Apple’s ‘Solarium’ UI for iOS 19 is about to bring the biggest design change to iPhones in over a decade
We’re entering the final weeks before WWDC 2025, and if reports are to be believed, it will be a monumental Apple conference.
Earlier this year, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported that the Apple’s major operating systems, iOS and macOS, would be receiving a dramatic overhaul. Now, he has a new article saying that the interface refresh is coming to all of Apple’s operating systems which includes iPadOS, tvOS and watchOS. visionOS, the software that runs the Vision Pro headset, will likely receive a smaller update.
The iOS 19 interface update, allegedly codenamed Solarium, is supposed to be based on translucent visual elements in visionOS. Reportedly, Apple wants to remake all of its operating systems as part of a theme for 2025 of “consistency and unification.”
If the iOS 19 overhaul comes to pass, it would be the biggest design update to the iPhone software since iOS 7 in 2013.
What this means for your i-devices in a broad sense is a more translucent background and potentially circular app icons.
Beyond that Vision Pro-inspired look, it also means more unified layouts and standardized menus. For instance, tapping the settings icon should bring up the the same menu on every device you use.
Around the same time that Gurman was initially reporting the iOS overhaul, YouTuber Jon Prosser revealed a potential look at the new look iOS 19 including a floating translucent navigation menu. Though Gurman subtweeted that leak writing on social media, “iOS 19 images floating around aren’t representative of what we’ll see at WWDC.”
As Gurman notes, with rivals focusing on AI, Apple is “focusing on making the traditional OS approach more elegant.”
What about Apple Intelligence?
Apple has seemingly fallen on its face when it comes to artificial intelligence. However consumers feel about the recent heavy push into AI by seemingly every tech company from Google and Microsoft to OpenAI and Grok, the concept is here and not going away time soon.
As of this writing, Apple’s AI rollout continues, though AI updates for Apple’s voice assistant Siri have not been part of iOS 18 — nor are they likely to be before iOS 19 arrives later this year. Apple has officially said that Siri 2.0 has been delayed, possibly into 2026.
Gurman posits that the recent OpenAI acquisition of Jony Ive’s company will put pressure on Apple to innovate as well as catch up to the AI improvements from other device makers.
Though its possible in the next couple of years Apple could start to return to innovation/catch up prominence with rumored releases of Apple smart glasses, a foldable iPhone and potentially a Siri-powered smart home device, though that all depends on Siri working properly.
Gurman says that Apple won’t focus on Apple Intelligence during WWDC 2025.
Still, we expect a few AI features to be highlight in couple weeks including context awareness and tools meant for developers to let them incorporate AI tools in their apps.
With Apple allegedly opening up Apple Intelligence to third-party AI models and developers, it could help speed up development and make Apple an AI platform offering more than other companies.
We’ll learn more about Solarium and the new design of Apple’s operating systems during the World Wide Developer Conference which takes place from June 9 – 13 this year. The event kicks off that Monday with a keynote where we’re expecting to see the iOS 19 preview.
