Apple Unveils 'Liquid Glass,' Its New Universal Design Language

Apple has officially pulled back the curtain on a sweeping new software design, introducing a fresh aesthetic built around a material it calls "Liquid Glass." The company says the new look will be applied universally across its platforms, marking the first time a single design language will extend to iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS Tahoe 26, watchOS 26, and tvOS 26. The reveal confirms earlier reports of a major interface overhaul inspired by visionOS.



"This is our broadest software design update ever," said Alan Dye, Apple's vice president of Human Interface Design. "Meticulously crafted by rethinking the fundamental elements that make up our software, the new design features an entirely new material called Liquid Glass. It combines the optical qualities of glass with a fluidity only Apple can achieve, as it transforms depending on your content or context."




The new material is translucent and uses real-time rendering to react to movement with specular highlights, giving UI elements from buttons and sliders to app icons and widgets a new sense of vitality. This aesthetic extends to system navigation, with updated tab bars and sidebars. In iOS 26, tab bars will shrink as a user scrolls to bring more focus to the content, while sidebars in iPadOS and macOS will refract the content behind them to give users a better sense of place.



Apple has also refined the look of its apps, with controls and toolbars redesigned to be "perfectly concentric with the rounded corners of modern hardware." This new design language will be seen in native apps like Camera, Photos, Safari, and FaceTime. System-level experiences such as the Lock Screen, Home Screen, and Control Center are also getting the Liquid Glass treatment. The time on the Lock Screen, for example, will now fluidly adapt to fit around the subject of a photo wallpaper. On the Mac, the menu bar becomes fully transparent to make the display feel larger, and users can customize the Dock and app icons with new light, dark, and tinted appearances.




This design refresh was unveiled at the WWDC 2025 keynote, where the company also announced its shift to a year-based naming convention for all its operating systems. Apple is also providing an updated set of APIs for SwiftUI, UIKit, and AppKit to make it easy for developers to adopt the new design in their apps.

Developers can get more information about the design principles of Liquid Glass, explore its core optical and physical properties, and learn where to use it and why in the 'Meet Liquid Glass' video linked below.

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