I am all for Apple’s Liquid Glass makeover

At its 2025 Worldwide Builders Convention, Apple made an enormous present of a design overhaul for all its working programs, generally known as Liquid Glass. This makes many buttons, menus, and different gadgets both translucent or clear, displaying extra of what is beneath. Typically this stuff are floating and minimalist, with animations that make them stretch and bounce — therefore the “liquid” half. Builders have already got their fingers on an early model of the tech, and if you wish to attempt it too, public betas of iOS 26, macOS 26, iPadOS 26, watchOS 26, and tvOS 26ought to be out in July.

As a complete, I am into it — it has been some time since Apple’s software program has had a brand new aesthetic, and any good interface tries to remain out of your manner. However there are just a few issues with Liquid Glass because it stands, all of which actually need to be polished earlier than the completed software program updates arrive within the fall. These are the modifications I would advocate — hopefully somebody at Apple is taking notes.

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1

Put transparency ranges on a slider

For app icons, if nothing else

Apple

It is sensible for a lot of issues in Liquid Glass to be close to or utterly clear, equivalent to textual content selectors or the borders round tab menus. However generally this goes too far, equivalent to within the case of the brand new Management Heart, which may seem like a jumbled mess relying on what’s within the background behind it. And in the event you select the Clear icon look in your iPhone, iPad, or Mac, it’s possible you’ll generally need to stare for a second or two longer to establish the app you are trying to find, or learn information from a widget. There’s not a lot level in utilizing a Reminders widget to see your day by day duties if it could be sooner to open the app.

In Apple’s protection, it was ready for these considerations with a Cut back Transparency choice. In iOS 26, it is situated below Settings > Accessibility > Show and Textual content Dimension. However all this does is add a darker background to gadgets just like the Management Heart and app icons — some issues are left untouched, and you will have to be proud of Apple’s definition of “decreased.” A greater answer can be a number of transparency sliders, letting us resolve simply how clear we’d like issues to be. I would a minimum of like to have the ability to management icon transparency — it might be good to have clear icons with out feeling like my iPhone and iPad homescreens are haunted by the spirits of lifeless apps.

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2

Repair font sizes and colours

Readability is fundamental

Apple / Pocket-lint

One thing critics have been fast to note — myself included — is that Apple is making odd decisions with textual content in some locations. When you’re enjoying a tune in Apple Music, as an example, the artist title within the iOS 26 miniplayer is a lightweight grey, making it mix in all too effectively with the encircling menu. Even black or darkish grey textual content on Liquid Glass buttons can generally be arduous to learn, as soon as once more relying on what’s within the background.

Maybe the worst scenario entails the Notification Heart — in the event you’ve received light-colored wallpaper, the default white textual content of your notifications might be illegible, virtually blinding. Right here Apple’s decisions appear explicitly geared toward making Liquid Glass look cool, fairly than usable.

There are just a few methods Apple might remedy this drawback, probably the most fundamental being to swap font colours the place crucial, and daring button labels in order that they stand out it doesn’t matter what. I should not have to show to Accessibility settings as a crutch. Maybe colours might be made dynamic, enhancing distinction on the fly.

These particulars are the kinds of issues I am anticipating Apple to tweak earlier than the autumn. However there may additionally be a robust case for Apple to lastly provide a built-in manner of modifying system fonts, throughout all platforms — there ought to be some stage of flexibility that will not threat breaking apps or violating home fashion.

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3

Tone down the brand new animations

Bounce, bounce, bounce

In the mean time, Liquid Glass could be very bouncy, with interface components sliding, popping, and glooping round. It isn’t a nasty factor total, however it may be a bit extreme sometimes, even cartoonish. Maybe the worst instance is the transition from the iOS 26 lockscreen to the homescreen — icons bounce a lot that they fly over (and thru) one another. You’d suppose there was an invisible trampoline.

The animation additionally takes lengthy sufficient that it would cease you from launching an app for a second or two, although you possibly can make the same grievance about iOS 18. Regardless, I am not a toddler watching YouTube movies — I do not want fixed movement to maintain me entertained.

I am assuming the lockscreen transition will most likely be scaled again, and that customers will be capable to nix some or all of those animations utilizing Accessibility settings. In any other case, although, I doubt there’s a lot in the best way of change coming. Decreasing the quantity of bouncing and morphing in any severe manner would undo the liquid a part of Liquid Glass — and for advertising, promoting, and growth causes, Apple might be locked into that for a very long time.

On the earliest, I would not count on any revamps till the subsequent spherical of main OS updates, inevitably getting their preview at WWDC 2026. Altering course would not be utterly unprecedented. In reality, take into account how a lot Apple is downplaying Apple Intelligence this yr, when it was hanging all the things on it in 2024. The corporate isn’t so cussed as to hurt its backside line or destroy its status.

We’ll have to attend and see how most people reacts to Liquid Glass. If it is the butt of jokes on late-night speak exhibits this fall, some form of motion is assured.

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