Love it or hate it, Liquid Glass is here to stay, regardless of the kind of reception Apple received when it debuted the change last year with iOS 26. Despite a company executive saying that this transition was meant for the software to appear more expressive and responsive, it divided users across the company’s multiple platforms
To make matters worse, there were tons of reports mentioning performance downgrades because of those lighting, reflecting, and refraction effects. Now, with this change years in the making, Apple wasn’t going to take a backseat, but its engineers and developers went back to the drawing board and took a long, hard look at what can be changed, removed, or improved, and we’re happy to admit that they executed their homework properly.
With a previous report stating that Liquid Glass will continue to receive years of gradual improvements, this is just the first step of those optimizations, with Apple finally finding its footing of bringing a balance of features and performance improvements.
For once, Apple listened to its customers and delivered on all platforms
There is no shortage of mistakes from Apple’s side, and rarely has the trillion-dollar giant come forward and admitted that it disappointed its customer base, so bringing optimizations to iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, watchOS 27, tvOS 27, visionOS 27, and homeOS 27 is just the company’s way of apologizing that it didn’t bring these improvements sooner.
During the WWDC 2026 presentation, Apple shared a list of all the 262 fixes it found with all of its operating systems combined, with “optimized CPU scheduler” being one of the key changes to help speed up performance. We can only imagine that there were hundreds more that Apple had to strike off this list because they weren’t deemed paramount, but that’s literally months and months of brainstorming required just because of a UI change.
With Apple moving forward in this direction, we believe that it’ll now stick with alternating between introducing new features and optimizations. Since the company has already brought in the tweaks this year, we expect new features to arrive with iOS 28, iPadOS, macOS 28, and others, with less priority given to optimizations.
Before, Apple would consistently add features and switch up the UI without heeding customer feedback. Now, the Cupertino firm has realized that it’s pointless to pursue this approach without at least ensuring that its software updates work correctly. One excellent example of how well Apple has brought in optimizations is that an M1 Pro MacBook Pro owner says that the macOS 27 Golden Gate developer beta performs better than the stable version of macOS Tahoe.
What’s even more striking is that iOS 27 is compatible with iPhone 11, a model that launched almost seven years ago. This year certainly belongs to Apple, and if competitors want to maintain the same pace, they’ll have to adopt similar tactics.
About the author: Omar Sohail is a reporter and analyst for Wccftech's mobile section, specializing in the technology and business of the mobile industry. His expertise lies in the intricate hardware supply chain, covering developments in semiconductor manufacturing, chip lithography, and camera sensor technology.
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