iOS 26 Proves Apps Are Here to Stay – and Evolving Fast
With the announcement of iOS 26, Apple has once again demonstrated its unwavering commitment to elevating the app experience. New features like Liquid Glass, Visual Search, and On-Device Image Generation aren’t just exciting from a technology standpoint: they’re transformative for how users will engage with apps, particularly in the retail and shopping space.
A New Standard for App Experience
Apple’s unveiling of Liquid Glass reimagines visual interactions, offering fluid, tactile interfaces that feel more immersive than ever. It’s a leap forward in UI design, offering interactions that are both more immersive and intuitive. Visual Search will expand to be intuitive, camera-based exploration directly into the OS, blurring the lines between physical and digital product discovery. And Image Generation, now integrated into the device itself, allows for personalized visuals that respond to user behavior, context, or intent: all in real time.
One of the most exciting and practical features in iOS 26 is On-Device Text Generation. Powered by Apple’s local machine learning models, this capability brings generative AI directly onto the device, meaning faster, more private, and more responsive user experiences: This opens the door to real-time app interactions that feel seamless and secure.
These features don’t just enhance usability, they redefine the expectation of what a mobile app should feel like in 2025 and beyond.
The Growing Importance of Native Platforms
As users become more engaged, and more demanding, with each iOS release, it’s clear: apps aren’t going anywhere. In fact, they’re becoming central to how consumers interact with the brands they love. That’s why platforms like poq are more vital than ever. As a native app platform built for scalability and speed, poq is well-positioned to adopt and integrate these cutting-edge features in ways that standalone, custom-built apps often can’t.
Brands that have gone the route of building their apps in-house or through agencies now face the challenge of keeping up. Adapting to new OS capabilities like Liquid Glass or Visual Search isn’t just a UI tweak: it requires deep architectural knowledge and a strong foundation in native development. For example, the new on-device text generation can unlock app experiences like:
- Smart search assistance: Guide users with AI-generated search suggestions based on in-app behavior.
- Review summarisation: Automatically summarise customer reviews into digestible highlights, ideal for app shoppers.
- Contextual recommendations: Personalize category suggestions and dynamic content blocks that evolve based on user behavior, fuelling more accurate product discovery.
Retailers can use these tangible, high-impact features to drive engagement and conversion without rebuilding from scratch. Without that flexibility, brands risk falling behind in delivering the seamless, modern experiences their customers are beginning to expect as standard.
Why This Matters for Retail
For retailers, every micro-moment matters, and the mobile app is increasingly where those moments happen. From product discovery to checkout, these new iOS capabilities will reshape the look, feel, and flow of shopping apps. Personalized, visually rich, and natively fast experiences will no longer be nice-to-haves; they’ll be table stakes.
Platforms like poq don’t just keep pace with Apple’s innovation; they empower brands to leverage it without starting from scratch.
iOS 26 marks another turning point in the evolution of the mobile experience. With technologies like Liquid Glass, and Virtual Intelligence, such as Visual Search, Text and Image Generation, now part of the app landscape, the future is clear: native apps are not only here to stay, they’re getting more immersive, intuitive, and deeply personalized.
For brands, the choice is clearer than ever: build on a platform that evolves continuously with the ecosystem, or risk getting left behind.