Apple to Refine Liquid Glass Interface in macOS 27 Following Tahoe Complaints

Apple is preparing to refine the visual experience of macOS 27 to address readability complaints tied to last year's major interface overhaul. The upcoming operating system will reportedly feature a subtle redesign aimed at polishing the translucent textures and shadow effects introduced with the new Liquid Glass aesthetic.



The current macOS 26 Tahoe release brought the Liquid Glass design language from iPhone and iPad to the Mac. While the interface was created with modern OLED displays in mind, most Macs still rely on LCD panels that do not render those effects as cleanly.


Users have pointed to areas like Control Center, Finder, and sidebar-heavy apps where shadows and transparency can make interface elements harder to read. According to Mark Gurman, Apple internally views macOS 27 as a cleanup effort intended to make Liquid Glass behave more like the design team originally envisioned. The company reportedly considers the issue less of a design flaw and more of an incomplete implementation by software engineering teams.

The strategy follows Apple's approach after the launch of iOS 7 in 2013. After introducing a dramatically flatter interface with heavy transparency effects, Apple spent the following year refining the experience with iOS 8.

Liquid Glass itself is not going away. Instead, Apple is expected to smooth out the interface, which Gurman notes should appear more natural on future OLED-based Mac hardware, including a rumored OLED MacBook Pro.

Gurman says Apple is also planning smaller interface refinements for iOS 27 and iPadOS 27, alongside broader efforts focused on bug fixes, battery life, performance improvements, and new artificial intelligence features. Apple is expected to unveil the software at WWDC on June 8.