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Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman published his spoiler-filled report late this week wherein he reveals what Apple intends on unveiling at Monday’s WWDC25 keynote. Gurman has formed a habit of doing so, a practice my friend John Gruber described as “tradition.”
As with movies and TV shows, abstain from Gurman’s report if you dislike spoilers.
What caught my attention reading Gruber’s comments is the hotly-anticipated visual redesign of Apple’s platforms. Gurman first wrote about it back in March, saying Apple planned to make its myriad operating systems “look similar and more consistent” while adding styles differ widely in terms of iconography and more between platforms. He rightly pointed out said differences “can make it jarring to hop from one device to another.” Apple’s primary goal, Gurman said, is to prioritize consistency, design-wise.
This is the part that struck me hardest. As I said on Mastodon yesterday, the same people who are like kids on Christmas morning regarding the aforementioned design refresh are the exact same people who have bemoaned the redesigned macOS Settings app when it debuted a few years ago. The irony here is these people haven’t a clue they’re talking out of both sides of their mouth; there can be spirited debate surrounding Mac design idioms, as well as how much iOS should invade such entrenched territory, but macOS Settings blazed a trail. To wit, launch the Settings app on one’s Mac of choice and the inspiration is crystal clear: it looks highly similar to that on iOS and iPadOS. Why is that? The cynical view is to say it’s because Apple wants to deepen the so-called “iOS-ification” of the Mac, much the chagrin of diehards. The more charitable viewpoint, however—and I believe the more correct one—is Apple sought to provide (surprise, surprise!) more consistency and likeness between platforms. What the company reveals come Monday morning at Apple Park is taking that prior work on macOS Settings and expanding upon it such to scale it up big time.
Apple’s software engineering groups are bifurcated no longer. This isn’t the iPhone’s early era, circa 2007–2010, where the company built only two OSes: Mac OS X and iPhone OS. Since those days, the company has taken the core underpinnings of iOS and spooled off four more platforms in watchOS, iPadOS, tvOS, and visionOS—with rumors of yet another on the horizon. It makes complete sense for Apple to strive towards more “unity,” more consistency, across its panoply of platforms because the company makes a helluva lot more computers than it used to. I’ve long banged the drum that, from an accessibility standpoint, that Apple took iOS and pulled the proverbial string to build its progeny was a stroke of genius. Especially for people who cope with intellectual disabilities where cognition is atypical—however unstated, these are exactly the type of user Gurman alluded to this past spring—that iPadOS, watchOS, et al, look and behave so similarly to an iPhone is worth its weight in usability gold. It’s accessible in part because it’s consistent. Consistency should be lauded far more as a feature, not a bug. As I said earlier, the design snobs of the internet like to navel-gaze and gripe about idioms and implementation details. This kind of critique certainly does have its place, but particularly in context of the macOS Settings overhaul, the complainers routinely miss the forest for the trees. You’re free to niggle philosophical on Apple’s choices, but I’m here to tell you once more with feeling that accessibility matters. At 30,000 feet, that macOS Settings looks like iOS or whatever is a good thing for a not-insignificant swath of people in the disability community—anyone else’s precious pearl-clutching be damned. Likewise, that “iOS 26” and its compatriots will look and feel of a family is also a very good thing in the aggregate. For accessibility, the family resemblance is of crucial import when it comes to acclimation and comfort. That macOS Settings looks like iOS is a huge, if imperfect, win for legions of disabled people.
Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) co-founder Joe Devon was spot-on when he shared an anecdote in a recent interview with me about someone lamenting on social media about the “364 days of global accessibility oblivion.” So much attentionis paid to Apple’s annual GAAD announcement on blogs and podcasts, but so much of it smacks of tokenization and patronage. I bring this up because I can’t help but think were accessibility coverage more robust in the Apple sphere, it would be easier to connect the dots between, say, the redesigned macOS Settings app and the updates Apple is readying itself to announce next week. Alas, accessibility is more often than not relegated to 364 days of oblivion because the tech commentariat lack the perspective for it—and, even more frustratingly, the powers-that-be running the tech desks in newsrooms are apathetic towards seeking out the knowledge—with precious few exceptions. What you’re left with are people like myself, perpetually shouting into what feels like an ever-growing black hole with weekend think pieces such as this one.
Anyway, I’ll be in Cupertino on Monday covering all the news from the WWDC keynote.
