Apple Updates Liquid Glass With Transparency Slider

Apple today announced refinements to Liquid Glass, the translucent design language it introduced in 2025.

Apple incorporates user feedback into Liquid Glass foundations. The company said it has heard user feedback, which it "deeply appreciates," and is now adjusting the underlying mechanics of how Liquid Glass is built. The most prominent update is a new slider enabling control over transparency levels, spanning from fully opaque to completely clear.

The transparency slider provides users with direct influence on the signature visual trait of the original design language.

Sidebar behavior receives targeted refinements. Sidebars are being updated to stretch all the way to the window’s edge, allowing refraction effects to continue underneath instead of stopping at the sidebar’s limit. Sidebar icons will keep their original colors as well, directly answering a frequent criticism of the initial Liquid Glass version.

These sidebar changes seek to eliminate the visual interruptions that many users had noted.

App icons gain deeper Liquid Glass integration. Apple also revealed further evolution in its app icon design language. After overhauling all first-party icons last year for greater consistency across apps and platforms, the company is now extending that effort by embedding extra layers of Liquid Glass straight into the icon graphics themselves.

The step advances the 2025 icon redesign by weaving the translucent material more completely into each icon’s visual structure. First-party applications will adopt the updated appearance as soon as the new releases arrive.

The announcements were made at WWDC 2026. The modifications reflect ongoing iteration rather than an overhaul of the Liquid Glass system first introduced in 2025.

Developers and users should see the improved transparency controls, sidebar behavior, and icon treatments in the software updates previewed during the event.