According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple’s Liquid Glass design introduced last year is essentially here to stay and will remain in upcoming iOS 27 and other operating systems.
In Gurman’s Sunday PowerOn newsletter, he explains that iOS, macOS, and iPadOS navigation bars, widgets, and icons saw a Liquid Glass overhaul last year, as Apple wanted to create something to stall while its AI plans were so far behind OpenAI and Google.
Despite the public success, the end of 2025 brought internal turmoil, claims Gurman. Alan Dye, Apple’s human interface chief, left to join Meta. Dye took several top designers with him, including deputy Billy Sorrentino, to work on Meta’s Reality Labs products.
While some critics wondered if Dye’s exit signaled a retreat from Liquid Glass, Gurman says the interface isn’t going anywhere. Steve Lemay, behind the original Liquid Glass development, has taken the lead.
What’s Next: Refinement and Engineering
Sources say Apple’s current focus isn’t on ditching Liquid Glass, but on fixing its rocky start. The design team is currently stretched thin, balancing the interface with work on a new Siri and upcoming home devices. Apple has released options in iOS 26 to reduce Liquid Glass effects, because with certain wallpapers, it looks like total trash and is hard to see your notifications.
As for iOS 27, there doesn’t appear to be any major changes coming. Apple is working on tightening up software quality to address concerns about transparent elements overlapping text.
Apple originally planned a slider for users to control the intensity of the glass effect. While it only works for the lock screen clock now, engineering teams are trying to make it systemwide for iOS 27. At this year’s WWDC, the focus will shift back to AI with ‘Campo’, which is the codename for the Siri overhaul featuring Gemini integration (we can’t wait for this to come out and hopefully it works well on day one).
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