Apple Introduces Futuristic ‘Liquid Glass’ Interface at WWDC 2025

The new “Liquid Glass” user interface was unveiled at WWDC 2025 as part of Apple’s revolutionary software platform revamp. This unifies the look and feel of iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS Tahoe 26, watchOS 26, and tvOS 26 in the most major visual change since iOS 7.

Liquid Glass’s introduction

Apple unveiled a stunning new software design today that enhances the expressiveness and pleasure of apps and system interactions while making them clearly recognizable.

Unified Cross-Platform Design

It is made of a novel substance known as liquid glass. In addition to reflecting and refracting its surroundings, this transparent material dynamically changes to assist emphasize content and add a new level of vibrancy to controls, navigation, app icons, widgets, and other elements. To create even more unity while preserving the distinctive features that set each platform apart, the new design is now available on iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS Tahoe 26, watchOS 26, and tvOS 261 for the first time.

Inspired by visionOS

The new design leverages Apple’s significant advancements in hardware, silicon, and graphics capabilities, drawing inspiration from the depth and dimensionality of visionOS.

Improved Navigation and Controls

In the actual world, the new substance, Liquid Glass, acts like glass since it is translucent. It cleverly adjusts its hue to light and dark conditions based on the material around it. The design and engineering teams worked closely together to create Liquid Glass, which uses real-time rendering and dynamically responds to movement with specular highlights. As a result, using an iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, or Apple TV becomes even more enjoyable.

System Interfaces Redesigned

This stunning new content ranges from the simplest components that users use on a daily basis, such as buttons, switches, sliders, text, and media controls, to larger components, such as tab bars and sidebars for app navigation. Additionally, it excels in system experiences like the Control Center, Lock Screen, Home Screen, and notifications.

With the intention of drawing more attention to readily recognizable information, Apple’s design team looked at every facet of the company’s platforms to find areas for improvement.

App navigation, toolbars, and controls have all been updated. They were originally designed for rectangular screens, but they now precisely align with the rounded edges of contemporary hardware and app windows, creating a more harmonious combination of content, software, and hardware. Liquid Glass is used to create controls, which serve as a separate functional layer over apps. When consumers seek more options or go between different areas of an app, they give way to content and change dynamically. Additionally, users may locate the controls they require more easily with careful groupings.

The similar method has been used to redesign sidebars and tab bars. When users scroll in iOS 26, the tab bars reduce to highlight the content while maintaining instant access to navigation. Tab bars extend fluidly when users scroll back up. Updated sidebars in iPadOS and macOS enhance the immersive experience of programs like Apple TV. To guarantee that users always have a feeling of their context, they refract the material behind them while reflecting nearby content and the user’s background.

Updates to Native Apps

Fresh new experiences in apps like Camera, Photos, Safari, FaceTime, Apple Music, Apple News, and Apple Podcasts are all compatible with these updated design components.

The Design Philosophy of Apple

With improvements to system experiences including the Lock Screen, Home Screen, desktop, and Dock, the new design is compatible with iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS. The time is now made of Liquid Glass and gracefully adjusts to fit behind the topic of the photo wallpapers on the lock screen, keeping the attention on the subject.

Multiple layers of Liquid Glass have been used to create the Dock, widgets, and app icons on the desktop and Home Screen. With their gorgeous appearance and specular highlights, they offer more customization choices while preserving the familiarity that customers have come to expect. For instance, users can personalize the desktop and Dock in macOS Tahoe 26 with widgets and program icons that transform into light or dark looks, as well as with vibrant new light and dark tints and a sophisticated new clean design. Additionally, a fully transparent menu bar that enlarges the Mac screen makes it even better.