Apple Invites Screams That an iOS UI Overhaul is Coming
Tuesday, February 4, 2025
The rumored Apple Invites app has arrived. While I obviously haven’t had much time to play with it, I have quickly browsed through the UI and wanted to share some observations. 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. It seems awfully suspect that Apple’s two latest apps have a whole new design language that does not mesh with the rest of the OS. Presumably, other first-party apps are on track to get overhauls to match. Maybe in iOS 19? There have been rumors of such a redesign. I’ll also note that the icon for the app is quite fun and super colorful. It is hopefully another hint towards refreshed Apple icons that take better advantage of the full rounded rec shape compared to many of the iOS 7-style ones we still have today.