There’s bad news for anyone who harbors hope that Apple will realize that Liquid Glass was a huge mistake and remove it from iOS 27. The glossy, transparent design enjoys broad support inside Apple, according to a report published Sunday. And users like it, too.
That said, the company continues to add tweaks to Liquid Glass that let users tone down the controversial look. Plus, a possible new setting might let users control exactly how transparent the UI gets.
Don’t expect Liquid Glass to melt away
For anyone who has yet to install iOS 26, Liquid Glass is a translucent and fluid interface that debuted in fall 2025 on the iPhone (as well as Apple’s other devices). Many elements of the UI go semitransparent, while clever effects make it seem like users are looking through glass at objects shown on the screen behind the Dock, Control Center and pop-up windows.
Liquid Glass undoubtedly has fans — a poll of Cult of Mac readers showed very strong support. But there are countless detractors, many of whom went to social media to complain that Apple had ruined the iPhone.
That vocal minority likely hopes that criticism will encourage Apple to admit the error of its ways and drop the whole Liquid Glass idea with the iOS and macOS versions coming this fall. That’s not going to happen, according to information newly leaked from Apple.
“The latest internal versions of iOS 27 and macOS 27 don’t reflect major design changes, and there’s no sign that another overhaul is currently in active development,” Bloomberg reported Sunday.
Apple loves Liquid Glass
After Alan Dye, Apple’s VP of human interface design, left the company in December, Liquid Glass detractors speculated that he’d been asked to leave because the new user interface was such a failure. Not at all.
Liquid Glass enjoys broad support at Apple, including its top executives, according to Bloomberg. That includes Steve Lemay, who replaced Dye and played a large role in the development of the UI.
Some good news for the critics, though
Although Apple embraces Liquid Glass, it’s aware of the criticism. And the company appears especially open to making the user interface easier to use for those with difficulties seeing.
Apple already gave users the option to decrease the transparency level in iOS 26.2, macOS Tahoe 26.2 and iPadOS 26.2. And there’s another tweak coming in iOS 26.4: Reduce Highlighting Effects.
Plus, there’s hope for those who’d like even more control over the look of Liquid Glass.
As Bloomberg reported, “During development of iOS 26, Apple had been working on a systemwide slider that would allow users to finely control the level of the glass effect. The company was able to implement this feature for the clock on the lock screen but ran into engineering challenges when trying to extend it across the entire system — including app folders, the home screen and navigation bars.”
This feature could debut in iOS 27 — if Apple can work out the problems, of course.
Ed Hardy has been writing full-time about tech for 25 years, and using it for much longer than that. His intro to Apple was a Macintosh SE/30 (which he still has), but now he uses a 13-inch iPad Pro as his primary computer.
That’s because he’s a “tablet first” type of guy. Rather than use a Macbook, he connects a keyboard case to the iPad. And instead of a desktop Mac, he connects his tablet to a 27-inch display and full-size keyboard. (So don’t try to tell him that everyone has to use a Mac to be productive.)
Before coming to Cult of Mac, Ed wrote for NotebookReview, TabletPCReview and Brighthand, as well as other sites.
3 responses to “Liquid Glass is here to stay”
Liquid Glass will be seen as the single worst decision in Apple History
Liquid Glass required re-doing almost every aspect of display in iOS, and still today, many of those calculations of height and size overlap or obscure text you need to read. A massive change for no improvement in usability or speed. What a waste of resources.
My partner is very colourblind and he finds the liquid glass makes the iphone very difficult to use. We’ve had to reduce the transparency on it, otherwise he just can’t see things properly.