‘Beautiful’ and ‘Hard to Read’: Designers React to Apple’s Liquid Glass Update

Apple’s translucent design update for iOS 26, called Liquid Glass, is now disposable to developers, pinch a nationalist beta scheduled for adjacent month. The refresh—Apple’s first awesome interface overhaul successful 10 years—makes app icons, buttons, menus, and pop-ups look for illustration they are made of frosted glass, pinch blurred inheritance colors peeking through.

The sweeping package changes are not conscionable for iPhones. This glassy look—inspired by nan operating strategy successful nan Vision Pro headset—will yet rotation retired to nan full suite of Apple devices, from smartwatches to iPads.

After nan WWDC 2025 keynote concluded connected Monday, galore design-focused developers WIRED said pinch were impressed by nan awesome update but had lingering questions astir really this translucent look could effect readability for users.

“It's difficult to publication immoderate of it,” says Allan Yu, a merchandise designer presently building nan workplace messaging app Output. “Mainly because I deliberation they made it excessively transparent.” Yu suggests bumping up nan blurring aliases adjusting nan backgrounds to make onscreen designs much readable.

“Similar to nan first beta for iOS 7, what we’ve seen truthful acold is unsmooth connected nan edges and perchance veers into distracting aliases challenging to read, particularly for users pinch ocular impairments,” says Josh Puckett, cofounder of Iteration, which helps startups pinch designs. Still, Puckett is optimistic, based connected Apple’s past accessibility features, that readability will amended complete time.

Serhii Popov, a design-first package technologist astatine MacPaw, nan institution down nan CleanMyMac app, is funny to spot really nan caller operating strategy will look connected Macs successful agleam ray situations, wherever glare already impacts visibility. But overall, Popov is enamored pinch this “really fresh” look from Apple. “I deliberation it will make everything look bigger and let you to publication aliases interact pinch nan UI pinch much comfort,” says Popov. For him, nan caller creation and updates look particularly sleek connected iPads.

Beyond readability concerns, nan first belief from immoderate designers is that this caller look could beryllium unnecessarily distracting for users.

"From a method perspective, it's a very awesome effect. I applaud nan clip and effort it must person taken to mimic refraction and dispersion of ray to specified a precocious degree,” says Adam Whitcroft, a designer astatine Owner.com, which makes apps and websites for restaurants. “But, sadly I haven't seen a azygous illustration of wherever it's pulled disconnected successful a measurement that's complementary to nan broader discourse it's presented in.” Whitcroft points to nan dispersion and refraction of layers beneath nan apps arsenic visually distracting, particularly arsenic nan personification interface is changing layouts. “If you've designed a UI that draws nan attraction of nan oculus distant from nan wider context, you've gone down nan incorrect path,” he says.