(NEXSTAR) — If you’re an Apple fanatic, Monday was a big day for you as the California company held its annual showcase, unveiling its next major software update. As it often does, one design feature expected to appear in that update is already catching attention: Liquid Glass.
The update itself, iOS 26, includes numerous features, like Call Screenings on iPhone and expanded Apple Intelligence capabilities. It will also offer new layouts and redesigns for Apple tech.
Apple’s last major update, iOS 18, brought personalization options iPhone users had hardly been able to experience before. Home screen apps and widgets could be moved and placed more fluidly, and even tinted to certain colors. Liquid Glass will, in a sense, go in the opposite direction of the latter.
Described as “a new translucent material that reflects and refracts its surroundings” by Apple, Liquid Glass is meant to bring “greater focus to content, and [deliver] a new level of vitality across controls, navigation, app icons, widgets, and more.”
The design will be available across all of the company’s platforms (as long as your device is eligible to receive iOS 26) and, most notably, will make menus and toolbars transparent.
“It beautifully refracts light and dynamically reacts to your movement with specular highlights,” Alan Dye, the vice president of human interface for Apple, explained in a video shared by the company on Monday.
When it becomes available, Liquid Glass will also round the corners of otherwise rectangular features, like the bottom bar of your Notes app. It can work with the aforementioned personalization released during iOS 18 or as a standalone design option, according to Dye.
As satisfying as it may sound, some have expressed concerns about the design.
Users on Reddit pointed to the contrast, which some said made portions of the text “unreadable.” Others said they hoped they’d be able to turn it off. Some also pointed to the similarities between Liquid Glass and Windows Aero, the design language brought to Microsoft Windows Vista in 2006.
You may remember this update, which made aspects like the top of an Internet Explorer tab or other Windows software appear glass-like. You can see a newer version of that feature in the image below.
It’s possible that Apple will tweak the Liquid Glass feature before iOS 26 is released in fall.
If you participate in the Apple Developer Program, you can test Liquid Glass and other iOS 26 features now. If you’re in the Apple Beta Software Program, you’ll be able to experience a public beta version of iOS 26 next month, according to Apple.
Other Apple users will need to wait a few months to get the new software. Apple didn’t have an exact date for the release of iOS 26, but if it is like previous updates, it will likely be available around September.
