Completely off topic, but if you want...
Just to try one (feedback with multiple confirmations) on iPadOS, try force closing apps... you'll notice something strange (many don't close and remain hidden).
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How would you improve Liquid Glass?
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Just to try one (feedback with multiple confirmations) on iPadOS, try force closing apps... you'll notice something strange (many don't close and remain hidden).
All of those look completely awful.
Like "day one of playing around with UI design" bad.
This is so embarrassing to watch Apple, of all companies, be going through this.
Revert the UI to "last known good" which is probably Sonoma. Sonoma is what is on this laptop and I have no complaints except that there is a bit of bleed through of the yellow disk on the left to a finder window over it. Sequoia might be fine too, I haven't used it enough to say.
The key point is that I do not need to see what is on the other side of my laptop screen. It is not an Augmented Reality device. The whole Liquid Glass debacle seems to come from some desire to make every interface the same for the sake of visual consistency regardless of utility. Not every tool is a variation of a hammer.
The key point is that I do not need to see what is on the other side of my laptop screen. It is not an Augmented Reality device. The whole Liquid Glass debacle seems to come from some desire to make every interface the same for the sake of visual consistency regardless of utility. Not every tool is a variation of a hammer.
This 👆
Wonderfully and concisely articulated.
For macOS in particular, Liquid Glass is a flawed concept from the get go.
The thing is, Opera has just adapted to the new macOS look, and it will most likely adapt to the next macOS design, and do so even better.
MS Edge Look with Tahoe,
Vivaldi look,
Opera Developer look with auto-hidden side bar,
Safari appears to have got everything wrong with the address bar...
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It pains me to say that I prefer the MS Edge look.
Marketing probably won out over those who knew about the flaws in the macOS interface.
Two or three details are clearly dedicated to macOS and work better than others (for example, customizable folders)... but then if you put them in the dock, you have to customize them again.
Wow that's even worse than Apples effort. Why are they unable to draw consistent straight lines and somehow added even more inconsistent radii.
I’ve gone to only using it in dark mode in macOS. It’s almost like light mode was a total afterthought, the contrast is almost non-existent.
And pleeeeeease bring back color to the Finder sidebar. I’m so sick of the black and white icons.
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The Finder has had the ability to set background colors and background images since Mac OS X 10.0, but with Tahoe the backgrounds do not extend under the sidebar, and only under the toolbars when scrolling. The entire idea of Liquid Glass is that the sidebar and controls hover over content which seems like a huge miss. During the betas column view in the Finder did not slide under the sidebar (it just disappeared) but they at least fixed that.
I hear what you are saying, but has Apple ever had an interface that just “sits there quietly”?
Aqua certainly didn’t, the animation Rush and realistic textures of Lion certainly didn’t.
Sitting there quietly has *never* been Apple’s thing.
macOS Tahoe introduced a major visual overhaul known as Liquid Glass, which serves as a modern, sophisticated successor to the early 2000s Aqua interface. While Aqua was characterised by candy-like, glossy, and water-like components, Liquid Glass is designed to mimic the physical properties of glass—reflecting, refracting, and blurring content in real time to create a sense of depth, focus, and transparency.
- The design is intended to draw attention to content rather than the UI, as the surrounding windows fade into the background.
- Liquid Glass brings macOS visually closer to iOS 26, creating a consistent look across iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
- Many elements of Tahoe are designed to work with on-device AI, including in-app navigation and the updated Spotlight search.
- Aqua sought to make UI elements look like physical candy or water droplets. Liquid Glass aims for a fluid glass look that reacts dynamically to what is behind it using light refraction and specular highlights.
- Aqua used semi-transparency mostly in menus. Liquid Glass features deep, lens-like transparency across the entire OS, including app icons, sidebars, and the menu bar.
- Liquid Glass elements are active; for example, buttons and sliders appear to 'come alive' with fluid animations and light reflections when touched or hovered over.
- macOS Tahoe allows users to apply colourful tints or even a clear glass look to app icons and folders, a level of customisation not present in the original Aqua era.
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If they were truly interested in users' opinions, there are plenty of places to find them... starting with this forum.they can't fix what they don't know about.Product Feedback
We would love to hear your comments about any of our hardware and software products. Send us your thoughts.www.apple.com
Thanks. I'm really interested in the commenter who I replied to, to reply back with what bugs they've seen. They broadly mentioned "bugs" as a general hand-waving but nothing specific was provided.
Over the years I've read many people complain about bugs but when I ask what they've seen, it's mostly crickets. I always appreciate people who reply and tell me bugs they've seen.
As for that particular bug, I've not seen that at all on my M2 iPad Air. Force closing apps always works for me. I'm not saying others don't have that bug, just that it hasn't affected me. It also doesn't affect my son's M1 Air. Could be mainly just older iPads?
Sorry, but no: iPad Pro M2 here, but I find it curious that it only affects some users. In fact, my iPad has very few apps. I noticed a (slight) improvement with 26.3 beta 2... but it's far from being resolved.
As I mentioned above, Liquid Glass has only just begun, and with macOS Tahoe in 2025, it will improve over time. All you need to do is be patient.
With Liquid Glass Apple made it clear that they wanted these onscreen elements to look like glass, we are leaning into the "computer thing looks like real thing" skeuomorphism-ish territory again. When we moved away from skeuomorphism with iOS 7 (and sorta Mavericks but really Yosemite) the design of applications and the OS looked like something that could only exist on a computer. I personally think, despite some misses, the design and behaviour of macOS and iOS peaked with macOS 10.12-10.14 (Sierra - Mojave) and iOS 10-13.
I can only speak for iOS and iPadOS as I have not updated to Tahoe on either of my Macs. Some parts of Liquid Glass look really good. I think the quick toggles look great. I like the volume and brightness sliders. I love the effect of pulling down the Notification Center. The problem with Liquid Glass is it is not consistent. The toggles are a refreshing take on what we had before while showing off the improved graphical capabilities of the hardware it runs on, but the X and checkmark symbols replacing "Cancel" and "Confirm" look amateur. In both cases the end result is the same but the aesthetics have changed. The windowed multitasking on the iPad is neat but in the process Apple butchered the already, in my opinion, functional multitasking present in iPadOS 18. The floating panels often waste space, especially in apps where information density is important like Mail and Files, and it is clear that Apple understands this because of how Mail and Finder behave on iPadOS. In landscape the apps have the floating sidebar but when rotating into portrait in Mail it reverts back to the old layout with the two distinct sections and in Files the sidebar is hidden and needs to be summoned, which introduces its own frustrations. None of this is even mentioning the lack of consistent search bar/icon placement in Apple's own apps.
I think Liquid Glass can look good, it has potential, and I like the idea of the UI looking like the material I interact with it on. However, I think Apple should rethink some of the ways in which they are using the glass aesthetic. They should tone down that wasted space to allow for more room for text and content to sit comfortably. I also think that while the floating buttons and options look neat for a tech demo there have been plenty of screenshots where it looks messy. The content of the app and the UI of the app should be more separate, I think a blur of about 20% would help with readability and the appearance of onscreen clutter a lot in those cases.
I can only speak for iOS and iPadOS as I have not updated to Tahoe on either of my Macs. Some parts of Liquid Glass look really good. I think the quick toggles look great. I like the volume and brightness sliders. I love the effect of pulling down the Notification Center. The problem with Liquid Glass is it is not consistent. The toggles are a refreshing take on what we had before while showing off the improved graphical capabilities of the hardware it runs on, but the X and checkmark symbols replacing "Cancel" and "Confirm" look amateur. In both cases the end result is the same but the aesthetics have changed. The windowed multitasking on the iPad is neat but in the process Apple butchered the already, in my opinion, functional multitasking present in iPadOS 18. The floating panels often waste space, especially in apps where information density is important like Mail and Files, and it is clear that Apple understands this because of how Mail and Finder behave on iPadOS. In landscape the apps have the floating sidebar but when rotating into portrait in Mail it reverts back to the old layout with the two distinct sections and in Files the sidebar is hidden and needs to be summoned, which introduces its own frustrations. None of this is even mentioning the lack of consistent search bar/icon placement in Apple's own apps.
I think Liquid Glass can look good, it has potential, and I like the idea of the UI looking like the material I interact with it on. However, I think Apple should rethink some of the ways in which they are using the glass aesthetic. They should tone down that wasted space to allow for more room for text and content to sit comfortably. I also think that while the floating buttons and options look neat for a tech demo there have been plenty of screenshots where it looks messy. The content of the app and the UI of the app should be more separate, I think a blur of about 20% would help with readability and the appearance of onscreen clutter a lot in those cases.
Apple will not revert to Aqua, as Liquid Glass is the future (for now). Apple Liquid Glass is a 2025 design language that serves as a translucent and dynamic material for app interfaces. It functions as a layer that sits above apps, mimicking the depth, translucency, and light-refracting properties of physical glass, which adapts to surrounding content and lighting conditions in real time.
At the moment, there’s a design competition between Apple and many other operating systems featuring a "liquid glass" aesthetic, such as ColorOS, HyperOS3, and HarmonyOS. So, it is the future for now. There's nothing else to do other than be patient!
At the moment, there’s a design competition between Apple and many other operating systems featuring a "liquid glass" aesthetic, such as ColorOS, HyperOS3, and HarmonyOS. So, it is the future for now. There's nothing else to do other than be patient!
It’s all relative isn’t it. By comparison with all the OS 26’s, recent versions of Apple’s operating systems were far quieter and less garish.
Animations are not inherently pretentious—many serve a very useful purpose. Take, for example, the way folders in the Finder appear to slide into place when you add, remove, rename, or reorder them. This is a nice, subtle way of reflecting movement in the real world, to help the user understand what just took place. It’s so subtle and predictable in fact, that I would say most users don’t even notice it! So when I said, ‘a great UI is happy to sit there quietly’, I wasn’t saying there should be no visual effects or animation at all—it was a figure of speech, describing the way a good UI doesn’t try to attract your attention (a critical alert would be an exception!) or impress you with it’s glittery bling.
Fair point. The Aqua UI was a dramatic departure from what people expected a UI to look like back then. And yeah, that was absolutely intentional on Apple’s part—to make people go, ‘oh wow’. And I have to admit, I too was saying ‘oh wow’. I was excited to get it on my system. So how is that any different to Liquid Glass today?
You have to look at these things with some context. The release of Aqua coincided with the release of Mac OS X 10.0. That was the most daring and dramatic change Mac OS has ever been through. It was, in fact, an entirely different operating system to Mac OS 9, as I’m sure you know. And the lead-up to this was one of the most dramatic corporate struggles of all time—Apple had failed in its attempts to turn Mac OS into a truly modern, stable operating system, which eventually lead to the acquisition of NeXT and brought Steve Jobs back to Apple. It was a truly monumental turning point in Apple’s history—rescuing it from almost certain demise, and steering it back onto the tracks.
So, while you certainly could argue that Aqua was unnecessarily garish in some respects, it was part of a bold celebration that many loyal Apple customers felt a part of. Furthermore, it opened our minds to new possibilities, communicating that Apple's hardware was now capable of moving beyond a dull UI with it’s predictable 1-pixel solid shadows. From a marketing perspective, it matched with Apple’s Think Different campaign. Here was an operating system that was clearly different.
But let’s put nostalgia aside for one moment and get real. I wasn’t happy with everything about OS X’s original design. Apple made a smart move here, and previewed Mac OS X 10.0 before it was officially launched, which gave users the chance to submit feedback—and submit feedback we did. I felt so strongly about some things that I actually published an article about it, criticising many of Apple's design choices. And you know what? Apple actually listened. I kid you not. I’m not saying they listened to me personally. I have no way of knowing whether anyone from Apple even read my article. But I can tell you, they addressed many of the issues I (and no doubt others) raised, and OS X, while far from perfect, was an impressive, pivotal moment in Apple’s history—reflected, somewhat, by the brave, wet face of Aqua.
Now, here we are 25 years later, and the context is entirely different. Liquid Glass comes at a time when Apple’s loyal user base isn’t cheering nearly as loud. Sure, we may be at another turning point in history, with the worldwide adoption of AI, but Apple is hardly leading the way in that department.
Rather than reflecting a celebration, Liquid Glass feels more like a distraction. And not just a distraction from Apple’s recent failures—a visual distraction while you are trying to get things done on your device! Aqua might have been colourful and bold, but it never impacted basic readability like Liquid Glass sometimes does. Whether you like the aesthetics of Liquid Glass or not (that’s subjective) you can’t argue that reduced legibility is anything but a step backwards.
So a lot of people might hate me for this but rather than doing that ridiculous thing where the traffic lights are on top of the side bar on Mac OS, make them like on iPad os where they animate and become bigger when you hover over it. This way you bring uniformity, whimsy, and actually make the interface more consistent rather than having these two separate styles where one is traffic lights over sidebar and the others don't have it at all. It also brings back much needed minimalism to this hog podge of an interface.
One thing that I think could be really cool would be adding additional options to the “Tint” option for Liquid Glass that would allow users to change the color similar to the tinted icons on the Home Screen. So then it would allow for a bit more user theming and customization, and perhaps some would find that useful for increased contrast as well. 👍🏻
Like the toolbar buttons in this mockup I made. 👍🏻
Like the toolbar buttons in this mockup I made. 👍🏻