Apple’s New Design Language: Liquid Glass

Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), which showcases its forthcoming software, was tamer than usual in terms of big announcements. Last year, for instance, it launched its artificial intelligence, a promise that has been underwhelming considering what others like Google are doing. Apple stuck to what it is good at this time–design, and announced a translucent material called Liquid Glass that will make displays of its devices better, both in utility and look. It has the properties of glass, like refraction and reflection of the elements on the screen, allowing the user a better experience.

Apple described it as being able to adapt to the colour of the content and environment. It added, ‘This gorgeous new material extends from the smallest elements users interact with every day — like buttons, switches, sliders, text, and media controls — to larger elements, including tab bars and sidebars for navigating apps.’

Another announcement at WWDC related to additions to its AI offerings. Like live translation for messages and calls, searching for, or querying, whatever is on the screen, and for Apple Watch a text-to-speech model that generates ‘personalized pep talks using voice data from an Apple Fitness+ trainer’.

An interesting change it made was in the nomenclature of the operating systems of its various devices, which were earlier tagged with different numbers like iOS18, watchOS 11, etc. They will all now have 26 — iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 26, watchOS 26, visionOS 26, and tvOS 26.

AppleApple's Worldwide Developers ConferenceDesign Language: Liquid GlassdevicesiOS 26iPadOS 26macOS 26visionOS 26watchOS 26