It’s ironic that making them clear makes them less clear.
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iOS 26: Make App Icons Clear on Your iPhone Home Screen
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It's likely a seeding process for some future smart glasses OS. Apple knows people are slow to change and so are subliminally making them compliant. That sounds more sinister than it is. In their eyes maybe the future is those transparent phones from The Expanse?
What a complete waste of time, money and programmers. When these resources should be directed at getting what we already have working correctly and reliably. This is beyond annoying and a true illustration of the mess Apple is becoming. Cook out!!!
They really should show the moon for dark mode raher than the sun.
Edit: Maybe they intend this to be a full moon, since the yellow is different from the light mode version. But it doesn’t match the way weather apps normally depict nighttime.
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Flighty's App Icon in Dark Mode has a very clever design. However, Apple doesn't seem to care about such small details anymore.
Liquid Glass is for those who relish that occasional frustration of sometimes taking a little longer to find a desired icon/app in Control Center than on the main screens, since the CC’s flat, monochromatic icons sometimes blend together visually.
This reminds me of the very first home screen examples of iOS 7, where all of the bright, flat, neon color icons pretty much blended together. Then it took a few years for Apple to walk back that mistake:
I know this can’t be an original thought, but: As the adjective “Liquid” makes no sense for describing this new look, is it possible Apple is using “Liquid” now so that they can later differentiate it from a design language applied to a future glass pane iPhone? (Ugh….)
This reminds me of the very first home screen examples of iOS 7, where all of the bright, flat, neon color icons pretty much blended together. Then it took a few years for Apple to walk back that mistake:
I know this can’t be an original thought, but: As the adjective “Liquid” makes no sense for describing this new look, is it possible Apple is using “Liquid” now so that they can later differentiate it from a design language applied to a future glass pane iPhone? (Ugh….)
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Liquid Glass is for those who relish that occasional frustration of sometimes taking a little longer to find a desired icon/app in Control Center than on the main screens, since the CC’s flat, monochromatic icons sometimes blend together visually.
This reminds me of the very first home screen examples of iOS 7, where all of the bright, flat, neon color icons pretty much blended together. Then it took a few years for Apple to walk back that mistake:
I know this can’t be an original thought, but: As the adjective “Liquid” makes no sense for describing this new look, is it possible Apple is using “Liquid” now so that they can later differentiate it from a design language applied to a future glass pane iPhone?
Whats a glass pane phone good for? So people around you can see what's on your screen?
Only some CEO type that's completely isolated from everything else could find that useful.
It's all about organisation, no matter how the icons look. I love the option to have clear icons. Even CarPlay is looking better with the clear icons.
Who in their right mode would want this ?
The verge has a good overview of Liquid Glass. The comments are a good read too.
Universally hated.
The verge has a good overview of Liquid Glass. The comments are a good read too.
Universally hated.
Hmm, I foresee trouble if my dad gets the urge to install this iOS and gets his hands on those features.
He will be 80 in a month and his sight is declining fast.
C'mon Apple, you're going backwards.
He will be 80 in a month and his sight is declining fast.
C'mon Apple, you're going backwards.
In iOS 27 they’ll debut invisible icons and talk breathlessly about how you can have a completely clean minimalist screen. You’ll just have to know where they are based on muscle memory
They really need a slider to adjust to taste. The Light icons are too light and translucent. The Dark icons become nearly completely opaque. I'd like something in the middle.
And they'll give you a swipe gesture that turns on icon visibility for 4 seconds then automatically turn it back off. That way you can learn the positions. AI will detect that you have used used the icons 10 times without the swipe gesture and then turn off icon visibility for good, or at least until you reinstall the OS.
Can't wait for Cook's braindead non-usable future.
You can have same effect if you turn on accessibility and enable ‘greyscale’ as filter mode. Then everything looks the same, grey and illegible . Well done Tim Apple for this glorious invention praise be to thy holiness.
I know I am in the minority, but I absolutely love this. I have it turned on since beta 1 and it's great. I did not like the tinted ones from iOS 18, had those on for 1 hour and switch back - but this, I love.
Good thing is nobody is forced to use it. You like it? Turn it on. You hate it: don't turn it on ... its not even on by default, so no need to complain
Good thing is nobody is forced to use it. You like it? Turn it on. You hate it: don't turn it on ... its not even on by default, so no need to complain
Much simpler: you get an electric shock when pressing the wrong position. Worked for Pavlov.
I don't personally like the clear icons, and there's a reason it isn't the default, but I don't have a problem with the option being there for those who do.
With regards to Liquid Glass in general, I think there's a lot of reflexive "I don't like change" and bandwagon hating going on. A lot of the people complaining haven't even used it. The horror screenshots being passed around aren't reflective of actual use, and I suspect in a lot of cases were probably intentionally set up to make it look as bad as possible. At first I thought it was just because I was using it on the iPad that has more space, but after putting it on my phone yesterday, nope - I actually prefer Liquid Glass.
I'm in the minority on this but I think the previous design has absolutely had gotten stale and this refresh is a breath of fresh air. I'm also old enough to remember when everyone hated iOS 7's design during the betas, but then it came out and the average user loved it. I know my non-techie wife thinks it looks really cool. That's not to say I don't have quibbles, but all in all I think it's better than what we had. I certainly understand why people don't like it, and I'm not qualified to speak to potential accessibility issues, but I think the idea Apple is making a massive mistake and that it is going to be "universally hated" is going to look silly in a few months.
Remember Crystal Pepsi?
(Pepperidge Farms remembers. Clearly.)
(Pepperidge Farms remembers. Clearly.)
This whole thing could be an April Fools joke.
I wish it was.
I wish it was.
Apple loves to "Cook" up ridiculous terms like this.
"Liquid Retina"
"Liquid Glass"
"Neural Engine"
Subscribe to "Apple TV+ in the AppleTV App on an AppleTV"
WUT?
Apple is so much BS now.
It's really depressing to watch.
Sad to see Apple spends resources on this stuff while ignoring things like controls that may help with eye strain.
This is why I don't think Apple is capable of releasing a folding phone. It will be yet another canned project.
This is why I don't think Apple is capable of releasing a folding phone. It will be yet another canned project.
I’m in for a world of pain once my mother updates her devices to ios26 but before I can de-glassify all the cosmetic unnecessities of ios26.