Apple Redesigns Liquid Glass & Optimizes Performances

Last year, Apple completely overhauled the look of its operating systems with a new design language called Liquid Glass. This year, rather than making significant changes to specific operating system features or looks, the company is focusing on refining the design and improving performance. It's as though the company is clearing away the clutter to focus on its true focus for 2026: AI. Read on to find out what's new in Apple's latest OSes.

Liquid Glass Refined

Liquid Glass was a controversial design change for Apple. Reactions were mixed, to say the least. Personally, I was thrilled with the new direction that Apple was taking with the design of its operating systems. The translucent design and animations made the operating system look cleaner and more responsive. However, many found it to be a step backwards, since the glassy design elements affected readability.

At this year's Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple addressed Liquid Glass' biggest complaints by adding an option to make the user interface more opaque. In iOS 27 (and presumably all of this year's OSes), Liquid Glass now has a slider so that you can fine-tune how translucent or opaque you want your iPhone icons and other features to be.

Design changes are coming to macOS as well. Apps with toolbars will now have an opaque background so you can easily distinguish between buttons, rather than having them obscured by the content behind them. Sidebars are also getting frosted-glass backgrounds so that when content passes behind them, you can still read text and find the buttons you need.

The Year of Performance Optimization

We're all familiar with Apple's hardware announcements, where the company boasts it's releasing its fastest iPhone or Mac yet. Interestingly, Apple is boasting about the performance of its software at this year's WWDC. Apple is claiming faster loading times when launching apps and snapping photos, a speedier AirDrop, and an improved CPU scheduler. This is remarkable, since usually, new OSes loaded with new features and capabilities slow down older phones. This year, Apple is promising its new OSes will do the opposite.

Here's how the company plans to do it: The CPU scheduler is a feature in newer iPhones that manages your device's CPU workload and automatically allocates resources where they're needed most. This keeps your iPhone fast and efficient by making sure apps and background processes have the CPU power they need when they need it. Apple has now backported the CPU scheduler so that iPhones as old as the iPhone 11 can take advantage of this feature.

These performance improvements aren't just benefiting older devices either. For the iPhone 15 Pro and newer, better performance means an optimized Apple Intelligence that will be smarter and more efficient. This is all in service to the star of this year's WWDC keynote address: Apple is introducing a new and improved Siri powered by AI, which will have a dedicated app.

Final Thoughts on This Year's OSes

While there aren't as many exciting new design features in this year's update, I am personally excited that Apple is instead taking the time to optimize and improve last year's OS. In past years, a new update traditionally has meant poorer performance for older devices because of new features demanding more processing power. This year, Apple is trying to make sure this update can run well on all compatible devices. Here's hoping Apple can follow through on its performance promises for OS 27.