Liquid glass It is a general term for interface changes in practically all Apple platforms, but also evokes an intangible thing; The digital, transparent and amorphous glass that slides, flexes and responds to the touch in a way that real glass could never do it.
A few hours after Apple announced, on WWDC 2025, the greatest change with iOS since iOS 7 years ago, I, together with the Global Editor of Tom Guide Guide, Mark Spoonauer, I sat with the senior vice president of Apple Software Engineering of Software Engineering Craig Federighi and VP VP of Marketing Marketing of Marketing Greg Josw Talk about everything that the company revealed during its 90 minutes of key.
We talked about Siri, Apple Intelligence and the remarkable transformation of ipados, but that was when we asked about the inspiration for the liquid glass that the couple became more lively.
Federight confirmed for the first time which rumors have been suggesting for months: that the aged visions for young children, which is executed in the mixed vision pro headphones of Apple’s reality vision, was where it all started.
“Then, I would say that the most obvious inspiration is the visiones, which uses glass, and you say: ‘Well, why the signs used the glass? Well, glass is a material that allows interfaces to feel in the context, in this case, of a room, and feel like the chromy [or frame] – That is, glass, somehow consumes a bit of space less. It is allowing more than context to arrive. That was very powerful in the concept of visos. “
However, I found it difficult to believe that this new platform could be the complete inspiration for liquid glass, a design approach that will appear in iOS 26, ipados 26, macOS Tahoe, TVOS 26 and Watchos 26. I asked Federight if they looked at visions and the bulb shot, or if there were other older influences. It turns out that Apple’s obsession with glassy interfaces dates back to at least a dozen years.
Through the appearance vessel
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“If you look back even to iOS, 7, we had started working with translucent materials, and then we saw even in yosemite macOS, the side bars and windows began to have this type of translucence,” he says. “So there was already a glass, which was to find its path as a basic component material for interfaces.”
Federight also revealed the scope of real world tests that were dedicated to developing the appearance and capacity of liquid glass response. “There [are these] Designed rooms. You know, they bring […] In different pieces of glass with different opacities, different lenses, it is quite interesting. “
He added that Apple has an industrial design study that has the ability to manufacture almost anything. “There were certainly real material studies that were being done there.”
The efforts to simulate real glass and their optical qualities were extensive, but then the liquid glass also does things that no real glass can do, such as changing shape when it touches or moves it. But it is deeper than that.
“We discover that due to the incredible diversity of content on your device: it is moving through a diet and everything is white and, suddenly, there is an image of dark sky that comes and moves under the glass, but you want the glass to react in a way that a light piece of light glass would make it.
Suddenly, the black thing enters, and you cannot read any of your text, or look poor. We were able to build adaptive glass that changes the way it transmits the color that can even turn from a dark glass to a light glass adaptively, understanding what is behind it. So, you know, now it becomes this incredibly malleable material that always fits what is under it. “
Return soon to see a link to the Techradar and Tom’s Guide podcast with the full interview with Federight and Joswiak.
