- Apple will change Liquid Glass in macOS 27, new report says
- The changes aim to correct the most relevant criticisms made of the design.
- But their scope will be limited and will not fundamentally change Liquid Glass.
It’s safe to say that Apple’s Liquid Glass redesign has proven controversial, and nowhere is that more the case than in macOS 26. But while Apple has seemingly doubled down on its commitment to the glass UI, it appears the company is willing to make some concessions to improve the fit and finish of its operating system.
This was reported in Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman’s latest Power On newsletter. There, Gurman pointed out that in several aspects of macOS – particularly those with sidebars or dense concentrations of text – Liquid Glass textures “reduce the clarity of text or create confusion in the interface.” This is an issue that Apple reportedly intends to address in macOS 27, which will be revealed at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 8.
This “slight redesign” will come with fixes for “shadow and transparency quirks,” Gurman says. This could help address some of the most pressing concerns about Liquid Glass in macOS 26, where glassy surfaces and textures often make text blurry and difficult to read.
However, Gurman is adamant that “liquid glass itself will not disappear” and that it is simply “refined.” “The goal is more of a cleanup and refinement effort aligned with the company’s broader push to polish its software this year,” he said, adding that similarly minor changes would be made to iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 simultaneously.
A “not completely developed” implementation
Interestingly, Gurman includes something of a half-admission from his Apple sources that the company isn’t entirely happy with Liquid Glass. Speaking about the upcoming design changes, Gurman says they are “intended to make Liquid Glass look the way Apple’s design team intended it all along. Last year’s operating systems didn’t necessarily suffer from design problems, I’m told, but rather from an implementation not completely prepared by Apple’s software engineering team.”
It speaks volumes that even Apple’s internal staff are somewhat unhappy with Liquid Glass. The design overhaul has come under fire online, with strong and frequent criticism leveled at its aesthetic sensibility and effect on readability. But with no official word from Apple, we’re left to guess what the company thinks of its creation.
Still, even though Gurman indicates that Apple isn’t entirely happy with Liquid Glass, the fact that the announced changes are limited in scope suggests that Apple still thinks it’s moving in the right direction. The move fits well with Apple’s “27” software release overhaul goals, which are rumored to focus much more on tweaks and improvements than wide-ranging changes and new features.
In addition to fixing Liquid Glass and improving overall performance, Apple is also expected to bring much-delayed Siri features to its Apple Intelligence artificial intelligence (AI) system. If it’s able to do that and make Liquid Glass a little easier on the eyes, it will have gone some way to solving two of the biggest software problems the company has faced in recent years.
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