Apple is preparing to overhaul UI with 'Solarium'

This is the first major UI overhaul in years.

Apple's new plans for their WWDC25 Keynote in a few days is to show off their dramatic overhaul of not only MacOS, but also iPadOS and iOS as well, Mark Gurman reports.

Internally, the new design language is called "Solarium," which means "a room fitted with extensive areas of glass to admit sunlight". This is most likely because of the new, rounder, more transparent design language of the Vision Pro that Jon Prosser confirmed would be coming to the iPhone as well.

The new transparent look will could react to the light around the device and movement to convince the user that light is passing through. It will also help the user see more context clues of what is around the UI, especially in the camera app, where you could see more of what's around you.

Riley Murdock over at TechLinked noted how ironic it is that Apple is making their new operating system like Windows, in a more literal sense. However, I think that the more transparent design language does borrow some aspects from Windows, in the way that some of the menu panes are literally transparent.

Users are also ready for a new design language, mostly due to the fact that the last major redesign was way back in 2013 with iOS 7. The operating system has grown a bit stale, with the year-over-year improvements becoming stagnant. It is still a great looking operating system and the current mix between round and flat is a nice touch to the great operating system. However, I think it is time to move on.

However, what worries me the most is the fact that Apple still has not delivered on their promise of the full Apple Intelligence capabilities. While, yes, the new design will look great and add a touch of life back to the operating system, delivering on those Apple Intelligence features is almost as important, if not more. The fact that Apple is fighting this in court does lighten up the situation a little bit. They may not have thought it was a necessarily great idea to deliver on these promises while a judge decides when they have to.

This still is not a great defense for them, however. They are a multi-trillion dollar company that could easily fight this and release these features now if they wanted. I'm still hopeful that they will release these new features soon so we can finally have a more well-rounded iOS. And, with the release of the new design, I think that Apple Intelligence will fit in more with the rest of the operating system.