At today’s Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC 2026) keynote, Apple announced a series of updates to Liquid Glass, the translucent interface design language first launched last year, in response to extensive feedback from the user community over the past year.
Apple said it "deeply appreciates" users' feedback on the use of Liquid Glass and has made adjustments to the underlying construction of the design system based on this feedback. The most important change is the addition of a new transparency slider to the system, allowing users to adjust the transparency of the interface from "fully opaque" to "fully transparent" to obtain visual effects and readability that are more in line with personal preferences.
At the same time, Apple has also adjusted the display method of the sidebar. After the update, the application sidebar will extend to the complete edge of the window, and the refraction and light and shadow effects will no longer be cut off at the edge of the sidebar, but will naturally extend below the sidebar, making the overall look and feel more coherent. The icons in the sidebar will also retain their original colors. This change is intended to address the common criticism of previous Liquid Glass implementations that "icons are easily confused with the background and lack legibility."
In terms of interface icons, Apple also announced that it will continue to advance the transformation of its application icon design language. Following the unified redesign of all of its app icons last year to enhance cross-application and cross-platform consistency, Apple said it is further evolving on this basis: more levels of Liquid Glass visual elements will be directly integrated into the graphic design of the icon itself, highlighting the sense of hierarchy and three-dimensionality under the premise of unified visual style.
The above changes will be pushed to users with subsequent system updates. As an important part of Apple's new round of interface visual adjustments, in conjunction with other system and functional changes announced at WWDC 2026, they will jointly shape the appearance and interactive experience of the new generation of Apple's software ecosystem.