Every time Apple changes how the iPhone looks, small-business websites start copying it a few months later. Liquid Glass, the see-through, frosted style Apple brought in with iOS 26, is next in line. It's a reasonable thing to ask about, so here's how I check whether it belongs on a storefront.
Apple's own users haven't all been fans. In the days after release, MacRumors gathered complaints from its forums and Reddit, including poor contrast, hard-to-read notifications and basic actions taking too many taps. Your customers are already dealing with those problems on their phones. Your site doesn't need to give them more.
The test
When a client asks for the look, I put the frosted style on a copy of their site and check three things on an actual phone:
- The menu over a busy photo. A see-through panel picks up the colors and edges of whatever is behind it. White text over a pale product shot can fade into the background.
- The header while scrolling. As the page moves, the contrast behind the text keeps changing. A label can be clear at the top of the page and hard to read halfway down.
- The checkout button. The button that makes you money should be the easiest thing on the screen to find. A glassy button blends in, and people end up tapping around looking for it.
For text, there's a real standard to measure against. WCAG asks for a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal body text. With a transparent background, you have to meet that over the worst spot behind the text, not just the average.
Where it helps
There's one place I'd use it: the controls on a full-screen product photo. That means the close button, the arrows and the dots that show which image you're on.
Those controls are icons, so there's no text to read. They're small and they sit in the same corner every time. A solid bar there would cover part of the very thing the shopper wants to look at. A small frosted circle keeps the controls visible and leaves the product in view. That's what the effect was designed for: keeping content visible underneath the controls.
Everywhere else, I use solid backgrounds. That means menus, headers, prices, forms and the checkout button. They're less fashionable, but they're always readable, and they still work for customers who have turned on Reduce Transparency on their iPhones.
See-through styling is fine where nobody has to read anything, but text and checkout buttons need a solid background.
