So when can I have custom live wallpapers on the lock or Home Screen? At this point the cpu/battery consumption on the glass animation makes the efficiency counterpoint moot. The Live Photos option is a joke.
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Apple Shares Liquid Glass Design Gallery
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Looks very nice. I like the liquid glass design very much. Happy to use it on all my devices!
I seriously love Liquid Glass. Using anything else just doesn’t feel Appley.
If so many people around you are avoiding it, then they aren’t even speaking from experience and just repeat what they’ve heard, opinions based on a few early beta screenshots. It makes no sense to me how someone can look at Apple’s examples and call them horrendous. Even for those who don’t like the transparency, there is something now and the SDKs for developers are more capable than ever.
I have lived and worked in a cross platform environment for a very long time.
Mobile: Android/ iOS
Desktop: macOS/ Linux/ Windows
Remaining current across the board allows me to be very aware of the pros and cons of each. As such I focus on neutrality as much as possible, yet I will be the first to admit a long time moderate bias towards Apple.
Unfortunately as much as I enjoy the exemplary hardware experience and have chosen MacBook Pro models as my primary computer, Apple is testing my patience with the OS shenanigans of late.
While I am used to dealing with, and have a high tolerance for software bugs and inconsistencies over the years, the entire Liquid Glass debacle is a bit much.
Suddenly I'm finding my enthusiasm for macOS and iOS fading, Apple has really thrown a wrench in the works.
Liquid Glass the worst looking UI experience of the Tim Cook era! I think the software development team was on crystal meth when designing it.
Text on the left is sharp, on the right it's like not having a 20/20 vision. It's a little bit blurred. Icons at the bottom are also blurred. I prefer the left; iOS 18.
Cover up the bottom half of both screen shots. Which has a nicer-looking top?
First iOS design, Aqua, Brushed metal, Ph lens flare… all fashion elements with expiration date.
But sometimes this jumps are good for distracting users and life is not always about using all the time the right decision
So yes, faking real world in a virtual screen is always a gimmick and fun for a while.
Flat design was proved the perfect design for contemporary 2D screens back in the 2000 thanks to vector tools as Freehand, Illustrator and mainly, Macromedia Flash, only time will put it again where it belongs. It is like jeans, it would be always ready to be there again.
But sometimes this jumps are good for distracting users and life is not always about using all the time the right decision
So yes, faking real world in a virtual screen is always a gimmick and fun for a while.
Flat design was proved the perfect design for contemporary 2D screens back in the 2000 thanks to vector tools as Freehand, Illustrator and mainly, Macromedia Flash, only time will put it again where it belongs. It is like jeans, it would be always ready to be there again.
The Lucid Motors comparison? Cleaner and sharper in IOS18. Why on god’s holy name did they extend LG to the Watch? It’s hard enough to see in daylight as it is.
Unfortunately it looks like Cupertino has become the new Soviet Union - walled off from the world and believing their own newspapers. One thing is certain - Apple is doubling down on LG. Those of us that don’t like it? Take your Cod Liver Oil little Billy and be grateful. I know it tastes like sh_t and your tummy hurts but - you’ll get better.
Unfortunately it looks like Cupertino has become the new Soviet Union - walled off from the world and believing their own newspapers. One thing is certain - Apple is doubling down on LG. Those of us that don’t like it? Take your Cod Liver Oil little Billy and be grateful. I know it tastes like sh_t and your tummy hurts but - you’ll get better.
Yes. It’s because on luiquid glass you have the bottom buttons and also some more at the top of the screen, and they are really big
They seem to be really proud of this design failure.
That makes it seem like there's an institutional problem throughout all of Apple. No one cares about anything, no one is willing to say no to bad ideas.
That makes it seem like there's an institutional problem throughout all of Apple. No one cares about anything, no one is willing to say no to bad ideas.
It's overcomplicated, inconsistent (not everything can be transparent, some is glossy and some opaque, some looks realistic 3D and some looks flat...), distracting and wastes resources to get a result that looks arguably worse than the previous design.
The image on the article gives me such heavy Microsoft vibes I have goosebumps.
The image on the article gives me such heavy Microsoft vibes I have goosebumps.
Sure. Apple cannot admit they made mistake. They never do. And not after AI delay disaster. We will stay with GUI to fish for quite long until Apple slowly withdraw some design choices and improve usability in iOS 27 or later.
Translucency can work well when paired with skeuomorphism. The visionary Scott Forstall demonstrated that early on in the Mac OS X days.
But translucency doesn’t work well with flat design. Jony Ive tried that with iOS 7, and Apple is doing an extreme amount of it with iOS 26. Liquid Glass, which is glassmorphism, is a variant of flat design.
Flat design needs to be completely purged from every Apple OS. iOS 6-style and Mac OS X Mountain Lion-style skeuomorphism needs to make a comeback. It’s too bad Tim Cook is so clueless and mediocre, that he didn’t see the value in Apple’s most user-friendly offering, which was its skeuomorphic design.
But translucency doesn’t work well with flat design. Jony Ive tried that with iOS 7, and Apple is doing an extreme amount of it with iOS 26. Liquid Glass, which is glassmorphism, is a variant of flat design.
Flat design needs to be completely purged from every Apple OS. iOS 6-style and Mac OS X Mountain Lion-style skeuomorphism needs to make a comeback. It’s too bad Tim Cook is so clueless and mediocre, that he didn’t see the value in Apple’s most user-friendly offering, which was its skeuomorphic design.
instead of accepting that this was a shaity design from the scratch, they are doubling down on it. Unbelievable.
if i could just install IOS 18 on my new iphone 17..........
if i could just install IOS 18 on my new iphone 17..........
I really like liquid glass on my iPhone Air, but on my MacBook Pro, I can't stand it at all. It's dislike it so much that I'm ditching it and sticking with Sequoia for at least the next year.
Reflective “liquid glass” effects might make sense on mobile devices — after all, you can actually feel the glass and watch the jittery reflections as you move. And sure, for the AVP it’s justified too; there, you’re at least getting the 3D depth illusion these effects were originally meant to evoke.
But on professional desktop systems like an iMac? No one wants a foggy mess of overlapping translucency and restless shimmer while trying to get work done. Still, Apple’s designers, apparently unable to tell the difference between elegant and gimmicky, have forced their toy-store aesthetic onto macOS. The result: an interface that looks smeared rather than sophisticated.
Sadly, not even the legendary Apple Polishing Cloth can wipe away this mess.
As usual with these kinds of “decisions” (that clearly don’t reflect what most users need), the pendulum is already swinging back. Sooner or later we’ll probably get a full “turn off Liquid Glass” option — and when Apple checks the device analytics (for those who allowed it), they’ll discover only a handful of people voted this was a brilliant idea.
Hopefully, whoever greenlit this nonsense will have to answer for it.
But on professional desktop systems like an iMac? No one wants a foggy mess of overlapping translucency and restless shimmer while trying to get work done. Still, Apple’s designers, apparently unable to tell the difference between elegant and gimmicky, have forced their toy-store aesthetic onto macOS. The result: an interface that looks smeared rather than sophisticated.
Sadly, not even the legendary Apple Polishing Cloth can wipe away this mess.
As usual with these kinds of “decisions” (that clearly don’t reflect what most users need), the pendulum is already swinging back. Sooner or later we’ll probably get a full “turn off Liquid Glass” option — and when Apple checks the device analytics (for those who allowed it), they’ll discover only a handful of people voted this was a brilliant idea.
Hopefully, whoever greenlit this nonsense will have to answer for it.
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In ten years Apple will invent Solid Contrast and it will be all the rage.
Well when you can't realistically grow mobile screen size taller or wider what do you do? You make it deeper of course. Logical and sort of brilliant, if complexity-forward.
Apple is promoting the new Liquid Glass design in iOS 26, showing off the ways that third-party developers are embracing the aesthetic in their apps. On its developer website, Apple is featuring a visual gallery that demonstrates how "teams of all sizes" are creating Liquid Glass experiences.
The gallery features examples of Liquid Glass in apps for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac. Apple includes comparisons of how each app looked in iOS 18, and how it looks in iOS 26.
Apple's examples feature apps that have eliminated bottom navigation bars in favor of smaller navigation options, apps with Liquid Glass sliders and buttons, and apps using popovers.
Featured apps include Crumbl, Tide Guide, GrowPal, Lumy, Sky Guide, Linearity Curve Graphic Design, LTK, American Airlines, Lowe's, Photoroom, OmniFocus 4, CNN, Essayist, and Lucid Motors.
The design comparisons are best viewed on Apple's site, and are worth checking out if you're curious about how third-party apps are incorporating Liquid Glass.
Article Link: Apple Shares Liquid Glass Design Gallery
This liquid glass looks beautiful only in that heading picture. iOS implementation is far from it. Where is it? I don't see it. Looks like it's stretched in real life.
Dead wrong. The form factor of the mobile phone has, in a matter of a few years, assumed the familiarity (it's key quality) of the toggle light switch we all look for near the doorway into a dark room. Liquid Glass injects a floating ephemeral elusive layer of reality which reduces clarity and focus, unfortunately. It's not as if naysayers are the new luddites but are curating a new thing. Count me in...or out...or there?