design is overseen by Alan Dye, a longtime Apple executive who previously held stints at fashion brands. He was brought in by former design chief of Apple, Jony Ive.

With Ive’s leaving in 2019, Dye gained prominence at Apple. According to Bloomberg, he now oversees more than 300 people — a group that determines how software looks and operates and even the sound it makes. Dye reports to chief operating officer Jeff Williams and works alongside Molly Anderson, the executive in charge of industrial and hardware design.

Many of us would like to have more Apple Intelligence features to come to our devices. Hopefully, that would happen sooner rather than later. But a design change is in order because a big update has been missing on this front for a long time.