…But Why?

[Eso]

This is what I keep coming back to when thinking about liquid glass. I was hoping for a vision OS aesthetic redesign. But this liquid glass design feels very disjointed and out of place. They way Apple explains it, it sounds more like they were trying to invent a pseudo physics engine - a purely digital substance that can be manipulated in a uniquely digital way, such as stretching and warping. It reminds me a lot of the introduction of Material Design meant to mimic layered paper.

It’s like they somehow wanted apps and objects to be made out of this “digital material”. Something that could be molded and manipulated by the user. But instead it just ended up being the buttons and menus?

Transparent glass is legitimately just the absolute worst backdrop possible for buttons and menus. I’m sure we all felt pretty cool and tried drawing on glass at one point - but the novelty wears off as we go “yeah this is really impractical”. There’s a reason we use whiteboards, index cards, and post it notes, not plexiglass.

Liquid glass feels like a demo where someone made a convincing physics engine for light and created a convincing looking glass bead. “It looks so cool as it glides over my app, refracting and warping the light!” It really does, but how the hell do you go from that to “ok the glass is a button now lol”.

It just doesn’t logically follow at all. It feels like a half-baked concept that can be really enjoyable, but they never quite figured out how best to use it.

 

[WRXiceman]

It's literally in beta phase, and no where near complete yet.
This happens with every single new iOS beta.

 

[Macbookey]

Apple Glasses precursor.

 

[Absrnd]

Because...new.

You are "irked" because Apple didn't design it like you wanted it, and now you are ranting about it.
sorry, but that is life, get used to it.

 

[HouseLannister]

 

[Knowlege Bomb]

Outside of gaming, Apple’s silicon is beyond overpowered for the average user. They tried this back with iOS 7 and the processor struggled.

I think it’s perfectly reasonable to make the OS prettier now that the hardware can handle it. It’s early days but from what I’ve seen so far it’s a huge improvement. YMMV, of course.

 

[HouseLannister]

It's literally in beta phase, and no where near complete yet.

People keep saying this. Like only testers get to see the new OS and there wasn’t a YouTube video, a bunch of press, and a lot of podcasters chiming in. Maybe Apple shouldn’t have shown it off so early if it was this rough. If you have to defend a multi-trillion dollar corporation for making a bad reveal…

 

[WRXiceman]

People keep saying this. Like only testers get to see the new OS and there wasn’t a YouTube video, a bunch of press, and a lot of podcasters chiming in. Maybe Apple shouldn’t have shown it off so early if it was this rough. If you have to defend a multi-trillion dollar corporation for making a bad reveal…

I'm not sure how you took my post as 'defending' Apple?

I stated a fact that the OS is in beta and not yet complete.

 

[staypuftforums]

Because...new.

You are "irked" because Apple didn't design it like you wanted it, and now you are ranting about it.
sorry, but that is life, get used to it.

I don’t think that’s true at all.

Sometimes, new things can be objectively (or subjectively) bad.

I personally found Big Sur to be an improvement over the design that it replaced. Same with iOS 7.

iOS 26 just looks like hot garbage, as far as I’m concerned. macOS 26 too. iPadOS looks great though.

 

[Knowlege Bomb]

Always hilarious to see people using a product of a company they condemn because they don’t agree with a cosmetic change made over a decade after their last major redesign.

It’s early days. Take a deep breath and continue using your Apple phone on iOS 18.

 

[Yr Blues]

I feel like developers were too scared to tell them it wasn't working and they were afraid of getting fired. 😅

 

[Zazoh]

It will be fine. Most consumers will enjoy it and that is all the company worries about in the long run.

 

[throAU]

To give Samsung something (else) to copy and then somehow claim to be innovative.

 

[HouseLannister]

To give Samsung something (else) to copy and then somehow claim to be innovative.

Yeah, but I can throw another launcher on my Samsung. Apple just need to give users choices or give developers freedom to make launchers. This is just a bad skin on top of the old Springboard. It doesn't feel new at all.

 

[P_Watt]

It's literally in beta phase, and no where near complete yet.
This happens with every single new iOS beta.

yes but glass is a keynote announced feature, it won't change all that much!

 

[WRXiceman]

yes but glass is a keynote announced feature, it won't change all that much!

It's already been adjusted and it's still in developer beta.

 

[Eso]

Well I guess they have no good answers, they are at least willing to walk it back. They are stripping it out piece by piece it looks like, as the right image can in no way be considered liquid glass.

 

[bbfc]

Well I guess they have no good answers, they are at least willing to walk it back. They are stripping it out piece by piece it looks like, as the right image can in no way be considered liquid glass.

View attachment 2526835

I think over the next few betas they'll tweak it again and again to try and resemble the way it was in beta 1/2. We're only 3 betas in, there's plenty more to come.

 

[Wieslawo]

I think over the next few betas they'll tweak it again and again to try and resemble the way it was in beta 1/2. We're only 3 betas in, there's plenty more to come.

But they has had whole fricking year to do it right way.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

Well I guess they have no good answers, they are at least willing to walk it back. They are stripping it out piece by piece it looks like, as the right image can in no way be considered liquid glass.

View attachment 2526835

They applied the liquid glass effects to the wrong layer. They should make the scrolly background glass like, with album art borders that shine and reflect the light as you move the phone, with a frosted overlay for buttons.

Instead they decided to make the buttons clear and... I'm just not sure what they were thinking.

 

[Yr Blues]

But they has had whole fricking year to do it right way.

Marketing department pushes them to roll out the next new thing to sell more product by making older phones obsolete.

 

[navaira]

Well I guess they have no good answers, they are at least willing to walk it back. They are stripping it out piece by piece it looks like, as the right image can in no way be considered liquid glass.

View attachment 2526835

I saw this on The Verge and I thought, wow, Liquid Glass got deglassed. I like the new version much more from legibility point of view, but it might need renaming. I suggest Flat Frost.

 

[Tozovac]

Because, you know, all of us wish the paper on our desks and in our books was transparent/translucent.

 

[tbgb50]

At least for me, LG is a good strategy to deflect conversation off of Apple's AI failures and all of the iPhone 16s they sold based on empty promises.

 

[Tozovac]

At least for me, LG is a good strategy to deflect conversation off of Apple's AI failures and all of the iPhone 16s they sold based on empty promises.

Aha possibly the first example of LG fixing/improving some function or opportunity outside of giving the Marketing department something to be excited about.