I am all for Apple’s Liquid Glass makeo...

At its 2025 Worldwide Builders Convention, Apple made an enormous present of a design overhaul for all its working techniques, generally known as Liquid Glass. This makes many buttons, menus, and different gadgets both translucent or clear, exhibiting 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 strive it too, public betas of iOS 26, macOS 26, iPadOS 26, watchOS 26, and tvOS 26needs to be out in July.

As an entire, 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 method. However there are a couple of 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 might suggest — 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 smart for a lot of issues in Liquid Glass to be close to or fully clear, corresponding to textual content selectors or the borders round tab menus. However generally this goes too far, corresponding to within the case of the brand new Management Middle, which may appear like a jumbled mess relying on what’s within the background behind it. And if you happen to select the Clear icon look in your iPhone, iPad, or Mac, you could generally need to stare for a second or two longer to establish the app you are looking for, or learn knowledge from a widget. There’s not a lot level in utilizing a Reminders widget to see your each day duties if it is perhaps quicker to open the app.

In Apple’s protection, it was ready for these issues with a Scale back Transparency possibility. In iOS 26, it is positioned below Settings > Accessibility > Show and Textual content Dimension. However all this does is add a darker background to gadgets just like the Management Middle and app icons — some issues are left untouched, and you will have to be proud of Apple’s definition of “diminished.” A greater resolution can be a number of transparency sliders, letting us determine simply how clear we want issues to be. I might not less than like to have the ability to management icon transparency — it could be good to have clear icons with out feeling like my iPhone and iPad homescreens are haunted by the spirits of useless apps.

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2

Repair font sizes and colours

Readability is fundamental

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One thing critics have been fast to note — myself included — is that Apple is making odd decisions with textual content in some locations. If you happen to’re enjoying a music in Apple Music, as an example, the artist identify within the iOS 26 miniplayer is a light-weight grey, making it mix in all too properly with the encompassing 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 includes the Notification Middle — if you happen to’ve bought light-colored wallpaper, the default white textual content of your notifications might be illegible, nearly blinding. Right here Apple’s decisions appear explicitly geared toward making Liquid Glass look cool, quite than usable.

There are a couple of methods Apple may clear up this downside, probably the most fundamental being to swap font colours the place essential, and daring button labels so 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 types of issues I am anticipating Apple to tweak earlier than the autumn. However there may additionally be a robust case for Apple to lastly supply a built-in method of enhancing system fonts, throughout all platforms — there needs 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 may be very bouncy, with interface components sliding, popping, and glooping round. It is not 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 would make an identical 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 way in which of change coming. Decreasing the quantity of bouncing and morphing in any severe method would undo the liquid a part of Liquid Glass — and for advertising and marketing, promoting, and improvement 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 fully unprecedented. The truth is, take into account how a lot Apple is downplaying Apple Intelligence this 12 months, when it was hanging every little thing 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 discuss exhibits this fall, some type of motion is assured.

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