Apple’s Liquid Glass was a wild change to my iPhone

After gazing, scrolling by, and puzzling over Apple’s new Liquid Glass design language on my iPhone for the higher a part of a day, I don’t hate it. However I additionally assume it wants a bit of extra time within the kiln.

Apple introduced Liquid Glass on Monday for all of its units at WWDC 2025. Maybe essentially the most noticeable factor about it’s that app icons, tab bars, and even the textual content magnifier you’ll see while you hover over phrases really feel, effectively, liquid-y and glassy.

The concept appears to be that as a result of they’re “floating” a layer over issues like your lockscreen wallpaper or textual content, the “glass” will be translucent to provide you a way of what’s below them. It is sensible. The preliminary implementation within the iOS 26 developer beta has lots of Apple’s signature thrives and a focus to element.

However boy are the adjustments jarring while you first see them.

Let me present you simply how dramatically it adjustments issues. Beneath, on the left is an image of my iOS 18 lockscreen I shared with David Pierce for the Installer e-newsletter simply final month, and on the suitable is my lockscreen right this moment, on my iPhone 16 Professional with the iOS 26 developer beta (out now) put in.

Even in my deliberately grayscale homescreen, I hope you possibly can see that the variations are instantly obvious. Every little thing is clear and glossy.

Right here’s my homescreen with the colour added again in, in order for you a unique manner to have a look at it. Many icons are acquainted, however they’re all… bubblier.

Right here’s the Management Heart, which is frankly a multitude proper now. The transparency of Liquid Glass makes it look cluttered, and that’s even with my grey homescreen. I hope Apple makes every little thing below the Management Heart a bit of extra opaque in order that it’s simpler to learn at a look.

The Clock app reveals a very good instance of the finer particulars which have modified. The underside tab bar is rounded, and while you faucet completely different tabs, the selector shifts over in an animation that I can greatest describe as a water droplet transferring throughout the tab. (Urgent and holding the droplet means that you can drag it throughout the tab bar, which is an admittedly cool impact.) You may also discover that the button to show the alarm on and off is extra oval than round.

And listed here are just a few different tidbits that I believed can be value sharing. The iOS keyboard has an all-new look:

The Settings app has manner an excessive amount of area between every setting class (which is an issue I’ve additionally observed within the messages checklist in Messages):

Issues below the URL bar in Safari will “bend” as a result of Liquid Glass design:

And system prompts look completely different:

At first, I hated the large adjustments. That shocked me. I’m often positive with UI tweaks. Again within the day, I used to be on board with even the earliest and worst variations of iOS 7. However after a few hours with the iOS 26 developer beta, Liquid Glass is rising on me.

My iPhone nonetheless features prefer it used to. I’ve a variety of small complaints, particularly with the spacing of settings features and Management Heart. However I count on Apple will tweak and repair a variety of the larger points forward of the official launch of iOS 26 this fall.