Liquid Glass: Apple’s All-New UI That Makes Your Devices Feel Like Living Glass
Apple’s big 2025 developer event wasn’t just about new apps; it introduced “Liquid Glass,” a fresh look across iPhones, iPads, Macs, Watches, and Apple TV. Imagine your buttons and panels as clear, living glass: they gently adjust their tint to match your background, blur just enough to make your photos and text pop, and even shift subtly when you tilt or scroll your device. Apple’s latest chips and displays handle these effects smoothly without draining your battery, so everything feels connected no matter which device you’re using.
It makes sense that Apple chose now for this update. Their last major design shift was in 2013, and since then, we’ve seen minor tweaks, like the iPhone’s Dynamic Island, but never a single, unified style. Liquid Glass brings everything together: photos and videos appear sharper against translucent menus, and text remains crisp over tinted backgrounds. Developers don’t need to rewrite their apps—a simple SwiftUI modifier or a UIKit update is all it takes (at least that’s what Apple says). You can try it in the public beta this summer, and the full release arrives in October alongside the iPhone 17 and new Macs.
One standout change is the iconography: system icons have been completely redesigned, with Clock, Shortcuts, and Camera seeing the most extensive updates. All icons now feature a subtle shadow effect, and their animations use the internal gyroscope to mimic light reflections, adding real depth to flat screens. There’s even a new “Clear” style that makes your icons look like glass. I haven’t tested it yet, and I’m curious about accessibility. Hopefully, the Automatic mode, which switches icon styles for light and dark backgrounds, will ensure full legibility. And if you run into issues, you can always revert to the classic icon set.
Liquid Glass shines on Apple’s latest hardware, while older devices will gracefully fall back to basic blur effects, though that means not everyone will see the same look. We’ll need to keep an eye on text legibility over shifting backgrounds. But for designers and video creators—especially those of us building sites on Squarespace or editing quick tutorial clips—this change is thrilling. It proves that see-through overlays and gentle animations aren’t just a web trend; they’re becoming integral to how we interact with our devices every day.
In the future, we may see these glass-like interfaces in AR headsets, experience subtle haptic feedback when we tap, or even have our interfaces adapt automatically to our habits. For now, Liquid Glass is about making our phones, tablets, and computers feel lighter, cleaner, and more focused on what matters: your content. If you cannot wait, give the public beta a whirl (July 2025), explore the new translucent settings, and see how a touch of virtual transparency can refresh your everyday tech, as for me I’ll be waiting for the official release in October or November as I won’t probably want to deal with bugs and issues!
