When Apple rolled out Liquid Glass in iOS 26, the reaction was split right down the middle. Half of us loved the frosted, glassy look. The other half thought it was a bit much and quietly wished there was a way to turn the gloss down. Well, with iOS 27 announced today at WWDC 2026, Apple has done exactly that.
The big change is a new slider that lets you dial Liquid Glass between a clear appearance and an opaque tinted one, and everything in between. That is genuinely the feature people were begging for last year. Instead of taking whatever Apple decided looked good, you now get to pick how heavy the effect is on your own phone. Too transparent and hard to read? Slide it towards tinted. Want the full glassy show off look? Slide it the other way. Simple, and long overdue.
It is not just a customisation toggle bolted on either. Apple is also changing how the glass material renders by default, with the aim of improving contrast and giving the whole thing a more vibrant look. So even if you never touch the slider, the baseline should look better than it did on iOS 26.
The part I am most pleased about is the icon fix. Apple has reworked how the system renders app icons, with a new pipeline that adds more visual separation between each layer. The result is sharper edges and, in Apple’s own words, “luscious refractions.” That is a direct answer to one of the most common complaints during the iOS 26 cycle, where loads of people pointed out the new icons looked a bit blurry at smaller sizes. Turns out it was not just you squinting at your home screen.
This is the kind of update I like to see. Apple shipped a bold design, listened to the actual feedback, and tightened it up rather than digging its heels in. Liquid Glass in iOS 27 sounds like the version it should have been all along.
We are covering every announcement as it lands, so keep our live WWDC 2026 feed open for the rest of what Apple has to show today.
