Love it or hate it? Apple’s new ‘Liquid Glass’ design is getting mixed reviews

Summary

Some users and designers are already panning Apple’s new user interface dubbed Liquid Glass, even though it’s a bit early. There are reasons to think it might improve — but also valid critiques. While arguably the operating system design overhaul looks unfinished in many parts — notifications are too hard to read, and then there’s that monstrosity of the Control Center overlay — what Apple has shipped so far is the first developer beta, not a final release. There’s still time for many of the design systems’ current problems to be refined and corrected by the time Apple launches iOS 26 and its other OS updates to the public later this fall. The dramatic refresh to the iPhone’s look and feel was announced at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference and described by Apple as its “broadest design update ever.” Liquid Glass, the company explained, would span across Apple’s platforms, unifying the experience of using Apple devices. Image Credits:Apple Inspired by Apple’s Vision Pro VR headset, Liquid Glass is so named because it leverages the optical quality of glass in its elements — it refracts light and features translucent materials. The update also modernizes the operating system’s interface in a way that seems obviously poised to later extend to other devices, like AR glasses. However, there are parts of the interface where various elements are simply too hard to read — and not only for low-vision users (or the middle-aged). Even Apple’s press release includes a photo of the Apple Music user interface, where it’s difficult to make out the artist’s name in its light gray font on a translucent bar. That’s concerning because this is a photo Apple approved, which seemingly would indicate that this part of the OS update, at least, is finished. Image Credits:Apple Other users are sharing similar concerns about the legibility of reading through their notifications on the iPhone’s Lock Screen, where, depending on the colors of your background wallpaper, the text becomes ...