For Liquid Glass, “The most obvious inspiration was Visionos,” says Apple’s Senior VP or Software Engineering
- Advertisement -
Liquid glass. It is an umbrella term for interface changes in almost each Apple Platform, but it is also buzzing for something intangible thing; Digital, transparent, amorphous glass that glides, bends and responds to contact in a way that really glass could never do.
Only hours after Apple was unveiled, on WWDC 2025The biggest change in iOS since iOS 7 13 years ago, I, together with Tom’s Guide Global Editor-in-Chief Mark Spoonauer, sat down with Apple’s senior vice president of Software-Engineering Craig Federghi and Apple Global VP of Marketing Greg Joswiak to talk about the company Keynote.
We spoke about Siri, Apple Intelligence and the remarkable transformation of iPados, but when we asked about the inspiration for liquid glass that the couple were most animated.
Federerghi has been confirming some rumors for the first time suggesting for months: that the Toddler-Odd Visionos, which runs on Apple’s $ 3,500 mixed reality Vision Pro Headset, was where it all started.
“So I would say that the most obvious inspiration is visionos, which uses glass, and you say,” Well, why did Visionos used glass? Well, glass is a material with which interfaces can be in the context, in this case of a room, and feel like the chromium [or frame] – that is, the glass – somehow consumes some kind of less space. It lets more of the context come through. That was very powerful in the concept of Visionos “.
However, I found it hard to believe that this could still be the full inspiration for Liquid Glass, a design approach that would appear in iOS 26, iPados 26, MacOS Tahoe, TVOS 26 and Watchos 26. I asked Federerghi if they were watching Visionos and the Lightbulb went or there were other, older influences. It appears that Apple’s obsession with glassy interfaces goes back at least a dozen year.
Through the looking glass
Image 1 by 2
“If you look back on even iOS, 7, we had started to work with translucent materials, and then you even saw in MacOS Yosemite, the side beams and windows started to have these kinds of through,” he says. “So there was already a glassness that found its way as a building block material for interfaces.”
Federerghi also revealed the degree of real-world tests that went into the development of the incorrect realistic appearance and responsiveness of liquid glass. ” [are these] Designed rooms. You know, they bring […] In different pieces of glass with different opacities, different lensing, it is quite interesting. “.
He added that Apple has an industrial design studio that is able to manufacture almost everything. “There were certainly real material studies that were done there.”
The efforts to simulate real glass and its optical properties were extensive, but then liquid glass also does things that cannot do real glass, such as changing shape when you touch or move it. But it goes deeper than that.
“We discovered that because of the incredible diversity of content you have on your device – you scroll through a feed and it is all white and then suddenly there is a dark sky that comes and browses under the glass – but you want the glass to respond to a clear piece of light glass.
Suddenly the black thing comes in and you can’t read any of your text, or it looks bad. We were able to build adaptive glass that changes the way in which it is in color that can even turn from a dark glass to a light glass by understanding what is behind it. So, you know, it will now be this incredibly malleable material that always fits with everything underneath. “
Come back quickly for a link to the podcast of TechRadar and Tom’s Guide with the full interview with Federerghi and Joswiak.
Maybe you like it too
- Advertisement -
