Why Liquid Glass looks so good

[LiquidGlassfan]

Here's 7 reasons why Liquid Glass is beautiful/mesmerising/magnificent/elegant/majestic
1. It is constantly changing, so we never get bored of it
2. It's concentricity makes UI elements nestle into the device, incresing harmony between software and hardware
3. It's refraction of light lets it have depth
4. It's colour is determined by what it's above, which makes it always look nice
5. it's beautifully animated (for example menu open/close)
6. It's buttons are large and match the perimiter of a fingertip, making interactions feel more natural
7. It categorizes functions by spliiting them into different 'bubbles'

 

[kamikazeeMC]

What's the other 3?

Edit: Cheeky little edit from 10 reasons you were trying to reach for ha.

 

[HouseLannister]

How many people had “make my OS beautiful” on their bingo card for features they want added to their OS?

 

[smokesletsgo]

8. first significant design change since 2013 (iOS 7)... 12 years of barely any design change! One of the reasons why it's so powerful, and of course they did a great job.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

It looks like garbage.

I don't interact with a transparent world. My desk isn't transparent, my keyboard isn't transparent, my paperwork isn't transparent, my tv and monitor isn't transparent. Transparency sucks.

 

[yeahtyeaht]

It looks like garbage.

I don't interact with a transparent world. My desk isn't transparent, my keyboard isn't transparent, my paperwork isn't transparent, my tv and monitor isn't transparent. Transparency sucks.

I can understand people don’t like Liquid Glass but your justification it’s just really weird.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

I can understand people don’t like Liquid Glass but your justification it’s just really weird.

It's eye candy for the sake of eye candy, at the expense of usability. There are no parallels to how the actual world operates when reading, watching, or interacting with data.

 

[HouseLannister]

I don't even mind the blur and transparency anymore with the tinted glass option, but the awful edge highlights on everything that shift around are nausea-inducing, the checkmark button is too big and cartoony, the bottom search bars get lost or just become unresponsive, things are redrawing and glitching when I rotate the phone or navigate between apps, icons are now washed out in light mode and the pastel grays are blah. So much of the look and feel of the OS got worse than just transparency. People keep asking for an opacity slider, but that won't solve the majority of the problems with this UI.

 

[UliBaer]

It doesn't look good, it looks as if designed by Fisher-Price - sorry... 🤔

 

[WarmWinterHat]

I don't even mind the blur and transparency anymore with the tinted glass option, but the awful edge highlights on everything that shift around are nausea-inducing, the checkmark button is too big and cartoony, the bottom search bars get lost or just become unresponsive, things are redrawing and glitching when I rotate the phone or navigate between apps, icons are now washed out in light mode and the pastel grays are blah. So much of the look and feel of the OS got worse than just transparency. People keep asking for an opacity slider, but that won't solve the majority of the problems with this UI.

I agree with you there.. I could get over the transparency and other elements, but the shape-shifting borders around icons and widgets are absolutely obnoxius.

 

[Genelec8341]

I would turn it off if I could. Rounded windows that waste space and increased battery consumption for no benefit are just two reasons.

 

[Yimbaz]

Here's 7 reasons why Liquid Glass is beautiful/mesmerising/magnificen/elegant/majestic
1. It is constantly changing, so we never get bored of it

"Constantly changing" is not a positive when discussing a user interface. It needs to be predictable and consistent.

 

[sw1tcher]

Here's 7 reasons why Liquid Glass is beautiful/mesmerising/magnificen/elegant/majestic

1. It is constantly changing, so we never get bored of it

Constantly changing is not a positive.

Don't tell me you'd like an AI-powered home screen where apps are dynamically rearranged and constantly changing?

Apple Considered AI-Powered iPhone Home Screen

Apple considered introducing a new Apple Intelligence feature that would dynamically re-arrange apps on the Home Screen. The detail emerged in a report last week from The Information, which said that subordinates of software chief Craig Federighi approached him with proposals for an AI-powered...

www.macrumors.com

 

[Cobalt Blizzard]

It doesn't look good, it looks as if designed by Fisher-Price - sorry... 🤔

 

[kkclstuff]

Looks like some entry-level staffer in OS26 development was tasked with a "Heres why you love it" campaign

 

[WarmWinterHat]

View attachment 2603840

I'm sure Apple loved it's unofficial nickname, "The Toilet Seat".

 

[ProbablyDylan]

1. It is constantly changing, so we never get bored of it

I don't need my operating system to entertain me. I need it to work and work consistently, with predictable UI conventions.

2. It's concentricity makes UI elements nestle into the device, incresing harmony between software and hardware

Agree to disagree. I believe it's led to excessive padding - reducing the amount of the screen (the hardware) that gets used.

3. It's refraction of light lets it have depth

You can have depth without distracting reflections and refractions. We've been doing this for over a decade with drop shadows and other effects.

4. It's colour is determined by what it's above, which makes it always look nice

Below, you mean? And this isn't a good thing. This reduces contrast, blurring the line between UI and contents in a way that makes the interface harder to quickly parse.

5. it's beautifully animated (for example menu open/close)

Agree.

6. It's buttons are large and match the perimiter of a fingertip, making interactions feel more natural

They also take up much more space. I understand that devices have gotten much larger, but we should be using that to show more information or controls - not the same amount just embiggened.

7. It categorizes functions by spliiting them into different 'bubbles'

This one is just arbitrary. An example of this is in Photos - when a photo is open, the Favorite, Info, and Edit buttons are all in the same "bubble" even though all three functions are vastly different.

 

[HouseLannister]

It doesn't look good, it looks as if designed by Fisher-Price - sorry... 🤔

I always thought the shades of blue and green iOS uses are too Fisher-Price to begin with. I had the same complaints about Windows XP. I'd like some more muted shades like Air Force Blue or Spanish green. Some theming options would be nice. Icon packs, accent color picker, stuff like that.

 

[FatLouie]

Here's 7 reasons why Liquid Glass is beautiful/mesmerising/magnificen/elegant/majestic
1. It is constantly changing, so we never get bored of it
2. It's concentricity makes UI elements nestle into the device, incresing harmony between software and hardware
3. It's refraction of light lets it have depth
4. It's colour is determined by what it's above, which makes it always look nice
5. it's beautifully animated (for example menu open/close)
6. It's buttons are large and match the perimiter of a fingertip, making interactions feel more natural
7. It categorizes functions by spliiting them into different 'bubbles'

That sounds like a review for artwork in a museum.

I need an OS that is visually functional, not a piece of art.

 

[avkills]

I don't need to see content under buttons because I would rather be able to read what the button actually does. Many examples of websites that have interactive buttons that are underneath OS buttons causing a major headache.

Lots of tweaking needed IMO.

 

[LiquidGlassfan]

Guys I could have just named this the iOS 26 hate forum at this point 😂

 

[HouseLannister]

Guys I could have just named this the iOS 26 hate forum at this point 😂

Why stop at just 17 threads?

 

[dmnc]

This! It's a stupid material to build an interface in which you have to read data. Imagine if the page of a book was transparent (yay! it's always changing, i'm not getting bored lol) There's no way to "improve" liquid glass, because you have to think of another completely different material. How disfunctional must Apple be to have this crap greenlighted is beyond me.

 

[kevcube]

its* its* its* its* its*

 

[Abydos]

gee and I thought this was intended as a deep philosophical statement such as the fire during Nero's reign improved city planning