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Apple’s Liquid Glass Interface: A Month of Evolution

It’s been a month since Apple unveiled its new Liquid Glass interface design during WWDC, and shortly thereafter, it made its way onto the company’s devices through the Developer Beta releases. However, this time hasn’t been just a passive wait for users and developers; there have been significant changes.

Continuous Updates: Developer Beta Progress

Apple has been making frequent modifications with each successive beta release, which is a common occurrence in software development. The recent Developer Beta 3 represents a noticeable departure from its predecessors, demonstrating that Apple is attentive to user feedback and is committed to refining the experience.

I must confess that I was initially skeptical about the Liquid Glass design. Adjusting to it remains a work in progress for me. It’s not only about the aesthetics; the drastic nature of the redesign felt overwhelming. As someone who had become accustomed to the familiar iOS design language, this sudden alteration was challenging to embrace.

Fortunately, Developer Beta 3 has softened this significant transition, much to my relief.

Liquid Glass Reassessed: Positive Changes

With the introduction of Developer Beta 3, Liquid Glass has undergone its most substantial round of revisions to date.

I have been testing it over the past few days, and it’s evident that Apple has effectively addressed several of the initial concerns surrounding the Liquid Glass design language. One notable enhancement is the reduction of the transparency effect in most applications. This adjustment not only establishes better harmony with older design elements but also rectifies some accessibility issues that were prevalent in previous beta versions.

A much subtler Liquid Glass effect in DB3 contributes to a cleaner background that feels much more harmonious.

The most pronounced alteration is the increased opacity across several stock apps’ navigation bars, coupled with a less overwhelming transparency effect for app and folder icons. While these changes may seem minor, they significantly enhance the overall aesthetics and legibility of the user interface. This refinement has made me appreciate Liquid Glass a little more and has eased the transition to this new design language.

In my perspective, the updated "frosted glass" effect feels closer to the classic iOS style than the initial see-through glass from previous betas, which I found excessively intrusive and unrefined.

This is indeed a significant improvement, as I never truly enjoyed the previous translucent navigation bars; they felt ostentatious and detracted from the overall user experience. This new stained glass effect serves usability much better and, subjectively, looks far more appealing.

Music exemplifies these changes with its newly opaque navigation bar, enhancing user interaction.

User Experience Improvements in Music and Safari

The Music app clearly illustrates these design updates. The earlier translucent effect on the bottom navigation bar was excessively dramatic and distracting, failing to blend seamlessly with the rest of the app’s design elements. With the updates in DB3, we now see a navigation bar that is notably more opaque, which substantially enhances the app’s usability.

Safari also sees some adjustments in appearance and menu layout.

Yet, not everyone is thrilled. There has been criticism online suggesting that DB3 may represent a step backward in iOS’s journey to adopt a modern identity, particularly from fans of the original Liquid Glass aesthetic. I respectfully disagree; it was evident from the beginning that Liquid Glass required some moderation.

However, not everything is without criticism. I am still coming to terms with the new Control Center, which seems a bit out of place and disconnected from the rest of the interface.

Optimization: A Work in Progress

One of my resolutions was to switch back to Android by 2025, a goal I’ve successfully achieved. Nonetheless, my previous daily driver—the iPhone 13 Pro Max—still occupies a spot on my desk as a reliable backup and a beta-testing device. Although it remains functional, the aging hardware is becoming evident; its performance is noticeably slower when compared to newer models, the battery life has diminished (currently sitting at 86% health), and its design feels outdated, especially in contrast to the latest titanium flagship models.

Despite this, none of the iOS 26 Developer Betas have performed particularly well on my iPhone 13 Pro Max. The first beta caused significant usability issues, while the second beta offered marginal improvements. However, the latest Developer Beta 3 does feel like the most optimized version thus far. Nonetheless, major roadblocks remain, with the iPhone 13 Pro Max facing frame drops and excessive heating.

I also tested iOS 26 DB3 on an iPhone 16 Plus, where the experience was significantly smoother. I genuinely hope Apple will address the overall optimization for the impending update, as it must meet the needs of millions of users with older devices.

As for battery life during standby, it’s somewhat acceptable for a beta build. I lack specific metrics from my usage before the beta, but I sense that I’m getting about one to two hours less screen-on time than before—par for the course with software still in the developmental phase. Ideally, I hope future iterations will return the battery performance to the levels we saw with iOS 18.

Visual Intelligence: A Game-Changer

Being a fan of Google’s Circle to Search feature, I always envied Android users who had access to such a straightforward yet powerful search capability. Enter Visual Intelligence with iOS 26, which fulfills similar functions with just a few additional taps.

So, how does it work? It’s quite simple: capture a screenshot and a selection of useful options will appear at the bottom. One option, "Ask," allows you to upload the screenshot to ChatGPT for context. A second option, "Image Search," opens Google to find similar visuals. Users can easily highlight pertinent parts of the screen or utilize the complete screenshot.

Visual Intelligence serves as Apple’s response to Circle to Search.

Overall, it represents a smart leveraging of existing iOS functionalities, enhancing their utility, although the search process could still be much smoother compared to Android’s Circle to Search.

Noteworthy Issues and Bugs

However, not all is perfect with this beta. A variety of tiny, and some more substantial, glitches are scattered throughout the interface. Overall, I find that past iOS betas seemed more bug-ridden, as most current issues are visual in nature, unlike the more serious problems experienced in earlier iterations.

For instance, when scrolling through your camera roll and opening a video, you might accidentally flick it away without hitting pause, causing it to keep playing in the background while you browse your photos. Another peculiar quirk? You can open multiple videos at once, allowing four audio streams to play simultaneously until the Photos app crashes.

Quickly cycling through saved wallpaper pairs can result in the Settings app crashing, and scrolling too rapidly in the mail app may lead it to stop recognizing user inputs altogether.

I’ve documented all of these instances in the Feedback app, and it’s essential for anyone running the beta to report similar bugs to ensure they are resolved prior to the final release this autumn.

Conclusion: A Growing Affection for iOS 26

Reflecting on my experience, it seems that iOS 26 is slowly winning me over. Developer Beta 3 represents considerable progress, making improvements in multiple key areas.

First and foremost, it alleviates some of my initial frustrations with the older Liquid Glass iterations, making the new design language feel more accessible. Despite that, optimization efforts have a long way to go; both performance and battery life still lack when compared to pre-iOS 26 standards.

While minor bugs continue to persist, as is typical with beta software, I still advise against using iOS 26 as your daily driver—even if you have a full iTunes backup. This is a "Developer Beta" for a reason. If you’re eager to explore Liquid Glass, I recommend installing iOS 26 on a secondary device rather than your primary one.

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