VisonOS layout on iPhone (Source: William Gallagher)
2 Facebook x.com Reddit Rumour assessment 🙄 Unlikely
There have been so many reports that iOS 18 will undergo a major redesign that the sheer number of statements makes one wonder if it seems likely. but the new one, which says it's inspired by Apple's Vision Pro, puts the cart before the horse.
This does not mean that Apple is against introducing common features on its platforms – — For example, iPad widgets arrived on Mac in 2023. And you can't spend years developing one OS without learning lessons that can then be applied to others.
However, a new rumor from the Hebrew publication The Verifier says that Apple is going to take the features introduced in VisionOS and rework iOS to be the same.
“The VisionOS operating system is the model that Apple uses to update the user interface of the iPhone,” reads the translation on the site. “Menu, built-in apps, Safari and more will be updated with a new design.”
This appears to be based less on any internal information and more on how Apple recently redesigned its TV app on the Apple TV 4K. This redesign results in a slightly translucent, columnar menu bar that The Verifier says is similar to the controls in Apple Vision Pro.
“The new floating menu will appear on the iPad,” the publication says. At least it makes more sense than on the iPhone, where a narrower screen means floating — and, as a result, movable — There's not much room to move around in the menu.
As if The Verifier thinks that since the release of Apple Vision Pro, shocked iOS designers are rushing to catch up. It's as if the publication thinks Apple is so interested in how its headset OS works that it's looking to take it away from its 200,000 users and introduce it to a billion iPhone owners.
Years of remarkable effort
Apple iOS designers had years to see what Apple Vision Pro's VisionOS looks like if they haven't actually been working on it this whole time.
The VisionOS software in Apple Vision Pro is very impressive. It has gaze recognition so it knows when you're looking at it and can respond to gestures made in empty air.
However, if you remove elements specific to Apple Vision Pro, such as gesture and gaze recognition, you are left with only a poor experience.
The apps on the Apple Vision Pro home screen are iPad apps unless they're native, but the way they're displayed is more like the Apple Watch. These are round icons arranged in a honeycomb rather than a grid, and you can't rearrange them.
The Future of iOS
Apple may change the icons of all its apps to round, but it won't lead to any functional improvement or even change the way you use the apps. Likewise, more translucent drop-down menus could be added, but even The Verifier claims that this was in the Apple TV app before Apple Vision Pro.
What Apple failed to bring from the Apple Vision Pro to the iPhone was the headset's key ability to place windows anywhere around the user.
So only the weakest elements of VisionOS can be transferred to the iPhone.
Anything can happen and something is expected to happen as reports claim that iOS 18 will see a major design change. However, the most common explanation for this is that Apple will introduce more artificial intelligence features to Siri.
But the idea that, without any benefit to the user, the iPhone will copy the round apps and translucent menus of the Apple Vision Pro is absurd.
We don't consider rumors of an iOS 18 redesign unlikely, since we believe that the update will not happen. We rate this particular report from this particular publication as unlikely because getting the correct answer with the wrong math will not give you the same grade as a complete and correct answer, from start to finish.
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