If Liquid Glass was inspiring, efficient and beneficial it wouldn't have to be mandated.
It would be attractive and third parties would eagerly adopt it.
To suggest it should be mandated is akin to cramming it down people's throats. Not a good look.
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Apple Shares Liquid Glass Design Gallery
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It would be attractive and third parties would eagerly adopt it.
To suggest it should be mandated is akin to cramming it down people's throats. Not a good look.
Agreed! Finally something different since iOS 7 basically. I have clear app icons on my iPad and iPhone I love Liquid Glass as well
The CNN comparison is a great example to me:
It's really nice to see the photos at the bottom extend fully downwards, bringing more color and life to the screen, rather than that large flat gray bar. A lot of people may argue this is not 100% "useful" or "necessary", but that's not the point. It looks and feels much nicer.
Yeah, but look at the top of the screen. That shadow up top doesn't add anything, it takes away from it.
Frankly I could take or leave the transparency. It's the stupid shimmering edges and the intense shadows at the top and bottom of the screen that get me.
Yeah, not even the Apple Store app has been updated yet....
Some elements of Liquid Glass look gorgeous, but the numerous visual bugs I keep noticing make it hard to love it the way I want to. Maybe my appreciation will grow as these gremlins are wrangled, but for now there's an unfinished quality to Liquid Glass that can't be ignored. The Devil is in the details.
Ok, but you agree that most apps don't even support iOS features available for ages?
The problem that I see right now, is that the iPhone is in a state of a messy design coherence, it's not uniform and almost every app behaves differently UI-wise.
Years ago the UI was virtually the same for all apps and was aligned with the design of the iOS.
Right now, there are a smorgasbord of designs. In my modest opinion, they take away the value of the iOS UI and the easy of use that (almost) always characterized Apple.
It’s interesting to note the comments in this thread as to why each camp generally likes or dislikes Liquid Glass.
Likes: Fresh, new, fun, pretty
Dislikes: Usability, legiblility
I wouldn’t be surprised if the creative brief assigned to the OS team was very much in line with the results here. In other words, a prioritization of form above functionality.
Likes: Fresh, new, fun, pretty
Dislikes: Usability, legiblility
I wouldn’t be surprised if the creative brief assigned to the OS team was very much in line with the results here. In other words, a prioritization of form above functionality.
I much prefer iOS 18. I don’t like bubbles on top of everything. It just looks cluttered.
The liquid glass ones almost all universally look worse.
I think this whole Liquid Glass design is probably the worst thing Apple has done in a very long time. Even if parts of it can be toned down, making things less readable, and adding a number of additional clicks to achieve the same function is the perfect example of form over function. It’s like my $2000 iPad Pro is permanently stuck playing Bejeweled.
I just went through the entire design gallery, and I didn’t find a single one that I thought was better.
I think there are some I could go either way on.
Skyguide is one where I could go either way and might actually benefit from the transparency of the UI.
I think there are some I could go either way on.
Skyguide is one where I could go either way and might actually benefit from the transparency of the UI.
In these examples, when a transparent toolbar appears on top of a single large photo, it looks kind of cool. When it appears on top of multiple thumbnail photos, it looks cluttered but not terrible. When it appears on top of text, it makes the underlying text illegible and the buttons on top of the text illegible.
When I first read the Liquid Glass developer guide, I thought, "this is nice for photo gallery apps and that's about it," and these real-world examples confirm that original impression.
My own apps are mostly text-oriented (displaying calendars, financial transactions, etc) and I've only implemented Liquid Glass sparingly, as a nod to the current design language. I can't say it has made the app work better, nor have any users. I can say it has taken longer to implement and introduced more bugs than any iOS update since iOS 7.
When I first read the Liquid Glass developer guide, I thought, "this is nice for photo gallery apps and that's about it," and these real-world examples confirm that original impression.
My own apps are mostly text-oriented (displaying calendars, financial transactions, etc) and I've only implemented Liquid Glass sparingly, as a nod to the current design language. I can't say it has made the app work better, nor have any users. I can say it has taken longer to implement and introduced more bugs than any iOS update since iOS 7.
With the entire world looking for an excuse to fine Apple, now would not be the time to “enforce” anything.
A lot of the examples show why I dislike modern design so much: low information density.
Taking up so much space to display a few things and make the user scroll scroll scroll for "engagement"...
Taking up so much space to display a few things and make the user scroll scroll scroll for "engagement"...
This kind of design will add cost (both in time and money) to pretty much all UI work in the future, because it’s more complex and the design constraints are more finicky. Instead of making UI design easier and more consistent across apps, Apple seems to be hell-bent on making it more intricate and uneven.
I dislike Liquid Glass so much I plan on not ever upgrading and additionally choosing non-Apple operating systems and non-Apple hardware in my future purchases.
I think Apple has vastly over-estimated how cool people think glass is.
LIQUID ASS. Worse UI change ever. Who's idea was this at apple to do such a dumb thing. It's so difficult to read and see things now. I hate thsi change. Even with the stupid toggle that minimizes the effect it's still more difficult to see things. I wish I could go back to iOS 18 again. And I really hope apple considers going back to the drawing board to get rid of this nonsense.
iOS 18 is better in every single example.
they're doubling down on that trash? jfc
I find the UI more cumbersome. It seems to take longer doing most of the things that I’m accustomed to. A lot of this is due to muscle memory, but when you’ve been doing it for years it really sucks changing everything at once.
Edit:
Additionally, I understand the need to push the hardware with transparency and warping effects, but I’m curious about the performance impact and battery life that have been compromised.
Edit:
Additionally, I understand the need to push the hardware with transparency and warping effects, but I’m curious about the performance impact and battery life that have been compromised.
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Beautiful as concept.
Horrible to use.
Poor usability.
Next step idea: Why bother putting letters in the keyboard?. Just transparent keys with no horrible letters and that horrible fix font!.
Horrible to use.
Poor usability.
Next step idea: Why bother putting letters in the keyboard?. Just transparent keys with no horrible letters and that horrible fix font!.