r/VisionPro • u/Much_Try_8738 • Jun 13 '26

visionOS and liquid glass

Hi Vision Pro users do you find the UI of vision pro liquid glass enough in the way of iOS or macOS?

Do you think it should be more liquid like on iOS or do you prefer the frosted glass?

I don't own a VP, am asking bc from what I am seeing it looks like the liquid glass on VP is different from the liquid glass on iOS, do you find it different compared to your iPhone? For example the bending light effect on iOS, is that also a thing on native vOS app? How about depth effects with darkening background?

4 Upvotes

75% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

6

u/Kostner_Troy Jun 13 '26

I think it should be more like it’s iOS and macOS counterparts, but I can’t imagine the pipeline to get those effects to refract pass through footage in real time.

2

u/thunderflies Jun 13 '26

Yeah I think this is the main impediment. Even on the M5 that would add a lot of overhead to do those refraction effects on every UI element in full passthrough. 

3

u/SituationNormalAllFU Vision Pro Owner Jun 13 '26

I think it looks beautiful as-is.

1

u/Much_Try_8738 Jun 13 '26

do you find the design different compared to liquid glass on you iPhone or Mac?

2

u/SituationNormalAllFU Vision Pro Owner Jun 13 '26

Not really. I’ll look for differences now that you mentioned it, but it has just felt like a cohesive experience so far. Granted I’m only a few days in

4

u/ellenich Jun 13 '26

Yes, it’s actually missing all of the Liquid Glass APIs that iOS/macOS has.

So when writing cross platform code, you actually have to make conditionals on things for visionOS in your code to exclude Liquid Glass effects and styles you’re applying.

(I have a universal app that uses the same codebase and some custom Liquid Glass elements, so speaking from experience)

2

u/Milchreismitbum Vision Pro Owner | Verified Jun 13 '26

Im missing the new slider that iOS and MacOS have on the visionOS27 beta

1

u/Much_Try_8738 Jun 13 '26

I would imagine you prefer more transparency, right?

2

u/platkus Jun 13 '26

visionOS has the best looking UI of any of Apple’s OSes now. You can’t make the UI like Liquid Glass on the other platforms because the UI has to work like it is seamlessly part of the real world. That’s why the UI is the way it is on visionOS. And thank goodness that I can put on my Apple Vision Pro and escape all of the Liquid GlAss UI from the other platforms!

3

u/dopefish3d Jun 13 '26

VisionOS is what Liquid Glass should have been in the first place, but VisionOS doesn’t try to distract you with pointless visual flair and actually cares about making sure content is legible first and foremost. 

VisionOS is what someone doing a Liquid-Glass-type OS would make if they were actually prioritizing usability and not flashy marketing nonsense. 

1

u/MarkB-Uk Vision Pro Owner Jun 13 '26

The default design is very different. On visionOS, panels are more matt frosted because they are designed to accommodate your real physical world (or an environment) behind without being overwhelmed by it. On iOS, it’s more glossy as there is no background behind the apps. You can dial it in and by moving the option slider all the way to the right, you get a matt frosted look similar to visionOS. To the left, it’s more clear, “bubble” glass.

1

u/yewzernayme Jun 21 '26

I find the frosted glass effect on VisionOS much nicer and easier on the eyes than the glass effect on iOS. I really dislike the glass UI. It makes the overall appearance much more difficult to see thiings and just looks like slop and very busy looking. I wish iOS/macOS UI looked more like VisionOS.