Software:Liquid Glass

From HandWiki
Liquid Glass
Liquid Glass design on iOS 26.1 on an iPhone 15
Developer(s)Apple
Initial releaseJune 9, 2025; 8 months ago (2025-06-09)
Operating systemiOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, visionOS, watchOS
PredecessorTemplate:Plist
TypeDesign language

Liquid Glass is a design language developed by Apple as a unified visual theme for the graphical user interfaces for its suite of operating systems. It was announced on June 9, 2025, at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). Liquid Glass features a fluid, dynamic glass-like interface that reflects and refracts the background. Liquid Glass was introduced in iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS Tahoe, tvOS 26, visionOS 26, and watchOS 26.[1]

Principles

Apple sought a new design language to unify the look and feel of interface elements across its devices, with their various window sizes and displays.[2][3]

It describes Liquid Glass as a dynamic "material" that combines the "optical properties of glass with a sense of fluidity".[4] According to Apple's updated human interface guidelines, apps made with Liquid Glass should showcase hierarchy between content and controls.[5] The design features elements that automatically adapt to their environment by reflecting and refracting light. The digital elements are translucent, contrasting with the outer highlights of their shapes.[6][7]

Apple's senior vice president of software engineering, Craig Federighi, said designers used the company's industrial design studios to fabricate glass of various opacities and lensing properties, so they could closely match the interface properties to those of real glass.[7]

Implementation

Liquid Glass overhauls existing iOS interface components such as text, sliders, toggles, alerts, panels, sidebars, and the overall frosted glass design, by introducing a new "material", which in Apple parlance is a visual effect that provides a sense of depth and hierarchy between elements.[8][9] The new material introduced by Liquid Glass refracts and reflects any element placed behind it, using realistic lighting and shaders to look like a real piece of glass. The material adapts to a light or dark appearance to make text and icon on top of the material legible, and reacts to the device's movement on iOS and iPadOS.[10] The material is integrated into various apps, and the system as a whole, such as the Dock, notifications, and Control Center and can also be used by third-party apps.[9][11] Federighi said Apple silicon provides the extra computational power required to run Liquid Glass.[12][13]

App icons have been redesigned to use a layered system akin to the one used on visionOS and tvOS, applying translucency and a glass-like shimmer effect, which also reacts to device movement, while applying greater use of gradients. App icons can now adopt a new clear look that makes the background use the Liquid Glass material in a light or dark tint, making it appear transparent.[14] Toolbars and other elements on-screen are now no-longer pinned to the device's bezels, instead being separated into bubbles that appear and disappear based on the context. For example, the Music app's tab bar shrinks when scrolling. The new design also allows the material to change its shape and size, such as the text selection tooltip expanding to show all options in a vertical list.[15] In a video detailing the design change, Apple stated that the language was influenced by the Aqua design language of macOS, real-time Gaussian blurring in iOS 7, the motion in iPhone X, the Dynamic Island on the iPhone 14 Pro and later, and the glass-like UI of visionOS.[6][7]

The design marked a shift in Apple's design languages, moving away from some of the flat design cues popularized by Jony Ive in iOS 7 (2013) toward more expressive, skeuomorphic elements.[16][17] Many critics and social media users noted similarities to Aqua and Windows Aero, including glass-like textures popularized by Windows Vista.[18][19][20] Liquid Glass has strong influences from "glassmorphism", a design style that became popular in 2021 in part by Microsoft's Windows 11 and its use of Fluent Design as well as Apple's own macOS Big Sur.[21][22]

Reception

Liquid Glass has had a mixed reception. Some reviewers praised the way it recreates glass's refracting and lensing properties.[23][16][18]

Others have criticized it as distracting, less legible, harder to use, and an undue burden on developers. Designers interviewed by Wired felt that the visual effects distracted from app content, and one said developers with smaller teams might struggle to meet the complicated visual standards set by the new interface.[16]

Some have said that Liquid Glass deviates from long-established UI conventions in ways that make Macs more confusing and difficult to use.[24][25]

Others have said it can make text harder to read. A designer interviewed by Wired said that certain elements were too transparent,[16] making text difficult to read in low-contrast environments, such as direct sunlight.[23][26] Complaints about legibility during the first developer beta release led Apple to adjust the transparency of Liquid Glass.[27][28] Developer Beta 3 made navigation bars and interface chrome more opaque, and subsequent betas adjusted system overlays and modal backgrounds. Some later builds introduced more user controls for transparency.[29]

See also

References

  1. ↑
  2. ↑ "Apple's new Liquid Glass design is its biggest visual update in years" (in en-US). 2025-06-09. https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/apples-new-liquid-glass-design-is-its-biggest-visual-update-in-years-172158766.html. 
  3. ↑ "iOS 26 vs iOS 18: Is Apple's 'Liquid Glass' a true redesign?" (in en). 2025-06-10. https://appleinsider.com/articles/25/06/10/ios-26-vs-ios-18-is-apples-liquid-glass-a-true-redesign. 
  4. ↑ "Liquid Glass" (in en-US). https://docs.developer.apple.com/documentation/technologyoverviews/liquid-glass. 
  5. ↑ "Materials" (in en-US). https://docs.developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/materials. 
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Meet Liquid Glass - WWDC25 - Videos" (in en). https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2025/219/. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Ulanoff, Lance (2025-06-10). "For Liquid Glass, 'the most obvious inspiration was visionOS', says Apple's Senior VP of Software Engineering" (in en). https://www.techradar.com/phones/ios/we-did-all-this-work-with-physical-glass-simulating-as-closely-as-we-could-the-actual-properties-of-glass-for-liquid-glass-says-apples-craig-federighi-then-they-went-further. 
  8. ↑ "Human Interface Guidelines" (in en-US). https://docs.developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines. 
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Adopting Liquid Glass" (in en-US). https://docs.developer.apple.com/documentation/technologyoverviews/adopting-liquid-glass. 
  10. ↑ "Apple introduces a delightful and elegant new software design". Apple Newsroom (Press release). Retrieved 2025-08-09.
  11. ↑ Peters, Jay (June 10, 2025). "Apple's Liquid Glass was a wild change to my iPhone" (in en-US). https://www.theverge.com/apple/683914/apple-iphone-ios-26-changes-liquid-glass. 
  12. ↑ The Wall Street Journal (2025-06-13). Apple Execs on AI Setbacks, What Went Wrong with Siri and More (Full Interview) | WSJ. YouTube. Retrieved 2025-06-14 – via YouTube.
  13. ↑ Weckler, Adrian (2025-06-14). "Adrian Weckler: Should you worry if your iPhone is too old for the latest upgrade?" (in en-IE). https://www.independent.ie/business/technology/adrian-weckler-should-you-worry-if-your-iphone-is-too-old-for-the-latest-upgrade/a1415630745.html. 
  14. ↑ "App icons" (in en-US). https://docs.developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/app-icons. 
  15. ↑ WWDC25 - Apple TV. Retrieved 2025-07-06 – via tv.apple.com.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 Rogers, Reece. "'Beautiful' and 'Hard to Read': Designers React to Apple's Liquid Glass Update" (in en-US). Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. https://www.wired.com/story/designers-react-to-apple-liquid-glass/. Retrieved June 10, 2025. 
  17. ↑ Wong, Raymond (2025-06-09). "Apple Ushers in New Glassy Design With iOS 26 and 'Liquid Glass' Interface" (in en-US). https://gizmodo.com/apples-ushers-in-new-glassy-design-with-ios-26-and-liquid-glass-interface-2000613045. 
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Pierce, David (June 9, 2025). "Apple's Liquid Glass redesign doesn't look like much" (in en-US). https://www.theverge.com/apple/682833/apples-liquid-glass-redesign-doesnt-look-like-much. 
  19. ↑ "iOS 26 liquid glass: Here's why Windows Vista jokes are trending". Hindustan Times. June 10, 2025. https://www.hindustantimes.com/technology/ios-26-liquid-glass-here-s-why-windows-vista-jokes-are-trending-101749541980351.html. 
  20. ↑ Saini, Rajat (2025-07-22). "No, Apple Did Not Copy Windows Vista with macOS Liquid Glass". https://www.macobserver.com/news/no-apple-did-not-copy-windows-vista-with-macos-liquid-glass//. 
  21. ↑ Pero, James (2025-06-09). "iOS 26 Might Be Apple's Riskiest Redesign Yet" (in en-US). https://gizmodo.com/ios-26-might-be-apples-riskiest-redesign-yet-2000613526. 
  22. ↑ "Glassmorphism in 2025: How Apple's Liquid Glass is reshaping interface design" (in en). 2025-08-12. https://www.everydayux.net/glassmorphism-apple-liquid-glass-interface-design/. 
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 Perez, Sarah (2025-06-10). "Love it or hate it? Apple's new 'Liquid Glass' design is getting mixed reviews" (in en-US). https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/10/love-it-or-hate-it-apples-new-liquid-glass-design-is-getting-mixed-reviews/. 
  24. ↑ Loyola, Roman (January 7, 2026). "macOS Tahoe's icons are a mess, but not the ones you think" (in en). https://www.macworld.com/article/3025010/macos-tahoes-icons-are-a-mess-but-not-the-ones-you-think.html. 
  25. ↑ Engst, Adam (2026-01-06). "How Tahoe’s Menu Icons Undermine Usability" (in en). https://tidbits.com/2026/01/06/how-tahoes-menu-icons-undermine-usability/. 
  26. ↑ Encinas, Amaris. "What is Liquid Glass? Internet reacts to Apple's new software design" (in en-US). https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2025/06/10/liquid-glass-apple-design-reactions/84131961007/. 
  27. ↑ Roth, Emma (2025-07-07). "Apple just added more frost to its Liquid Glass design" (in en-US). https://www.theverge.com/news/700066/apple-liquid-glass-frosted-ios-26-developer-beta. 
  28. ↑ Clover, Juli (2025-07-22). "Apple Improves Liquid Glass in iOS 26 Beta 4, Reversing Some Beta 3 Changes". https://www.macrumors.com/2025/07/22/apple-liquid-glass-ios-26-beta-4/. 
  29. ↑ Clover, Juli (2025-10-20). "iOS 26.1 Beta 4 Lets Users Control Liquid Glass Transparency with New Toggle". https://www.macrumors.com/2025/10/20/ios-26-1-liquid-glass-toggle/. 



Retrieved from "https://handwiki.org/wiki/index.php?title=Software:Liquid_Glass&oldid=4216683"