We've been studying glass, digitally: Apple's Federighi

Despite a first glimpse at a new Liquid Glass design language that spans all of Apple's platforms, the tech giant insists there is a lot of finetuning still to be done before it finally releases later this year.

- Vishal Mathur

The expanse of time is something the design team led by Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of software engineering, is used to. "We've been working on this one, for quite a while," he said in a conversation with HT.

It has taken years to put together this major redesign for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS, the latter's small screen being a particular challenge. For iOS in particular, it is a significant update since iOS 7's refreshed interface in 2013. A culmination of many things along the way, Federighi explained.

The true inspiration behind the use of glass and translucency comes from Apple's own visionOS, the operating system underlining the Vision Pro mixed reality headset.