Liquid Glass is Apple's new design software which will arrive along with the iOS26 update. It was revealed at the WWDC25 at the beginning of June and ever since fans have been admiring the new update on platforms like X comparing visuals. Whilst we’ve also been taking a look at the reactions, we’ve noticed the community is divided into 2 about the update. Many people believe the update is revolutionary, and that the glass effect is so futuristic, whilst others call it a knockoff to its competitors. Let’s look at the divide and give our opinions.
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What does liquid glass do?
Liquid Glass has been described by Apple as a universal design across platforms that brings more focus to content and a new level of vitality while maintaining the familiarity of Apple’s software. Its main purpose is to make apps feel more expressive and brighter, with its ‘translucent material reflecting and refracting its surroundings, while dynamically transforming the help give greater focus to content, delivering a new level of visibility across controls, navigation, apps, widgets and more’. Sounds confusing? Let’s simplify it.
Liquid Glass gives the impression that water is on top of the glass, causing the apps and widgets to appear see-through. The apps are a lot more animated because they lean towards the direction that the phone is tiled, rather than being static. When you pull down on the control centre, receive a call or any other feature that requires an app to overlap another, the design creates a beautiful animation that refracts the background. We recommend checking out the opinions and videos online, they provide great visual explanations.
With Apple upgrading their operating system to iOS26 from 18, Liquid Glass was exactly what Apple needed as their big jump alongside the name change. But of course, with things being new and changed, there are always some who dislike the update. So let’s see what’s being said.
Is liquid glass worth the money?
The first aspect people are upset over considering Liquid Glass is the fact the effect makes it a lot more difficult to read notifications. Let’s say your wallpaper has hints of white in it, this makes it very difficult to read the notification on the lock screen which is designed with a frosted white background and white text. Hopefully, this design choice can be changed in Settings, but as of yet we are unsure.
A second aspect people are questioning is how the liquid effect messes up parts of the wallpaper in general. The way the glass manipulates the sides of the app logos also affects the background. It can make your wallpaper look funny and distorted. If there’s a lot of design and detail in your wallpaper, you may want to rethink your choice.
It’s also very interesting because tech fans aren’t the only ones mocking Liquid Glass, big tech companies are too. Samsung, Apple's key competitor, were keen to point out that Google already released an update for Android 16 that uses materials and expressive designs to create a glass visual. Samsung specifically described Apple's Liquid Glass as ‘expressive’, clearly a mocking nod to the already done update.
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Conclusion:
Overall, we like Liquid Glass. Of course, there are issues, but this is very normal with new development. People tend to hate it just because it’s Apple. There are a couple of issues with the design which we can’t ignore, but these can easily be sorted by altering your background. Coming from ourselves, we regularly criticise Apple for its unoriginality and blatant copying of other brands, but we do think this concept is genuinely unique and, most importantly, looks amazing.
