Apple launched the challenge of unifying the user experience through its entire ecosystem, we understood yesterday during WWDC 2025. No more design differences between macos, watchos, visionos, tvos, iPados, and of course, iOS. The Liquid Glass is intended toe visual cement of this large family.
The project, in Apple’s words, is that of a ” Translucent material which reflects and refracts its environment, while transforming dynamically to better concentrate content, offering a new level of vitality to controls, navigation, application icons, widgets, and more »A a little too grandiloquent prose that we will simply translate: The different interfaces will be trapped in transparency. It is on the iPhone, with the arrival of iOS 26 in the fall of 2025, that most users will touch this new aesthetic finger.
Liquid Glass: a question of perception and habit
This graphic overhaul, with its propensity for the transparency of the icons, is the ultimate in the almost monacal quest for a purity started by Apple a few years ago. We are witnessing a sort of withdrawn from the interface itself: the menus are now contextual, appearing only when necessary, and the pimples fade as soon as they are no longer asked. For Cupertino, it is a question of sublimating the content, and make him radiate to the detriment of any visual artifice.
If there is a constant in the history of Apple interfaces, it is a large facade never goes smoothly. We have seen it many times: each major overhaul inevitably triggers its share of debates, from fervent adulators to the most acerbic criticism.
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Who still remembers outcry (or enthusiasm, it is) that had followed The big leap from iOS 6 to iOS 7 ? A radical change which had, at the time, divided users between those who saw it as a visual revolution and those who denounced an aesthetic and functional decline. The Liquid Glass may oscillate, differently of course, between these different points of view.
Transparency in the face of inclusion
In addition to the quarrels of stylistic chapels, there remains the question of inclusion and accessibility, now perfectly standardized in our way of seeing and designing. Millions of people, nearly 8.3 million Americans according to the Center for Research on Disabilitywhich live with a visual impairment, even partial, count on clarity and contrast to navigate serenely. Such an interface playing on transparency can potentially complicate their daily life.
Fortunately, and this is where Apple’s experience must speak, We can assume that Cupertino has not forgotten its users. The history of the brand in terms of accessibility is too solid to imagine such a faux step. It is likely that the range of current accessibility features will not only be maintained, but also suitable.
More reassuring: the idea that users will not be forced to adopt these transparent icons, with the persistence of more classic display modes (clear, dark, tinted), seems obvious. It is also likely that this aesthetic is evolving over the updates, so that it becomes more readable for everyone.
SO, What to think of the Liquid Glass ? That, like any interface, its success will be much more to His ability to be forgotten than its intrinsic beauty. If it manages to fade enough to really enhance the content without disturbing navigation, then thee bet will be won For Apple.
- Apple wishes to unify the design of its operating systems with a new transparent aesthetic, called Liquid Glass, presented at WWDC 2025.
- This overhaul aims to hide the interface to better enhance the content, an evolution that could arouse various debates and reactions among users.
- Despite a very refined interface, Apple should maintain and adapt its accessibility options to guarantee comfortable use to everyone, including visually impaired.
By: keleops ag
