Apple is reportedly planning a major new design for iOS 19, the “biggest revamp since iOS 7.” Specific details on changes are scarce. But looking at recent iPhone apps and designs, it seems that Apple has been hinting at what’s coming in iOS 19 for a while. Here’s what the clues say.
Five new apps and one big redesign provide major iOS 19 clues
Apple hasn’t done a big redesign for iOS since all the way back in 2013, when iOS 7 arrived.
The company has slowly, gradually made refinements and changes over the last twelve years, but iOS today looks and feels very similar to how it’s felt for a while.
However, where we get major hints of what’s coming in iOS 19 is through Apple’s recently debuted apps.
Here are the last five major iPhone apps Apple has built from the ground up:
These five apps include a variety of distinct design elements, as you would expect.
But they also share plenty of similarities too. Similarities that give us clues as to what’s coming in iOS 19.
One major example of a common trait in Apple’s new apps: none of them use the iPhone’s traditional tab bar design.
iPhone tab bars are on their way out
Ever since the first iPhone debuted, tab bars have been a fixture of iOS design.
The original Phone and Clock apps, for example, had tab bars at the bottom of the screen that were virtually identical to what’s still available now almost two decades later.
But Apple has started trending away from iPhone tab bars for app navigation.
This has happened not only with brand new apps, but existing ones too.
Last year’s big Photos app redesign famously (infamously?) replaced the tab bar with a single-page scrolling interface.
Similar single-page designs have been Apple’s go-to for recent apps.
Rather than using a traditional tab bar, apps like Journal, Sports, and Invites have hidden navigation options into menus near the header.
What does that mean for iOS 19? Likely that we’ll see more apps move away from tab bars for navigation.
Here’s a sampling of iPhone apps that still use tab bars today:
- Home
- App Store
- Music
- TV
- Books
- Files
- Health
- News
- Shortcuts
- and more
I’m not expecting tab bars to be replaced in every single app. But if recent trends are any indicator, iOS 19 will likely transition many of the apps above to a new, single-page design.
More commonalities of recent Apple apps
There are other, more subtle design clues Apple has revealed in its latest apps.
Parker Ortolani, former 9to5Mac writer with major UI design chops, shared the following observations on his blog about Apple Invites and Sports:
The last new Apple app, Apple Sports, already felt out of place in iOS 18. It has a more visionOS or watchOS-like design language utilizing colorful backgrounds, glassy floating UI elements, expanding buttons, and lots of layered shapes. Apple Invites takes it all even further. It’s got big beautiful cards, translucent cells, big bold buttons, and an emphasis on content. It feels so clearly like a hint of what is to come in a future iOS update. It’s almost screaming it in our faces.
There’s a lot there that hints at Apple’s plans for iOS 19.
For example, Mark Gurman’s report on iOS 19’s new design said it will be “loosely” based on visionOS.
And Ortolani’s quote highlights some of the ways that may prove true: glassy floating elements, layered shapes, and more.
iOS 19 new design: wrap-up
The iPhone is almost two decades old, and hasn’t received a big visual refresh since it was 6.
Despite the risks Apple’s taking by launching a major redesign, iOS 19 seems as good a time as any to lay the groundwork for the iPhone’s future—especially with the exciting iPhone 17 Air and possible iPhone 17 Ultra coming this fall.
What are you expecting from iOS 19’s new design? Let us know in the comments.
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