Apple’s “Liquid Glass” is Here, and We Tried to Recreate It for the Web
This week at WWDC 2025, Apple did what it does best: it redefined the future of user interfaces. Forget flat design; say hello to Liquid Glass. Revealed as the new, unified design language for all its upcoming operating systems (iOS 26, macOS Tahoe, and more), Liquid Glass is a stunning evolution, drawing inspiration from the dimensional depth of visionOS to create interfaces that feel more tangible, responsive, and alive than ever before.
As front-end developers, we watched the keynote with a familiar mix of awe and ambition. While Apple has the advantage of building for a native OS, the web has always been a canvas for innovation. So we asked ourselves: how close can we get to recreating this beautiful, dynamic effect on a webpage?
What is Apple's Liquid Glass?
Before we dive into the code, let's break down what makes Liquid Glass so special, based on the WWDC announcement:
- Translucent & Refractive Material: The core of the design is a new material that mimics real glass. It blurs what's behind it but also reflects and refracts light, creating a true sense of depth.
- Dynamic & Adaptive: The interface intelligently adapts its color and appearance based on the content underneath it, seamlessly blending with wallpapers and switching between light and dark modes.
- Responsive Animation: This is where the "liquid" comes in. The interface reacts to the device's movement and user interaction with shifting specular highlights, as if you're holding a real piece of polished glass.
- Dimensionality: Icons, widgets, and controls are no longer flat shapes. They are multi-layered, dimensional objects that appear to float above the background.
The challenge is clear. Can we, using just HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, capture the essence of this on a webpage?
Our Attempt: A Glassy Widget Grid
Instead of just simulating one floating panel, we decided to build something closer to the actual system widgets shown during Apple’s keynote: a grid of translucent, responsive UI blocks.
This layout is inspired by the iOS 26 Lock Screen — using CSS Grid to place multiple widget types over a blurred background, wrapped in a shared glass material.
Html
- Glass layering is handled by
backdrop-filter, translucent tints, and soft borders. - Widgets feel modular and hover above the background, giving dimension.
- Typography and spacing mirror Apple’s layout sensibilities.
The Frontier of Web Design
While we can't perfectly replicate the deeply integrated, system-level rendering of Apple's Liquid Glass, it's incredible how close we can get with modern CSS and a sprinkle of JavaScript. This exploration shows that the principles of dimensionality, depth, and material realism aren't confined to native applications.
Apple has once again given the design world a new direction to explore. For web developers, this is a thrilling challenge. It pushes us to think beyond flat containers and leverage the full power of the browser as a rendering engine. As CSS and web technologies continue to evolve, the gap between what's possible on native versus the web will only get smaller.
Now, it's your turn. Take this code, experiment with it, and see how you can push the "liquid glass" effect even further. The future of the web is looking beautifully dimensional.
