The universal design across platforms helps users focus more on content and brings a new level of dynamism while maintaining the familiar experience that defines Apple software.
The new design is coming to iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS Tahoe 26, watchOS 26, and tvOS 26 to bring greater harmony while preserving the unique qualities of each platform.
CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA — Apple today offered a preview of a new and compelling software design that makes app and system experiences more expressive and delightful, while still feeling familiar from the very first moment. It was created using a new material called Liquid Glass. This translucent material reflects and refracts its surroundings while dynamically transforming to help enhance focus on content, bringing greater vibrancy to controls, navigation, app icons, widgets, and more.
For the first time, the new design is coming to all platforms: iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS Tahoe 26, watchOS 26, and tvOS 261, delivering a more harmonious experience while preserving the unique qualities of each.
“At Apple, we’ve always believed that the deep integration of hardware and software makes interacting with technology intuitive, delightful, and rewarding,” said Alan Dye, Apple’s Vice President of Human Interface Design. “This is our biggest software redesign yet. It was meticulously crafted by rethinking the core elements that make up our software. The starting point of the redesign is an entirely new material we call Liquid Glass. It combines the optical qualities of glass with a fluidity only Apple can deliver, adapting to content and context. It opens up new possibilities for different experiences in the future and turns even the simplest interactions into the most fun and magical.”
The new material, Liquid Glass, combines the optical qualities of glass with a fluidity only Apple can achieve, adapting to content and context.
Introducing Liquid Glass: A New Expressive Material
Inspired by the depth and dimension of visionOS, the new design leverages Apple’s powerful advances in hardware, chips, and graphics technologies. The new material, Liquid Glass, is translucent and behaves just like real-world glass. Its color is defined by the content around it, adapting intelligently to both light and dark environments. Created through close collaboration between design and engineering teams, Liquid Glass uses real-time rendering and responds dynamically to movement with specular reflections. This creates vivid experiences that make using iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple TV even more enjoyable.
This incredible material extends from the smallest elements users interact with daily—such as buttons, text, and controls—to larger components like toolbars and sidebars used to navigate apps. It also shines in experiences like the Lock Screen, Home Screen, notifications, Control Center, and much more.
The new material, Liquid Glass, combines the optical qualities of glass with a fluidity only Apple can achieve, adapting to both content and context.
Updated App Design
With the goal of putting more focus on content users already know, Apple’s design team considered every detail of Apple’s platforms to identify improvements that could be made across each one.
Controls, toolbars, and app navigation have been redesigned. Previously configured for rectangular screens, they now fit concentrically into the modern rounded corners of hardware and app windows, creating greater harmony between hardware, software, and content.
The controls are designed with Liquid Glass and feature a functional layer that stands out from apps. They allow users to see content and adapt dynamically as users need more options or navigate through different parts of an app. Organized groups make it easy for users to find the controls they need.
The controls and navigation in the apps were designed with Liquid Glass and transform fluidly to support better focus on the user’s content.
Tab bars and sidebars have been redesigned in the same way. In iOS 26, when users scroll down, the tab bars shrink to highlight more of the content while keeping navigation just as accessible. And when they scroll back up, the tab bars smoothly expand again. On iPadOS and macOS, the redesigned sidebars make apps like Apple TV more immersive. They refract the content behind them while reflecting the user’s content and wallpaper, helping users better perceive context.
The updated design elements apply to new experiences in apps like Camera, Photos, Safari, FaceTime, Apple Music, Apple News, and Apple Podcasts.
The new original design offers a more enjoyable experience in apps like Camera, Photos, Safari, and FaceTime.
An enhanced experience across all platforms
The new design extends across iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS, with updates to system experiences such as the Lock Screen, Home Screen, Desktop, and Dock. To keep the focus on the subject in Lock Screen wallpaper photos, the clock is also designed with Liquid Glass and fluidly adapts to naturally integrate behind the subject.
Con Liquid Glass, the San Francisco typeface has been designed to dynamically adapt the thickness, width, and height of each number to integrate seamlessly into the scene.
The Home Screen and desktop, the Dock, app icons, and widgets were designed with multiple layers of Liquid Glass. They look stunning, with specular highlights and more customization options, while maintaining the familiarity users are accustomed to. For example, in macOS Tahoe 26, users can personalize the desktop and Dock with widgets and app icons that come to life in Light Mode, or give them a dark, tinted, or elegant look with the new translucent appearance. And it gets even better with a fully transparent menu bar that makes the Mac display feel larger.
A 13-inch MacBook Air shows the desktop with a translucent look.
A 13-inch MacBook Air shows the desktop with a dark tone.
Con macOS Tahoe 26, users can customize the desktop and Dock with new looks for app icons and widgets designed with multiple layers of Liquid Glass.
Dynamic Apps
Developers can easily adopt the new design with a set of updated APIs in SwiftUI, UIKit, and AppKit. With Liquid Glass materials and the new enhanced controls, developers can redesign their apps to make them more intuitive and delightful.
Con Icon Composer, developers can create icons using Liquid Glass across all platforms, with stunning rendering in light, dark, and tinted designs, or with a translucent appearance.