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Reactions to Liquid Glass flag readability downside in Apple OSes



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Liquid Glass appeared nice in WWDC25 demos Monday, however reactions quickly afterward put a couple of cracks in it. The brand new clear and reactive design language coming to all Apple units this fall strikes many people as making it too arduous to learn info on their screens.

Many preliminary reactions to Liquid Glass make it seem like a misstep.

“Can’t wait to not be capable to learn something on my iPhone,” grumbled one person. A number of others implied Apple co-founder Steve Jobs would hate the brand new design language.

Readability issues take shine out of Apple’s new Liquid Glass aesthetic

You don’t should look too arduous on social media to see individuals’s damaging reactions to Liquid Glass thus far. Past the showcase in Monday’s WWDC25 keynote, a primary take a look at the brand new design language got here out later Monday within the first developer beta releases of iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 26 (Tahoe), watchOS 26, visionOS 26 and tvOS 26. Public betas ought to come out in July.

First, have a look beneath at Apple CEO Tim Prepare dinner‘s submit on X.com about Liquid Glass.

“Expressive. Pleasant. However nonetheless immediately acquainted,” Prepare dinner wrote.

Then, beneath that, you may survey quite a lot of reactions in posts on X.com to the brand new design language. A lot of the issues middle on how clear parts make textual content harder to learn and Management Middle harder to make use of. And deciphering indicators like which toggles are switched on and that are switched off may show tough, one person identified.

Others invoked the reminiscence of Jobs, imagining his wrath over Liquid Glass.

“Steve Jobs would’ve cornered you in a darkish alley and beat the sh*t out of you with a metallic pipe for those who even SUGGESTED one thing like this,” one other particular person mentioned on X.com, considering Jobs, by no means shy with an opinion, would hate Liquid Glass to the purpose of violence.

However opinions aren’t uniformly damaging. Numerous design experts see magnificence in Liquid Glass, as Wired discovered, regardless of quibbles with its readability. And Brendon Bigley, who missed the keynote, finds pleasure in Liquid Glass as a daring act of design, regardless of it “trying a little bit shitty,” as he wrote on his Wavelengths weblog. One other X.com poster factors at “satisfying” animations and visible results.

And Liquid Glass definitely may see refinements on the way in which to OS official releases in September.

Early customers discover Liquid Glass makes screens tougher to learn

It’s messy, too

Which toggles are on?

Missing consistency and a focus to element

Invoking Steve Jobs’ wrath

‘Satisfying’ animations and visible results