I’ve been on Liquid Glass for months. I love 3 features in particular.
Liquid glass, the great Apple design language, finally takes place. Liquid Glass is essentially a new concept concept that is built on the idea of superimposing software elements that resemble real glass, which allows a design that seems more natural, rather than completely digital.
It is a fairly neat idea. The concept has actually been refined a lot in recent months during the beta phase, after Apple announced the new design language at its WWDC 2025 conference. Liquid glass is still not perfect, but it has a lot to do. Here are some of the things I love, and something that still needs work.
Simplified commands are beautiful
The Safari browser in iOS 26.
Credit: Christian de Looper
Part of the redesign of liquid glass consists in making controls a little more simplified, which makes sense. Having translucent commands on a screen is cool, but if they are too large and too much in your face, it can start to be a little boring. There are a number of areas where Apple has seriously refined controls, and although it can take some time to get used to it, after using the beta iOS 26 version for a while, I like changes.
A good example of this is in Safari. In iOS 26, Safari has new liquid glass controls which are similar to the old commands when you open the application for the first time, showing a URL bar, rear and front buttons, and a menu for additional parameters. Once you start to scroll, however, the commands minimize in a small URL bar at the bottom of the screen, helping to maximize the amount of web page that you can see at the same time. He looks excellent. To access controls again, just press the URL bar at the bottom or start scrolling a little and they will appear. Again, it takes a little time to get used to it, but it works well.
The new camera application in iOS 26.
Credit: Christian de Looper
Another example is in the new camera application. When you open the application, you will only see two different shooting modes: photo and video. It is practical for average users who do not need to access other photo modes, especially now that things like portrait parameters are available in photos taken outside the portrait mode. The good news is that for the Nerds like me, these modes are always available. You just need to scroll on one side to access it. It is just as easy to access it if you know they are there – and the change helps to make the application of the camera a little less intimidating when you open it.
Mashable lighting speed
Lock screens are superb
The beautiful new liquid glass lock screen.
Credit: Christian de Looper
Liquid glass also came to the locking screen, and I really like its appearance. Things like notifications and widgets have always had a certain translucidity, but the effect of liquid glass helps make them even more refined.
All digital elements of the lock screen can have the liquid glass effect, including clock, lock screen widgets and notifications. They can be made of transparent glass, but they can also be colored, which may seem cool depending on the image you have chosen for your lock wallpaper.
In addition to the addition of liquid glass to the locking screen, there is also the new feature of space scenes, which gives photos a parallax effect that helps them appear in three dimensions when you tilt your phone. It is a super cool functionality and works very well. And there is a new full -screen musical feature that shows the art of the album and controls on the lock screen when you listen to music. It can be activated or deactivated by simply pressing the art of the album, but I really like it.
Apple software feels more consistent
Liquid glass also arrives at MacOS Tahoe 26 and iPados 26.
Credit: Apple
One of the best things about Liquid Glass only concerns its appearance on iOS 26, but more on its appearance through the whole of the Apple products ecosystem. Liquid Glass helps to link iOS 26, MacOS 26, Watchos 26 and iPados 26 in a way that the previous versions of these operating systems have not done so. Of course, Apple’s software has always been more consistent than the others, but Liquid Glass helps to go to the next level.
It is not necessarily to say that the overhaul of these operating systems is incredible. There is a lot to say about MacOS 26 and the modifications made by Apple, but at the very least, I like that there is the liquid glass design integrated there. And I really like the way Apple has changed the iPados in part with liquid glass and partly with new productivity features that help make the iPad feels much more like a real laptop.
Apple has not yet fully understood messages
Credit: Christian de Looper
As you can imagine, the message application is also a liquid glass overhaul, but I’m not sure that all the changes to messages are so excellent. As in other applications, the menu bars have been replaced by floating commands. And in cats, you will now get liquid back -glass back buttons, facetime buttons and a label for the name of the contact or group cat.
The floating bubble for your contact seems a bit silly, especially given the scope of the screen and the label compared to the back and front -time buttons. And, perhaps to better highlight these commands, Apple has added a kind of fade to cats, where they will disappear in white at the top of the screen if there is a light background, or will become darker if there is an image or something else. It’s really not a huge deal, but I think it’s a bit sloppy.
