WWDC25: Meet Liquid Glass | Apple

Summary

Liquid Glass is a groundbreaking design system from Apple that introduces a flexible, dynamic material to enhance the user interface across all devices. It builds on previous Apple UI principles, incorporating adaptive light, motion, and transparency to create a fluid, immersive experience. With its responsive, gel-like properties, Liquid Glass seamlessly shifts to different contexts, making interfaces feel organic and intuitive. The material evolves with touch and environmental changes, ensuring clear separation and legibility while letting content shine through. Its holistic design delivers an elegant, fluid interaction, ushering in a new chapter in Apple’s visual and interaction design.

Takeaways

• 😀 Liquid Glass is a new digital material developed by Apple that dynamically bends and shapes light, offering a flexible, responsive, and organic interface.
• 😀 The material is inspired by Apple's previous design evolution, from Aqua in Mac OS X to the fluidity seen in iPhone X and VisionOS.
• 😀 Liquid Glass visually defines itself through a process called 'Lensing', which dynamically bends and concentrates light to create separation and layering without obstructing content.
• 😀 The material's behavior mimics liquid movement, making the interface feel responsive, alive, and in tune with the user's touch interaction.
• 😀 Liquid Glass adapts to different environments and platforms, automatically adjusting its appearance to maintain legibility while preserving content visibility underneath.
• 😀 On iPad and Mac, Liquid Glass creates a unified design language, scaling across devices and ensuring a cohesive navigation experience with a floating, transparent layer.
• 😀 The material transitions smoothly between different contexts, maintaining clarity and separation, and allowing elements to pop open or shift seamlessly.
• 😀 Liquid Glass elements are designed to feel lightweight and transparent but can become more substantial in appearance when scaling up, like in menus or sidebars.
• 😀 There are two main variants of Liquid Glass: Regular (adaptive and versatile) and Clear (more transparent, used over media-rich content with a dimming layer for legibility).
• 😀 Accessibility features for Liquid Glass, such as Reduced Transparency, Increased Contrast, and Reduced Motion, ensure inclusivity for different user needs without compromising the material's visual integrity.

Q & A

What is Liquid Glass and how does it improve the user interface experience on Apple devices?

Liquid Glass is a new digital meta-material designed to dynamically bend and shape light, enhancing the look and feel of Apple’s software. It responds fluidly to touch and adapts to various app environments, making the interface more organic, immersive, and responsive, while maintaining a visually clear and accessible experience.

How does Liquid Glass differ from previous design materials like Aqua and iOS 7 blurs?

Unlike Aqua and iOS 7 blurs, which focused on static visual effects, Liquid Glass dynamically bends and concentrates light in real time. It combines the fluidity of earlier designs like the iPhone X and VisionOS with new properties that respond to touch and changing app environments.

What is 'Lensing' and how does it contribute to the look of Liquid Glass?

Lensing is the visual effect of light bending around transparent objects, which Liquid Glass uses to create separation and layering in the interface. This allows Liquid Glass to remain visually distinct while letting content underneath shine through, giving a sense of depth and movement.

How does Liquid Glass react to user interactions?

When users interact with Liquid Glass, the material responds by flexing and energizing with light, giving the interface a fluid, gel-like flexibility. This makes the system feel responsive and alive, with subtle changes that align with users' natural interactions.

What role does Liquid Glass play in maintaining clarity and legibility in different app environments?

Liquid Glass dynamically adapts to its environment by adjusting its tint, contrast, and light levels to maintain legibility, ensuring clear separation from background content. It automatically switches between light and dark modes and adjusts based on text, images, and other elements underneath it.

How does Liquid Glass behave when scaled up or applied to larger interface elements?

When Liquid Glass scales up, such as when showing a menu, it simulates a thicker material with more pronounced refraction effects, deeper shadows, and a softer scattering of light. These changes enhance the perceived depth and readability of content within the glass element.

What are the best use cases for applying Liquid Glass in app design?

Liquid Glass should be primarily used for navigation elements that float above the content layer, such as sidebars or toolbar buttons. It’s important to avoid using it on content-heavy areas or stacking multiple Liquid Glass elements, as this can create visual clutter and reduce clarity.

What are the two variants of Liquid Glass, and when should each be used?

The two variants of Liquid Glass are Regular and Clear. Regular is the most versatile and works in any context, providing legibility and adaptive behaviors. Clear is more transparent and should be used for media-rich content when combined with a dimming layer to ensure legibility.

What accessibility features does Liquid Glass offer to accommodate different needs?

Liquid Glass includes accessibility features like Reduced Transparency, Increased Contrast, and Reduced Motion. These modify the appearance and behavior of Liquid Glass elements to accommodate users with specific visual or motor needs, ensuring a more inclusive experience.

How does Liquid Glass integrate with larger design systems and Apple platforms?

Liquid Glass is designed to unify Apple’s design language across all platforms, ensuring consistency on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and beyond. It adapts to various screen sizes, orientations, and content types while maintaining a cohesive and immersive visual experience, enhancing navigation and interface fluidity.