Apple's Liquid Glass Interface Confirmed to Continue in Future OS Updates
In a significant development for Apple enthusiasts, the company's Liquid Glass interface is set to remain a core part of its operating systems. According to a report by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman in his Power On newsletter, the latest internal builds of iOS 27 and macOS 27 show no major design changes to this glass-effect interface, which first debuted with iOS 26 at WWDC 2025.
Liquid Glass: A Decade-Defining Design Overhaul
The Liquid Glass redesign represents Apple's most dramatic interface overhaul in over ten years. It applies a reflective, layered visual treatment across navigation bars, buttons, icons, and widgets, creating a transparency-heavy aesthetic. Since its launch, adoption of iOS 26 has climbed steadily, despite some legitimate user complaints regarding readability issues and overlapping elements.
Leadership Continuity Ensures Design Stability
Speculation about Liquid Glass being scrapped had centered on the departure of Alan Dye, Apple's former human interface chief, who left for Meta late last year along with senior designer Billy Sorrentino and several others. However, Gurman clarifies that Dye's successor, Steve Lemay, was equally deeply involved in building Liquid Glass. Additionally, designer Chan Karunamuni, who led the WWDC developer session explaining the changes, played a central role.
This was not a one-person vision but a company-wide, multiyear effort rooted in visionOS design work that predates iOS 26 by years.
iOS 27 to Introduce System-Wide Liquid Glass Intensity Slider
While a complete teardown of Liquid Glass is not expected, refinement is on the horizon. Gurman reports that Apple is actively working on bringing a system-wide Liquid Glass intensity slider to iOS 27. This feature was originally planned for iOS 26 but encountered engineering roadblocks. Currently, users can toggle between Clear and Tinted modes or adjust the lock screen clock opacity independently. A full system-wide slider would offer much greater customization, allowing users to fine-tune the glass effect across the entire interface.
Parallels to iOS 7: A Journey of Iteration
Gurman draws a parallel to iOS 7, the last time Apple overhauled its OS design this dramatically, which took years of iteration to settle into a broadly liked system. Liquid Glass appears to be on a similar evolutionary path, with Apple committed to refining the design based on user feedback and technological advancements.
The persistence of Liquid Glass underscores Apple's long-term commitment to this aesthetic direction, ensuring that users can expect continued enhancements rather than a sudden reversal.
