If you have tried the beta of the Apple MacOS Tahoe developer – or if you just watched the latest flow of the Society’s World Developer Conference (WWDC) – there are strong opinions on its new liquid glass overhaul. The visual redesign arrives on almost all Apple devices, so I love or hate it, you will have to get used to it.
In his last Power on NewsletterBloomberg Reporter and the famous apple leak Mark Gurman shared some reflections on the liquid glass. Although he was impressed by design on iOS, he was less in love with her elsewhere, declaring that the liquid glass is “useless on the Apple Watch and less impressive on unreailed devices like Mac”.
He follows a Previous edition of Power onWhere Gurman said that liquid glass “is not very impressive on Macs” due to their lack of OLED and touch screen capacities. He also estimated that it “had less sense on a big screen TV”.
After my own tests, however, I do not agree – I think MacOS is the best platform so far for liquid glass, and that a larger display helps to alleviate some of the main problems with the new look. For me, the implementation on macOS is much less embarrassing than on iOS.
Of course, perhaps the design would be better on a Mac Oled, but as these do not exist yet and that I do not have an autonomous OLED monitor, I am satisfied with its appearance. In my eyes, the best MacBooks and Macs are where the liquid glass really shines so far.
Reprehensible rides
To understand why Liquid Glass feels at home on a Mac, you first have to understand the problems with which the redesign is confronted on iOS.
Unlike macOS, iOS must exist on much smaller screens, which means that there are many more elements that overlap. The control center, notification windows and application folders all appear above other objects on the screen, where they are forced to share the space in a way that they are not on a larger Mac display. So far, I have found that this overlap often makes it difficult to read text on the screen, especially if the image behind is brilliant or complex.
With MacOS, your largest screen means that there will probably be fewer elements that overlap, which helps to avoid this problem. With more space to breathe, it doesn’t matter if the glassy effects make certain things more difficult to read below if there is nothing below them in the first place.
The moments when liquid glass in MacOS Tahoe uses complete transparency – as when you open the control center – are rare. In most cases, you can customize the amount of transparency. In fact, the control center is one of the few opportunities when you need to use the complete glass effect.
And even so, thanks to the larger mac screen, it is rare that it rides anything on the screen below. When it overlaps something, it is less a problem because Apple added a shadow of deposit behind the control center, helping him to stand out. It is not perfect, but it seems less reprehensible than on iOS.
At home on macOS
Having more screen immobility brings other advantages. For example, one of my favorite aspects of liquid glass is the transparent platform. I keep my icons with solid platforms rather than using one of the translucent options that Apple offers, and this results in a set of light and colorful icons based on a transparent glass slate. It is beautiful, especially with the default blue background of Tahoe macOS. Of course, the quay of iOS 26 can also do it, but it can only contain a handful of icons. The macOS quay is much larger, giving me many more eyes for the eyes to enjoy.
In other words, I get the subtle effects of liquid glass without having to make all my icons transparent (and therefore more difficult to see). I am not a fan of the effect “ completely clear ” – it’s too much glass for my taste – and use the new design adjustments in moderation really helps the Mac to feel like the best place for Apple’s overhaul.
And it is not only iOS which is prevailing on the involvement by the mac of liquid glass – Watchos 26 too. Take application toolbars, which have a new translucent blur effect. It works better than liquid glass on Watchos, where I found this blurred effect, it is very difficult to see certain figures of the fitness application. I did not meet such trouble on my Mac.
I have already written on how Liquid Glass gave me a welcome nostalgia trip to the days of the aerodynamic theme to Windows Vista and Windows 7. After a few weeks of use through MacOS, iOS and Watchos, I can say that the implementation of Liquid Glass on MacOS is my favorite on platforms. Maybe I like it because it reminds me of this old Windows theme, or maybe I just like it because it feels like it is the most at home on a Mac. Anyway, it simply seems much more natural in macOS than everywhere else.
Each year, Apple uses the beta period to make many changes to its new features, and there is undoubtedly the liquid glass will see a multitude of adjustments by the full version of the version later in the year. This could mean that it becomes much more viable of macOS in the coming months, and taking into account my frustrations with liquid glass in iOS and Watchos so far, I hope it would be true.
For the moment, however, I am very satisfied with the new Apple look on macOS – even if it lets me wish improvements everywhere else.
