Jun 10, 2025
What Is Apple’s Liquid Glass? A Designer’s Guide to the New UI Era
What Is Liquid Glass?
Liquid Glass is Apple’s new UI design language introduced at WWDC 2025. It brings together:
Translucent layering (like frosted glass panels)
Depth through motion and blur
Dynamic lighting that shifts based on real-world context (especially in visionOS)
Soft gradients and edge treatments that feel fluid, responsive, and almost organic
It’s like glass, but alive.
Apple just changed the rules of interface design, again. With the introduction of Liquid Glass, a new design language rolling out across iOS, macOS, and visionOS, we’re seeing a radical shift in how digital interfaces feel, move, and interact with the environment.
At Honter Studio, we believe this marks the beginning of a new visual era and we’re ready to help brands translate this into real, functional design.
Why It Matters for Designers
This isn’t just a visual upgrade. Apple is re-engineering how people experience digital products:
Hierarchy through depth: UI elements are layered, not stacked. Focus is created with motion, blur, and light—not hard shadows.
Environmental awareness: In AR or Vision Pro, UI now reacts to lighting conditions and movement in physical space.
Designing with restraint: Liquid Glass removes distractions. It demands elegance, balance, and precision.
Designing for Liquid Glass: Core Principles
Principle | What It Means for Design |
|---|---|
Translucency | Use depth blur and layered panels instead of solid containers |
Light & Color | Prioritize subtle gradients and glow over flat colors |
Motion | Use micro-interactions to reinforce hierarchy and flow |
Responsiveness | Interfaces must adapt fluidly—not just responsively—to context and input |
Apple’s system apps (Weather, Music, Settings) are already demonstrating these principles. But most third-party apps haven’t caught up, yet.
How Honter Studio Interprets Liquid Glass
We don’t just copy trends. We translate them into meaningful experiences.
At Honter Studio, our process looks like this:
UI Redesigns: For existing apps that want to evolve with the trend without alienating current users.
From-Scratch Interfaces: For startups launching in 2025–2026, we build for the Liquid Glass world from the ground up.
Design Systems: We help teams build flexible component libraries that respect Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines while staying brand-authentic.
We’ve already begun prototyping apps that combine tactile feedback, glass-layer motion, and visionOS dynamic light adaptation. If your app is stuck in flatland, now’s the time to evolve.
Ready to apply this to your app or website? Here’s how we implement Liquid Glass step-by-step →
Is Liquid Glass Just a Trend?
Maybe. But so was flat design, and it shaped a decade.
Liquid Glass may evolve or fade but its underlying principles (depth, elegance, motion) will stick. At worst, it’s a highly marketable aesthetic. At best, it’s a leap forward in human-centered digital design.
Either way: brands that lead with innovation win.
Curious how startups and small businesses can actually use Liquid Glass in their products? Read our guide for startups →
Final Thoughts
We’re entering a new design cycle. If your product still looks like it was built in 2018, users will feel it, even if they can’t articulate why.
Want your brand to feel like the future?
Let’s build with Liquid Glass, intentionally, beautifully, and strategically.