Update on Liquid Glass grumbles

July 23, 2025

After iOS 26 beta 3 was released, I grumped about the “Liquid Glass” design being dialled back. Well, it didn’t take long for that to be mostly reverted.

I’m a bit conflicted about this, though. I’m happy that the shiny, refractive design is back. This looks much better to me than the “Moistened Parchment” look of beta 3. That said, the design in beta 4 is still based on nearly complete translucency. The legibility issues haven’t gone away.

We got a taste of this style of in-public design during the iOS 7 transition, but that was mostly about the type weights and icon saturation. There was a lot of tweaking of Control Center, sure, but that was a brand new part of the OS. This time around, these tweaks feel more impactful because they’re touching every bit of the system. I’m just hoping that things settle into a good place before the September launch.