💡The Apple Hint Everyone Missed

Apple is training us for a post-iPhone world

Last week, Apple held its annual Worldwide Developers Conference, the (usually) much-anticipated reveal of product updates, device capabilities, and what to expect from Apple over the next 12 months.

But heading into this year’s WWDC, the buzz was mixed. Apple has struggled to find its footing in artificial intelligence. Its 2024 launch of Apple Intelligence was rocky, to say the least. One widely mocked feature—AI-generated summaries—produced false information around the clock… Including fake details about a high-profile murder and a made-up story about a tennis player coming out as gay. Apple quietly pulled the plug. Now, we’re told the next round of AI features won’t arrive until 2026.

So with AI largely absent from the keynote, the spotlight landed on something else: Liquid Glass.

“Apple revealed a new visual design language coming to all of its operating systems dubbed Liquid Glass. It called this new system its 'broadest' design update yet... featuring semi-translucent elements like redesigned widgets, notifications, and more.” — Engadget

Most tech journalists and reviewers were unimpressed. Last I checked, no one was asking for blurrier notifications and harder-to-read messages. People were expecting AI, and they didn’t get it.

Photo Credit: Justin Pot

But there was a major signal almost everyone missed.

I believe Liquid Glass isn’t really about design at all. I think Apple is training us for a future with smart glasses. Bloomberg reported in May on Apple’s quiet but persistent push into AR glasses. Liquid Glass, to me, confirms the rumors.

Think about what they showed: messages and notifications that are now semi-transparent and seem to shift or hover on your screen. Apple described it as making displays feel more alive and more natural. That sounds poetic, but it’s also less functional. Why would anyone want text messages to be harder to read?

Because that’s how they’ll need to appear through smart glasses.

These glasses, especially with AI built in, won’t present information the way a phone does. Messages, notifications, and maps will need to float in your field of view without obstructing the world around you. You still have to see where you’re going.

The map might appear to sit on the road in front of you. A message could drift across your vision as you walk. All of this has to feel light, translucent, and ambient.

Liquid Glass gives us a glimpse of that. It sets the visual tone for what comes next.

And Apple has done this before. It rolls out features that don’t quite make sense at the time, only for their purpose to become obvious later.

So while everyone was watching for a bold AI announcement (which, for the record, I’m still waiting for), Apple was doing something else entirely. Liquid Glass is a quiet preview of the next interface era.

I wrote about the beginning of the end of smartphones in my last Substack.

Our phones have always evolved. And the biggest smartphone companies are placing bets that the next chapter will be glasses. Regardless of which device wins out in the AI age, I do think the smartphone will eventually end up in the same category as the pager, the home phone, and the flip phone.