Apple unveiled a significant design transformation across its operating systems at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2025, introducing a fresh user interface called “Liquid Glass.” This new aesthetic employs reflective, translucent, and highly polished visual elements, lending the software a dynamic “glassy” appearance inspired heavily by the Vision Pro, the company’s spatial computing headset.
Alan Dye, Apple’s Vice President of Design, presented the Liquid Glass interface during the event, highlighting its status as the most substantial overhaul to the visual style of iOS since the transition from skeuomorphic designs to flat minimalism in iOS 7. Earlier approaches, such as skeuomorphism, portrayed digital interfaces that mirrored real-world objects—exemplified by Apple’s earlier notepad resembling a yellow legal pad. With the advent of flat design, Apple adopted a cleaner aesthetic featuring minimalist shapes, brighter colors, and simpler interfaces.
Since introducing flat design, Apple has progressively adopted subtle, glass-like elements, exemplified by semi-translucent panels seen in places like the Control Center. Liquid Glass pushes that concept much further, using design principles that mimic real-world qualities of glass, incorporating reflection, fluid movement, and real-time user interactions.
Through Liquid Glass, Apple aims to make digital navigation clearer and more intuitive, leveraging visual focus to respond to the surrounding environment. The on-screen colors will shift naturally between light and dark modes to suit environmental lighting. Interface elements and notifications will originate organically based on user taps, and context menus will fluidly expand as users engage with them.
App icons have also undergone significant alterations, now featuring multi-layered glass effects available in three variations—light mode, dark mode, and an entirely new transparent “clear” mode. This cohesive design approach extends across all essential system components, including the Lock Screen, Notifications, and the Control Center.
Liquid Glass sets a new visual standard for Apple, suggesting broader possibilities. With design inspiration heavily influenced by the company’s Vision Pro VR technology, the initiative points towards potential future applications, possibly extending Apple’s ecosystem across new augmented reality devices and other spatial computing hardware.
