Apple might just have given away its plans for the future, as one tech expert reveals a theory surrounding the new iOS visual changes that indicate the iPhone creator is 'training' its users for something major soon.
Much has been said about the new 'Liquid Glass' visual design that's coming with iOS 26 later this year - and not all of it is to do with an unfortunate YouTube thumbnail mistake that Apple was quick to fix.
Described by some as the biggest visual overhaul for iPhones in over a decade, this new design introduces transparent elements to almost everything you see on screen, making elements appear as if you can see through them.
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"This translucent material reflects and refracts its surroundings, while dynamically transforming to help bring greater focus to content," Apple explains, "delivering a new level of vitality across controls, navigation, app icons, widgets, and more."
It's particularly reminiscent of the Apple Vision Pro virtual reality headset, and that might hold the secret for Apple's future plans - at least according to one tech expert on Instagram.
Arguing for a major 'hint' that everyone has missed regarding the announcement of Liquid Glass, Sinéad Bovell (@sineadbovell) explains:
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"I think their big announcement about Liquid Glass design has nothing really to do with design at all. I think Apple is training us for a future with smart glasses."
She relates the see through and moving elements of Liquid Glass with the experience of viewing content through smart glasses, suggesting that in preparing its users for what this will roughly feel like, Apple is foregoing the otherwise difficult adjustment period.
"So say you're looking at your maps and a text message comes through, that text message will be much more see through. But theoretically that's a worse experience right? Why would I want my text messages to be harder to read?
"Because that's exactly what the experience will be like with smart glasses. When we have smart glasses, the digital world gets overlayed on the physical world. You can't just be blacked out and not see what's ahead of you. Your text messages will appear on top of the world in front of you."
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Bovell outlines that Apple already has a history of including features that "don't make sense in the moment," but later on in a future product you realize what it's purpose really was back when it was first introduced.
"My guess is that Apple is betting on what's next and training us for it."
This would certainly be a good idea considering the relative failure of the aforementioned Apple Vision Pro - although may would argue that a big part of that was the incredibly steep cost of entry, but failure to adopt to the tech was also a concern.
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Mark Zuckerberg at Meta has been pumping (and losing) billions of dollars each year into virtual and augmented reality tech in order to be the first and leading company to master the field, although if Sinéad is right then he might face strong competition from Apple.