Apple's OS 26 is all about Liquid Glass

The newest iPhone 17 series is here. With it, comes a major rebranding of Apple’s OS, not just for iPhones, but for all of their devices by creating a unified ecosystem. They call it OS 26. And one of the rebranding’s biggest features is Liquid Glass.

- By JONATHAN CASTILLO

Liquid Glass gives what’s on screen a glass-like appearance. From how the text looks, from app icons, from the general feel, it’s like peering through a glass. For instance, if you open a Safari tab, you’ ll notice it has translucent borders where you can see the background.

It’s not so different from Windows’ own Aero Glass, which they introduced in 2007 with Windows Vista, which has had that effect where you’re looking at the screen through a glass pane window. Apple’s, of course, being released in 2025, looks more modern and well polished.

Other changes with OS 26 are spatial shots for your lockscreen. For instance, you have a picture of yourself as your lockscreen, the big numbers that tell you the time, can be situated behind you, and not behind the image, but behind you, between you and the background of your lockscreen image.