What is Liquid Glass in iOS 26?

Summary: Liquid Glass adds translucency, refraction, and motion to interface controls across the system.

Apple describes Liquid Glass as a translucent material that reflects and refracts its surroundings while dynamically transforming to bring focus to content.

In practice, it means UI elements float above content and borrow color and texture from whatever sits behind them. It looks modern in screenshots. It feels less stable during repeated use.

Liquid Glass changes the default relationship between interface and content. Controls stop being a clear layer on top. They become part of the background.

Why does transparency make interfaces harder to use?

Image: Mert Erdir

Summary: Transparency reduces legibility and makes controls compete with content.

A simple rule keeps showing up in usability research across decades. When you place something on top of something else, it becomes harder to see.

Text and icons rely on contrast. Transparency reduces it. Even blur and frosting do not fully solve this when backgrounds are busy or change as you scroll.

This becomes especially painful in real scenarios:

• Text placed over photos or complex imagery

• Icons that blend into cards, maps, and media

• Search fields that disappear into lists and previews

• Layered text on top of text, where the eye has no stable anchor

Key insight: Visual lightness is not the same thing as visual clarity.

What happens when motion shows up everywhere?

Image Source

Summary: Motion draws attention even when the user gains nothing from it.

Animation can signal change, confirm action, and reduce uncertainty. It can also become noise.

In iOS 26, motion appears constantly:

• Buttons pulse and shimmer

• Controls morph between shapes

• Elements animate even when the user did not trigger them

• Navigation shifts as you scroll and repositions components

This makes the interface feel active. It also keeps pulling attention away from the task.

Key insight: Motion has a cost. Your eyes pay it every time.

Over time, the issue is not delight. The issue is fatigue. Repeated distraction reduces flow and increases friction, even if each animation lasts only a moment.

Are tap targets and spacing getting worse in iOS 26?

Image Resource

Summary: Denser layouts increase mis-taps and raise interaction effort on mobile.

Touch interactions depend on spacing, target size, and predictable positioning. Mobile use happens in imperfect conditions: one hand, glare, movement, interruptions, divided attention.

iOS 26 packs more into the bottom area of the screen while also introducing floating controls that sit apart from the rest. Some navigation bars feel cramped, while one control gets emphasized disproportionately.

The result is a UI that asks for more precision. Users do not gain more capability from that precision. They gain more chances to miss.

Key insight: Small targets punish normal human hands.

Why does predictability matter so much in everyday UX?

Summary: Predictability is what allows interfaces to become automatic.

Usability improves when users can build habits. Habits form when the interface stays consistent.

iOS 26 introduces controls that:

• Appear and disappear depending on context

• Collapse and expand based on state

• Change the size and location of targets over time

This forces re-scanning. It slows down repeat behavior. It makes the UI harder to learn because the user cannot rely on muscle memory.

Key insight: Interfaces become easy when users stop thinking about them.

What conventions changed, and why does that cause friction?

Summary: Moving long-established patterns increases short-term effort and relearning.

Search moved in meaningful ways across apps. Patterns that lived at the top of pages now show up at the bottom and remain persistent.

New users might find this easier in certain cases. Existing users lose speed because habit breaks before a new pattern becomes automatic.

The same theme shows up in navigation cues. Breadcrumb-style back labels disappear in places, leaving users with less orientation. The back arrow remains, but the context vanishes.

Key insight: Familiarity is a usability feature users earn over time.

Is discoverability getting worse in iOS 26?

Image Source

Summary: When labels disappear and controls hide, users spend more time hunting.

Discoverability fails quietly. The user does not report it as a bug. They pause. They scan. They hesitate. They tap twice. They open a menu to confirm what they already knew yesterday.

In iOS 26, several choices reduce discoverability:

• Back buttons losing their descriptive label

• URLs shrinking and truncating, reducing trust signals

• Tabs moving behind overflow menus

• Floating bars interfering with content and competing with in-page actions

Each change adds a small tax. Small taxes become expensive at scale.

Key insight: Extra steps do not stay small when repeated all day.

The bigger picture for designers

Summary: iOS 26 shows a system-level tradeoff where visual expression increases interaction effort.

iOS 26 blends Liquid Glass translucency, persistent motion, denser navigation, collapsing controls, and shifting conventions into one system.

The combined effect matters more than any single pattern. It changes the baseline of what “normal” interaction feels like.

For product teams, the lesson is practical.

Visual systems can look premium while still reducing usability if they:

• Compete with content

• Reduce contrast

• Move controls across states

• Tighten touch targets

• Remove labels that provide orientation

Key insight: Aesthetic polish does not guarantee operational clarity.

Closing

Liquid Glass looks clean from a distance.

In daily use, it increases visual ambiguity, raises attention cost, and weakens predictability. It asks users to work harder to read, tap, and navigate.

Good interfaces feel calm.
They make the task the center of attention.

That calm is harder to find in iOS 26.