Described as “a new translucent material that reflects and refracts its surroundings” by Apple, Liquid Glass is meant to bring “greater focus to content, and [deliver] a new level of vitality across controls, navigation, app icons, widgets, and more.”

At WWDC, Apple announced its new Liquid Glass design language, which is coming to all of its devices, including Macs. I’ve been tinkering with the macOS Tahoe 26 developer beta on the M4 MacBook Air for about a day. So far, the aesthetic changes range from slick to slightly overwrought, but the new Spotlight search features are nifty and useful.

Apple introduced a new, compact design for Safari in iOS 26 that serves as the default layout, but there are two other design options available

What I’m getting at is that the main features of watchOS 26 are the design and name. Apple Watch will get the same Liquid Glass design as the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Vision Pro.

Apple’s forthcoming upgrades will solidify the company’s device leadership, but they arrive just as the tech industry questions whether devices will matter at all. The rise of generative AI has given us a new mode of interacting with technology.