How would you improve Liquid Glass?

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

There has clearly been a lot of discussion surrounding Apple’s implementation of Liquid Glass on Mac (or in general), so I thought it would be interesting to talk about what changes, if any, users would want to see in the future - hopefully a more positive thread.

It’s a good opportunity to create mock-ups or share ideas.

Personally, I would like to see Apple replace the (weak) ‘tinted’ option with something that tones down a greater variety of Liquid Glass’s characteristics, including the drop shadows, removal of title bars/button backgrounds, and use of overlaying sidebars that can’t be hidden anyway.

 

[benwiggy]

Remove all Transparency. Stop content areas scrolling into the window frame.
Loose the rounded corners, or at least reduce the radius drastically.

Set the toolbar/window top panel to be in a stronger colour; or possibly even a non-solid pattern like the old steel effect. This would allow more contrast for the highlights and shadows of the Liquid Glass controls.

Interestingly, Preview has a preference to set a colour for the background of its windows. Inevitably, this bleeds into the Toolbar, to good effect. (I think).

Compare this:

to this:

My main beef with the interface (apart from transparency) is also true of Sequoia -- it's just all so white. Bring back some colour and contrast.

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

Interestingly, Preview has a preference to set a colour for the background of its windows. Inevitably, this bleeds into the Toolbar, to good effect. (I think).

Compare this:
View attachment 2598357

to this:

View attachment 2598358

I had no idea about this, thanks for sharing!

 

[nebojsak]

Some kind of this would be nice

 

[Wolf1701]

Personally, I would like to see Apple replace the (weak) ‘tinted’ option with something that tones down a greater variety of Liquid Glass’s characteristics, including the drop shadows, removal of title bars/button backgrounds, and use of overlaying sidebars that can’t be hidden anyway.

The Sequoia GUI with only the menu bar (optionally) transparent? And the transparent dock isn't bad either.

 

[savantgk3]

I just want to remove the shiny white "glass" edge off every window, widget, button, and icon to make the UI look more flat like Sequoia/iOS 18. Usually little things like that don't bother me, but it makes the UI feel more playful to me in a way I just don't prefer

Also when doing split screen view on iPad there is no reason for the window corners in the middle of the screen to be rounded. A distracting waste of space.

I guess "a distracting waste of space" is my vibe about the entire Liquid Glass thing in general. Here's hoping they abandon in for 27, or at least give several different "theme" options for the UI. Not sure why they can't just do that now but...

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

I just want to remove the shiny white "glass" edge off every window, widget, button, and icon to make the UI look more flat like Sequoia/iOS 18. Usually little things like that don't bother me, but it makes the UI feel more playful to me in a way I just don't prefer

This is an interesting point, that even just removing the inherent 'glassiness' from the elements would be an improvement, since they technically don't serve a purpose.

 

[F.O. Krupke]

Before "improving" Liquid Glass I would implore Apple to address the numerous bugs in Tahoe and iOS 26.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I would start by reverting to the corner radius in Sequoia.

Additionally I would focus on contrast and legibility as priorities at every decision.

 

[chrono1081]

My biggest beef is consistency.

If you look at an iPad (without a blurred background to see it easier) look at the glass difference between the toolbar and the background of the apps in the App Library. The "thickness" is inconsistent.

Also it doesn't feel like liquid or glass to me at all with the buttons. What I would expect a "liquid" to do would be something like mousing over and seeing the Liquid Glass bubble up from under the cursor (that's hard to describer but imagine a bead of water appearing under UI components you mouse over showing it's interactive).

Look at the Safari toolbar. Currently it's this weird inconsistent lens thing on the iPad that shows up, and it doesn't even show on macOS. For a Liquid Glass I would like to see what I described above.

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

My biggest beef is consistency.

I agree, and it’s the concept itself that has led to this.

LG sidebars are now a separate floating window (pill) that hovers over the left of main window itself.

Now even if all sidebars were collapsible this would only be a ‘meh’ design choice simply because it’s more distracting to see something float over content rather than being connected to the window and out of the way.

But some sidebars, like on Finder, are persistent and therefore have no reason to appear as a collapsible item. Simply: if items can’t be hidden, then they should be directly connected to the window. There is absolutely no need have these floating items on the left of Finder. It’s inconsistent in function and the additional lines are more visually busy.

 

[benwiggy]

But some sidebars, like on Finder, are persistent and therefore have no reason to appear as a collapsible item.

You can collapse/hide the Finder sidebar. View menu > Hide Sidebar.

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

You can collapse/hide the Finder sidebar. View menu > Hide Sidebar.

Thanks for the correction.

 

[kkclstuff]

contrasting text on colors! (can we get BLACK text back please?)
no transparency when text is in front!

 

[ProbablyDylan]

Mostly kill the edge highlights, tweak corner radii, reduce the use of padding, reduce the width of drop shadows, and get rid of the annoying light/dark color switching. "Tinted" glass should be the default with the transparent version being used very sparsely when content is truly full screen (or full window). Safari should also look more like the iOS version - bring back compact tabs using the new design language.

 

[Ursadorable]

Honestly, the UI changes bother me far more than the glossy lipstick they put on the pig.

Start by reverting the UI elements that float overtop of content would be a good start.

 

[TumbleDryer]

I agree, and it’s the concept itself that has led to this.

LG sidebars are now a separate floating window (pill) that hovers over the left of main window itself.

Now even if all sidebars were collapsible this would only be a ‘meh’ design choice simply because it’s more distracting to see something float over content rather than being connected to the window and out of the way.

But some sidebars, like on Finder, are persistent and therefore have no reason to appear as a collapsible item. Simply: if items can’t be hidden, then they should be directly connected to the window. There is absolutely no need have these floating items on the left of Finder. It’s inconsistent in function and the additional lines are more visually busy.

The Finder sidebar is one of the biggest distracting elements for me. It's completely in your face and is hideous. So much wasted space with all the padding required for a completely useless effect. I miss crisp clean edges. All these highlights are blurred and give a soft unappealing aesthetic. Just getting rid of the highlights and simply having a thin key line would look better as it would appear more consistent. For me nothing looks 'glass' like as everything has soft edges. Glass needs hard edges to look glass like.

 

[AlanMarron]

My biggest beef is consistency.

If you look at an iPad (without a blurred background to see it easier) look at the glass difference between the toolbar and the background of the apps in the App Library. The "thickness" is inconsistent.

Also it doesn't feel like liquid or glass to me at all with the buttons. What I would expect a "liquid" to do would be something like mousing over and seeing the Liquid Glass bubble up from under the cursor (that's hard to describer but imagine a bead of water appearing under UI components you mouse over showing it's interactive).

Look at the Safari toolbar. Currently it's this weird inconsistent lens thing on the iPad that shows up, and it doesn't even show on macOS. For a Liquid Glass I would like to see what I described above.

Every build I hope for more consistency. For Safari, Mail, and Messages to look the same, only distinguished by function. But no—they appear to be developed by different teams working in isolation.

Every week, I pull my test mule out of the cabinet to see if it’s just me. Then the text scrolls under the date and time illegibly and I think, “Nope. 18 is goooood.”

 

[jdw13]

I was going to say "remove transparency" but benwiggy already did....
{Transparency has caused me some very serious problems... discussed (but not shown) in poor contrast of text selection.

 

[maflynn]

UI elements that float overtop of content would be a good start.

I find that to be kind of annoying, its not a show stopper but I just don't like how looks and behaves. Maybe with subsequent updates, this will be dialed in

 

[maflynn]

it's just all so white. Bring back some colour and contrast.

I think this is a missed opportunity where the glassy look can be highlighted by the use of color and contrast.

 

[Genelec8341]

I wouldn't improve it, I would abandon it altogether and go back to boring and easily legible. 🥱

 

[PotentPeas]

Text in transparent containers, or icons in transparent containers, is just asking for usability issues when whatever is behind this container makes the contents of the container difficult to distinguish.

I haven't had much of an issue with this on iOS with the "tinted" liquid glass option turned on. This should have been the default appearance, with turning it off being opt-in. But the "tinted" option helps less on macOS, and there are definitely some instances on macOS where text rendered in a transparent container is gross and unreadable. (See this post.)

Apple is supposed to be a champion of accessibility. They shouldn't have shipped something like this.

Otherwise, the main issue that I have is wasted space on macOS, and also consistency. For the former, UI elements spaced further apart than before, for no good reason (other than possibly that they are planning to also use this as a touch-based interface in the next year or so). For the latter, there are ample examples of this, icons on every menu item being one of them, and also inconsistent border radius on windows leading to a visual mess if you tend to operate with multiple apps expanded to fill the screen. (You can see the corners of an app with a small border radius if you have an app with a large border radius on top of it. Never was like this before.)

I don't doubt that this will get cleaned up over time. But, it really feels like they rushed it out the door.

 

[mansplains]

Wasted space and giant elements are my complaints. I scale my displays to maximize space, and now the actual content portion of LG apps has been reduced at least 10%. Thankfully it doesn’t impact most of my mission critical apps.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

Give me buttons with defined borders please. I wish I could get Aqua back. Liquid glass is just farther in the wrong direction.