Apple’s translucent design update for iOS 26, called Liquid Glass, is now available to developers, with a public beta scheduled for next month. The refresh—Apple’s first major interface overhaul in 10 years—makes app icons, buttons, menus, and pop-ups look like they are made of frosted glass, with blurred background colors peeking through.

The sweeping software changes are not just for iPhones. This glassy look—inspired by the operating system in the Vision Pro headset—will eventually roll out to the entire suite of Apple devices, from smartwatches to iPads.

After the WWDC 2025 keynote concluded on Monday, many design-focused developers WIRED spoke with were impressed by the major update, but had lingering questions about how this translucent look could impact readability for users.

“It's hard to read some of it,” says Allan Yu, a product designer currently building the workplace messaging app Output. “Mainly because I think they made it too transparent.” Yu suggests bumping up the blurring or adjusting the backgrounds to make on-screen designs more readable.

“Similar to the first beta for iOS 7, what we’ve seen so far is rough on the edges and potentially veers into distracting or challenging to read, especially for users with visual impairments,” says Josh Puckett, cofounder of Iteration, which helps startups with designs. Still, Puckett is optimistic, based on Apple’s past