Liquid Glass will stay, but cross your fingers for this ‘conversation changer’
Apple isn't planning a major overhaul to Liquid Glass, but relief may be coming for those who can't abide by the iOS 26 design change.
Apple has no plans to drop the love-it-or-hate-it Liquid Glass design language when iOS 27 and it’s best iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV and Mac software counterparts arrive later this year, according to a new report.
According to the erstwhile Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman, Apple isn’t planning any major changes to the translucent Liquid Glass UI introduced within iOS 26 et al at the back end of last year, but a ‘conversation changer’ around the feature could still arrive if Apple has a breakthrough in development.
Apple has backtracked on the design somewhat, enabling users to lessen the effect with a tinted option in iOS 26.2, while iOS 26.4 promises to go a little further within the next few weeks. Beta versions of that software will give users the opportunity to disable Liquid Glass highlights. The new Reduce Bright Effects setting is geared towards minimising “highlighting and flashing when interacting with onscreen elements, such as buttons or the keyboard.”
So, while Apple is happy with allowing users to lessen the Liquid Glass effect, it has no plans to let people get rid of it altogether according to Gurman.
“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,” Gurman writes in the latest Power On newsletter (via 9to5Mac).
However, the company could yet throw a curveball resulting in a substantial change, Gurman adds: “If Apple manages to make that systemwide control work in iOS 27 as desired — alongside broader engineering improvements — the entire conversation around Liquid Glass could once again change dramatically.”
Watch this space? Apple will probably reveal its plans at WWDC in June this year, if recent precedent holds. Would you prefer to get rid of it altogether? Let us know.
Chris Smith
