Apple has overhauled Liquid Glass at WWDC 2026, a year after the translucent interface debuted to split users and designers down the middle. iOS 27 now ships with a slider that lets users dial the effect from fully opaque to completely clear—a direct answer to the readability complaints that have followed the design since launch.
Structural Changes for Better Readability
The fix arrives alongside deeper structural changes. Apple has tuned Liquid Glass for more depth and separation, making text easier to read and app windows easier to tell apart. Sidebars now stretch to the edge of the window, with refraction continuing beneath them, and sidebar icons hold onto their colour instead of bleeding into whatever sits behind.
System-Wide Slider Replaces Limited Toggle
iOS 27 hands users a slider to dial Liquid Glass down—or up. The slider is the centrepiece, but it isn't Apple's first attempt at a fix. iOS 26.1 shipped a Clear/Tinted toggle in November 2025, though that only touched a handful of elements—the Notification Center, a few search bars. The iOS 27 slider goes system-wide and gives users a full range instead of two presets.
The rework didn't come out of nowhere. Apple's design team said it "deeply appreciates" the user feedback that shaped it, and that feedback was substantial. When Liquid Glass debuted at WWDC 2025, the response from designers and users was sharper than Apple's polished keynote suggested. The translucent material was praised for its ambition but criticised for the basics: text was harder to read, refraction pulled the eye away from content, and the effect ran into glare problems on Macs in bright light. A year on, those complaints are what iOS 27 is answering.
Redesigned App Icons and macOS Golden Gate
App icons are also being redesigned. Apple is integrating additional layers of Liquid Glass directly into the icon artwork itself—a refinement of the unified icon system it rolled out last year across iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. The intent, again, is more depth and harmony.
macOS 27, codenamed Golden Gate, keeps the Liquid Glass language and picks up the same depth and slider treatment. Sidebars now stretch to the edge of the window, with refraction continuing beneath them—a small change that makes Mac apps feel less boxed in. Sidebar icons also hold onto their colour instead of bleeding into whatever sits behind, which should help with the contrast issues that dogged the first release.
The developer betas for iOS 27 and macOS Golden Gate are available now, with a public beta arriving in the coming weeks, and public release scheduled to come out in September.
