Apple’s new Liquid Glass design and Google’s Material 3 Expressive update promise to make our phones look fancier – but many designers and users are already grumbling. These see-through, glassy effects and over-the-top animations sound exciting on paper, but can they hamper usability in the real world? After combing through tech blogs, reviews, and dev communities, here are the key problems critics have found (with a humorous twist):
🍸 Apple’s Liquid Glass: All Show, Hardly a Shaker
Apple bills Liquid Glass as a “translucent material that reflects and refracts its surroundings” (Apple WWDC session). In other words, buttons and panels look as if they’re carved from actual frosted glass (think of iOS floating above a pretty wallpaper everywhere). The idea is to give the UI “a new level of vitality” across controls and icons.
Apple’s Liquid Glass makes app icons and buttons look like frosted glass layers. It *sounds sleek – but early testers note it has already “resulted in challenges in terms of readability.” (TechCrunch)*
The Problems
Legibility Nightmares: Wired’s design critics say Liquid Glass currently “veers into distracting or challenging to read” territory. Beta testers noted that “text and icons could get lost on busy or high-contrast backgrounds.” In plain terms: if your wallpaper has pink flowers behind your chat bubble, your words might vanish. Accessibility advocates are already worried about contrast issues.
Wallpaper Obsession Over Function: One Reddit designer joked that while Liquid Glass looks nice in screenshots, it feels like a PITA (“pain in the UI”) to actually use, since it treats the home screen as your wallpaper portfolio. It’s as if Apple is saying: “Don’t mind the text—just admire the background!”
Developer Headaches: For app makers, adapting to Liquid Glass isn’t trivial. Wired quotes a small-team dev fretting, “I’m scrambling to make our designs work.” Many third-party apps lag behind Apple’s own, creating a fragmented, Frankenstein UI.
💡 Summary: Liquid Glass is undeniably pretty, but critics fear it’s “beautiful in theory, terrible in real life.” If your phone interface looks like it’s made of ice, be prepared: you might squint a lot.
🎨 Google’s Material 3 Expressive: Bold Colors or Blinding Clutter?
Google’s answer is Material 3 Expressive (aka “Material You Expressive”), a big revamp of Android’s look. Google claims this makes your device “feel unique to you” with more dynamic colors, bigger buttons, and springy animations. They even boast the new design helped users “spot key UI elements up to 4× faster.”
Material 3 Expressive in Android 16: bigger, rounded Quick Settings tiles and pill-shaped buttons. Google claims this improves glanceability, but many users feel it just makes the UI feel **cartoonishly oversized.**
The Problems
Retina-Seering Colors & Curvy Chaos: Android Authority’s Robert Triggs calls Expressive “retina-searing color swatches, endless squircles, and curvy chaos,” with fonts so mismatched unlocking his Pixel became a minor trauma. Instead of sleek sci-fi, he got a cartoonish fever dream.
Lost in Form vs Function: Quick settings tiles balloon into giant pill-shaped buttons, headers eat up space, and padding doubles. Users complain they can now see only five lines of text instead of ten.
Headache-Inducing Excess: While Google insists it’s more customizable and “alive,” critics sum it up as headache-inducing excess. The focus on flashy animations may distract from clarity. One blogger quipped that Google designers are “obsessed with metrics, not usability.”
💡 Summary: Material Expressive may help you spot your Play Store icon 4× faster… but it also feels like putting a spoiler on a Prius: flashy, but doesn’t improve the ride.
⚖️ Key Complaints (The TL;DR)
- Legibility vs. Looks: Both Liquid Glass and Expressive prioritize aesthetics, but sacrifice readability and accessibility.
- Consistency Headache: Frequent redesigns force devs to constantly update apps, leaving many half-updated and inconsistent.
- Style Over Substance: Apple says Liquid Glass “brings focus to content,” but users feel it distracts. Google touts “4× faster recognition,” but critics argue it swaps simplicity for clutter.
- Developer Frustration: Frequent design shifts mean more rework for developers, especially small teams. Cue frustration.
🥂 Conclusion: Glass Half Full or Half Empty?
Trends like glassmorphism or expressive theming are exciting experiments, but any design that makes you squint more than think is suspect. These changes look great on a demo stage, but can they survive the real world (and the dreaded sun glare)? If not, they risk being remembered as design fads rather than design revolutions.
For now, Apple is already tweaking Liquid Glass in betas, and Android partners will likely tone down Expressive for their skins. The lesson: flashy isn’t always functional.
👨💻 About the Author
Hey, I’m Pranta Dutta, a mobile developer who spends way too much time wrangling UIs on both iOS and Android. When Apple or Google pulls a big design pivot, I feel it directly in the trenches of app dev.
- Check out my work: pranta.dev
- Join me on Codecrafters: here
If you enjoyed this, smash that ❤️ on Dev.to so I know I’m not screaming into the design void.
📚 Sources
- Wired: Apple’s Liquid Glass looks beautiful but can be distracting
- TechCrunch: iOS 26 Liquid Glass readability issues
- AppleInsider: iOS 26 design overview
- Android Authority: Material Expressive review by Robert Triggs
- Google Material Design Blog: Expressive UI goals and metrics
- Reddit design/dev communities: Developer reactions to Liquid Glass and Material Expressive
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