“Beautiful” and “difficult to read”: the designers react to the update of the Apple liquid glass

Apple’s translucent design The update for iOS 26, called Liquid Glass, is now available for developers, with a public beta scheduled for next month. The first revision of Apple’s first revision in 10 years-the icons, buttons, menus and pop-up apps that are made of chopped glass, with displaced colors of the background that peek.

The modifications of the radical software are not only for iPhone. This glassy look, inspired by the Operating System in the Vision Pro noicular, will eventually launch to the entire suite of Apple devices, from smartwatches to iPads.

Courtesy of Apple

After the WWDC 2025 Keynote ended on Monday, many developers focused on the design with which Wired spoke were affected by the main update, but they had persistent questions about how this translucent aspect could have an impact on the readability for users.

“It is difficult to read a little,” says Allan Yu, a product designer who currently builds the work messaging app Production. “Mainly because I think they made it too transparent.” Yu suggests increasing the blur or adjustment of the backgrounds to make the drawings on the screen more readable.

“Similar to the first beta for iOS 7, what we have seen so far is rough on the edges and potentially turns into distraction or demanding to read, especially for users with visual disabilities,” says Josh Puckett, co -founder of Iterationwhich helps startups with design. However, Puckett is optimistic, based on Apple’s past Accessibility functionalityThat readability will improve over time.

Controls and navigation transform while interacting with the user interface.
Courtesy of Apple

Serhii Popov, a design software engineer at MacpawThe company behind the Cleanmymac app is curious to see how the new operating system will appear on Macs in situations of intense light, in which the dazzling already affects visibility. But overall, Popov is in love with this “really fresh” look of Apple. “I think it will make everything bigger and will allow you to read or interact with the user interface with more comfort,” says Popov. For him, the new design and updates seem particularly elegant on iPad.

In addition to the worries of readability, the first impression of some designers is that this new aspect could be unnecessarily distracted for users.

“From a technical point of view, it is a very impressive effect. It applauds the time and effort it must have undertaken to imitate the refraction and dispersion of light in such a high degree”, says Adam Whitcroft, a designer a Owner.comwhich creates apps and websites for restaurants. “But, unfortunately, I have not seen a single example where it was made in a complementary way to the wider context in which it is presented.” Whitcroft indicates the dispersion and refraction of levels under the apps as visually distracted, especially because the user interface is changing the layouts. “If you have designed a user interface that removes the attention of the eye from the largest context, you have traveled the wrong road,” he says.