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Do you like Liquid Glass?


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    275
Wouldn’t a straightforward poll of 1(hate it)to 5(love it) be more telling? I mean, if “It's growing on me”, isn’t it likely that “I don’t hate it”? Do we interpret “I don’t hate it” to be a positive or negative response since that could just as easily be “I don’t love it” (therefore, neutral)? If “I don’t see a difference with iOS 18”, then doesn’t how much I like iOS 26 actually depend on how much I liked iOS 18? Sure it’s just for fun, but man! the ambiguity drives me nuts!! 😬
 
It just seems quite fake.

It's not glass. Why make it look like something it is not.

It's like have a UI that mimics cotton candy or slime mold or something. Pointless/silly. Just get back to basic graphic design principles.
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The poll disagrees with you.
 
It just seems quite fake.

It's not glass. Why make it look like something it is not.

It's like have a UI that mimics cotton candy or slime mold or something. Pointless/silly. Just get back to basic graphic design principles.

Real glass would look incredibly illegible on most surfaces.

The initial iOS26 rendered demos they were doing looked great, but they are not practical.

Glass is not something new to Apple, remember Aqua? It came out before Vista.
 
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I enjoy it - at first I didn't like it, but iOS 26.6 is quite stable and really smooth. It does help I went from a 13 mini to 17! I use the "Clear" app style, too, so you could say I'm all in. 😄

Funny enough, my time on the iOS 27 beta, I dislike the changes they made to it/app icon designs.
 
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How have they fixed the annoying shine though? I updated Telegram on my 16 Plus on iOS 18 and didn’t realise it would change the design and it’s the ugliest app I’ve ever seen now.
They removed the white outlines that moved with the tilt of your device in iOS 27.
Also regarding your iPhone 11 complaints, apparently iOS 27, even in its beta form, is a massive step in the right direction in regards to older devices.
 
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iOS 7 = multi-colored unicorn puke.

Design references for iOS 7: Playskool, Fisher Price, Romper Room and the Tutor Time daycare franchise. Oh. And Captain Kangaroo!

iOS 26 = multi-colored unicorn puke.

Design references for iOS 26: Playskool, Fisher Price, Romper Room and the Tutor Time daycare franchise. Oh. And Captain Kangaroo!


See, I can challenge someone’s joy too.
 
I only had a chance to use iOS 6 many years after it has been unsupported.

I don't like the App Library and widgets on home screen introduced in iOS 14. I don't like the lock screen customization in iOS 16. I don't like the Photos app introduced in iOS 18. There are so many other things I don't like that I may not be able to list all.

If you have an iPhone running iOS 18 and another running iOS 26, you will realize that iOS 26 is basically iOS 18 with Liquid Glass added. The Control Center introduce in iOS 11 was used until iOS 17 and the updated Control Center in iOS 18 is the same in iOS 26 but with Liquid Glass.

I have used Windows Vista and Windows 7 with the Aero theme as default and unlike the visual and usability issues in Safari with Liquid Glass, Microsoft did not make internet explorer use Aero with browser tabs so you can still read and know what the inactive tab was about.

When I saw Liquid Glass in leaks and in the WWDC 2025 presentation, I decided that I will not upgrade to the newest release.

I have used Windows XP on a Pentium ii 266MHz and 64MB and I know that with iPhone 11 the oldest model compatible with iOS 26 and iOS 27, I will never have a good experience unlike when using the latest model. No Liquid Glass unless I need a new one to replace my iPhone 11 Pro Max.

Do I like Liquid Glass? No. I do see that they are giving a slider to make Liquid Glass as opaque as possible but it is still not back to the look of iOS 18 and older.

I hate that the guy who started (or the face of) Liquid Glass left without making sure that it is usable before going away to work with Meta. But at least, Apple is attempting to undo some of the damage that Liquid Glass caused. I just wish that the performance will be back to iOS 6 running on iPhone 4S or iPhone 5.
 
Its funny, how things evolve, this time last year, people were losing their collective poop on how bad liquid glass is, how apple really screwed up, how apple lost its design language. One year later, everyone is lauding it...
I never dissed it. I like it. I've been consistent all along, like with everything else. I'm excited about new things, but cautiously excited. And then I wait. And while I'm waiting, I don't be dissing the new thing. It's just not a productive use of my time.

1) Read about the new feature. Study it and think about ways I can use it or benefit from it.
2) Try not to lose my own collective poop about it, whatever "it" is.
3) If it sounds good, wait for it to come out. If it sounds bad, well...wait for it to come out.
4) Try it out and try not to prejudge it.
5) Pay attention to the negatives, but don't get hung up on them.
6) See if I can easily think of more positives than negatives, especially after having done #4 above.
7) Buy it if I like it.

That's why the dynamic island, the notch, the hole punch, Magsafe, a heavier Watch Ultra, a heavier iPhone, a foldable iPhone, a $2500 iPhone, and the camera plateau all don't bother me too much. More people need to stop prejudging things. You get yourself all upset, you break out in acne, lose sleep over something that really isn't all that important anyhow, and you never find peace in your life.

And from there, you loose your poop. We all need to slow our roll, just a bit. We would definitely be a lot happier. And there'd be less poop on the streets! 😎

Carry on!
 
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It just seems quite fake.

It's not glass. Why make it look like something it is not.

It's like have a UI that mimics cotton candy or slime mold or something. Pointless/silly. Just get back to basic graphic design principles.
With that principle I can also say that macOS aqua didn't look like water and was therefore terrible, that macOS X's reflective dock also looked quite fake and terrible, the iOS 6 camera icon doesn't look like a camera so it is therefore bad UI. I could go on. In my opinion, the point of a graphical user interface is to imitate some real world elements to make the interface more user friendly. Glass is a good choice, because in most people's eyes, the iOS 27 looks pretty good. Maybe not like glass, but still good.
So yeah, I don't really see the point of this theory unless you are trying to argue that we should go back to telling our computers and phones commands on a black screen. After all, text IS text.
PS: Dear liquid glass haters, if you want to argue, let's keep it respectful. 🙂
 
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The old 'Aqua Skeuomorphism' had played itself out, and was in need of a good refreshing. The whole flat, lifeless UI that replaced it wasn't it, and it's high time it went away too. I like Liquid Glass because it brings some life and (a very small amount of) depth back to the OS. There's still a long way to go though. We need to bring back more colour, banish the white on white colour schemes, add more depth (not take it away GG!), etc.
 
They removed the white outlines that moved with the tilt of your device in iOS 27.
That is great! 27 is indeed an improvement in terms of design, but when you don’t like the concept, well… it’s tough to like the whole thing regardless. I welcome these improvements, however. I hope they continue for when I inevitably have to run Liquid Glass (years away perhaps).
Also regarding your iPhone 11 complaints, apparently iOS 27, even in its beta form, is a massive step in the right direction in regards to older devices.
A massive step vs 26 in terms of performance, not vs iOS 13 (the only comparison worth something). And presumably battery life is just as awful. A major update has never improved battery life. Not even iOS 12; in fact, iOS 12 was garbage in terms of battery life, too, in spite of all of the praise it gets for its stability.
 
They removed the white outlines that moved with the tilt of your device in iOS 27.
I reported that as a bug when I updated to iOS 27. I was very disappointed, it took away some of the life iOS 26 had brought back to iOS.
Also regarding your iPhone 11 complaints, apparently iOS 27, even in its beta form, is a massive step in the right direction in regards to older devices.
Given how well iOS 26 is working on my wife's iPhone 11, the upgrade to iOS 27 should be pretty nice on it!
 
As I mentioned in a comment 3 months ago, one early poll put the dissatisfaction at 26% (and that includes people who hadn't tried it personally). That means that most people were indifferent or liked it. What's interesting is that this current self-selected poll is also sitting at 26% dislike.

That's is two data points suggesting the same thing -- Liquid Glass was never as unpopular as social media led people to believe. People disliking it are in the minority.
 
The problem with Liquid Glass during iOS 26 was definitely that it was harder to read when the right, or wrong, content was behind the UI elements. Apple Music was particularly bad. I did not like how things like the new "Cancel" and "Confirm/Done" buttons were replaced with larger icons of an X and check mark. They require more padding and, to me, they waste space. iOS 27, unfortunately, keeps these as they are.

iOS 27 does, however, significantly improve the readability of Liquid Glass in areas where it would be hard to read on iOS 26. I never disliked Liquid Glass, I think the idea of having the UI appear to be crafted from the same material the user will use to interact with it is neat. In iOS 26 they toned down the glassiness of Liquid Glass with subsequent updates which made it pointless. I prefer the slider in iOS 27 where I can have it as glassy as possible, others can return it to a more matte or solid appearance like in iOS 18.
 
I like it, but they've improved it a lot in iOS 27 and macOS 27.
Before that I hated it in macOS 26, but liked it in iOS 26.
 
Real glass would look incredibly illegible on most surfaces.

The initial iOS26 rendered demos they were doing looked great, but they are not practical.

Glass is not something new to Apple, remember Aqua? It came out before Vista.
NO, I will only accept a change if it is changing it to something I’m familiar with. Changes to make things new… who does that? /s
 
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I don't hate it, but there are some bad UI decisions (like when a window overlaps the - also mostly useless - menu bar on the ipad) and while the glass distortion sometimes looks pretty cool I can't help but think of the system ressources needed to render it.
 
Its funny, how things evolve, this time last year, people were losing their collective poop on how bad liquid glass is, how apple really screwed up, how apple lost its design language. One year later, everyone is lauding it.

When Apple announced Liquid Glass, I thought it was going to be a return to the Aqua motif, but alas it wasn't. I run hot and cold on it. I think since my Studio is on Tahoe, its fine. Like prior versions of macos, the system doesn't get in the way of what I want to do, and at the end of the day that's what I want.

I haven't paid too much attention to GG, so I don't know what changes may be coming, and I usually wait until .1 or .2 updates are released, as I don't want to be on the bleeding edge
Humans also get used to living on the street, not having a job. We get used to ANYTHING, eventually. So that’s actually not a sign of quality.

Its also way better than it was, but dagn, I do miss the flat modern look of 18.

As Apple’s user base increases, every iteration of divisive design decision will p-off more and more users. So, it’d be nice if they have users more control. We don’t all have to wear the same T-shirt.
 
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Liquid Glass in iOS27/macOS27 is better than Sequoia. I still have Sequoia on main machine, it looks dated if you put them side by side. Could I live with Sequoia for the foreseeable future? Sure, but time to move on. Obviously this is where Apple is headed and performance optimization in *27 is welcome.

Apple can't please everyone.
 
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I thought iOS 7-18 looked great, but got boring. I started being ready for a redesign around iOS 16. iOS 17 was pushing it, iOS 18 just felt old.

I loved the idea, but hated the implementation of everything announced at WWDC25. The refractions were all ugly and crooked. It only looked like glass about 25% of the time. Sometimes it looked like leftover milk in a cereal bowl. So inconsistent.

The WWDC26 announcements have the potential to be my favorite OSes Apple has ever announced. I just need them to fix light mode on iOS and iPadOS so it matches what was actually announced at WWDC. MacOS 27 looks awesome in comparison.

Once that’s done, I may finally enjoy liquid glass. Currently, the light-mode edges are distracting because the specular highlights are missing.
But hey iOS 18 added Dark Mode icons.
 
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