No Major Changes to Liquid Glass Expected Across iOS 27 and macOS 27

[MacRumors]

Apple's new Liquid Glass interface introduced across iOS 26, macOS Tahoe, and its other latest software platforms is apparently here to stay.

In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said the latest internal versions of iOS 27 and macOS 27 do not have major Liquid Glass design changes. He also mentioned how Apple's new software design chief, Steve Lemay, was "a driving force" behind Liquid Glass and was "deeply involved in its development."

Lemay joined Apple in 1999. He succeeded Alan Dye, who left Apple for Meta at the end of last year. Under his leadership, it is likely that Apple will focus on gradually improving Liquid Glass. This would be similar to Apple's approach with iOS 7, which did away with skeuomorphism in favor of a flat design and was then refined over the years.

Apple already provided iPhone users with a few Liquid Glass customization options through software updates. iOS 26.1 added a "Tinted" option that increases the opacity of Liquid Glass elements across the system, and iOS 26.2 introduced a slider that allows you to adjust the opacity of Liquid Glass for the Lock Screen's clock.

Apple was initially working on a system-wide Liquid Glass slider for iOS 26, but it ran into engineering challenges when trying to extend it across the entire system, according to Gurman. However, he said Apple could go back to the drawing board and manage to get the system-wide slider working in an iOS 27 version.

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Article Link: No Major Changes to Liquid Glass Expected Across iOS 27 and macOS 27

 

[MacUserFella]

Not even an option to get rid of it?

 

[chrono1081]

Ugh at least fix it on iPad OS. Mousing over buttons in the toolbar looks like pure jank.

 

[TFrank2]

LG doesn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon. Just hoping for more stability and usability enhancements as we go

 

[QuarterSwede]

Not even an option to get rid of it?

It’s a design language not a theme, so no.

Personally, I really like it on iOS and iPadOS. It’s just not finished on macOS yet and still looks janky on Finder and window resizing (which the next update will fix).

 

[jdavid_rp]

Nice, personally I find it refreshing and opens lots of possibilities with the fluidity of the buttons and how they merge or expand to show more elements. But of course it needs some refinement, can’t deny that

 

[businessnumbersmoneypeopl]

Basically, a new person arrives, makes an overconfident but poor design choice, and the decision becomes irreversible because egos are now at stake?

 

[I7guy]

LG doesn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon. Just hoping for more stability and usability enhancements as we go

Exactly my thought. Refine it and allow toggles to reduce it.

 

[HouseLannister]

came to see if there was a poll to vote “Boo!” Guess not

 

[I7guy]

Basically, a new person arrives, makes an overconfident but poor design choice, and the decision becomes irreversible because egos are now at stake?

Citations to prove:
1. The person was overconfident
2. It was a poor design choice
3 decisions are irreversible because egos

 

[triptolemus]

Doin' me a disappoint.

 

[businessnumbersmoneypeopl]

Citations to prove:
1. The person was overconfident
2. It was a poor design choice
3 decisions are irreversible because egos

Indeed, and hence the question mark in the original. It would be a typical pattern, though. And regarding the second point, that seems to be a very widely shared judgement, which I also share.

 

[QuarterSwede]

Citations to prove:
1. The person was overconfident
2. It was a poor design choice
3 decisions are irreversible because egos

This is MR forums, it’s all armchair theories here!

 

[UliBaer]

Oh well, just another year on iOS 17.7.2 for the win! 👍

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

He also mentioned how Apple's new software design chief, Steve Lemay, was "a driving force" behind Liquid Glass and was "deeply involved in its development."

Oh dear god what nightmare is this

 

[Love-hate 🍏 relationship]

I use tinted. It's ugly as hell but it makes the interface easier on the eyes.

 

[I7guy]

Indeed, and hence the question mark in the original. It would be a typical pattern, though.

So in spite of internal flaws and releasing products with poor design choices Apple still massively succeeds?

 

[Spock]

That’s not cool. Since using the iPhone since almost day 1, I’ve never had an update that annoyed me long term as much as 26 has. Inconveniences are usually fixed within a few weeks but not lately.

 

[HowEver]

This is MR forums, it’s all armchair theories here!

View attachment 2613730

Is that an armchair critic sitting in a chair with no arms?

 

[Kylo83]

Another boring year for releases, all ai focused, iOS 26 didn’t really bring anything new apart from a theme pack. We need a total redesign, there’s still apps that haven’t even added dark icons. Everything is all over the place

 

[Kylo83]

iPadOS is so laggy and ui issues on m4 iPad Pro, the software is useless

 

[Sputman99]

IMHO

1 . Get rid of the silly lines
2 . Put the icon colours back to what they were
3 . Reduce the stupid round corners
4 . Please please stop all the popping of menus that don’t work with dark/light

In fact just roll it back - and MacOS as well - who was in charge for this ? Oh .. he left

 

[marblesbarkley]

let’s eliminate the rendering problems on even the newest iphones, yeah

unless the lag is supposed to make everyone feel like their devices are somehow already out of date…

 

[Sputman99]

Basically, a new person arrives, makes an overconfident but poor design choice, and the decision becomes irreversible because egos are now at stake?

Then he leaves when nobody likes it and he was the management fave at the time

 

[Sputman99]

It’s a design language not a theme, so no.

Personally, I really like it on iOS and iPadOS. It’s just not finished on macOS yet and still looks janky on Finder and window resizing (which the next update will fix).

Liquid Jank