The latest design trend to sweep the mobile world: Liquid Glass. Yeah, because that's exactly what we needed - another fancy design language to make our apps look all fancy and stuff. But here's the thing: it's not just Apple drinking its own Kool-Aid; Android devs are jumping on the bandwagon too.
I mean, come on, WhatsApp and Telegram are already giving their iOS apps a Liquid Glass makeover. Telegram's now rocking a transparent bottom menu bar that's so on-trend, it'll make you wonder if you're using an iPhone or an Android device. And WhatsApp? Forget about it - its entire app is getting a Liquid Glass facelift, complete with frosted glassy animations and whatnot. It's like they're trying to out-Apple Apple.
Now, I'm not gonna lie, I'm a bit jealous. As an Android user, I love what Material 3 Expressive has done for our platform's design. It's clean, it's minimalistic, and it's actually pretty great. But when I see Liquid Glass creeping its way into Android apps, I'm like, "Hey, hey, hey, can we get some consistency here?" I mean, why do Android devs feel the need to adopt Apple's design language?
It's not like Liquid Glass is some revolutionary new design paradigm or something. It's just a fancy way of saying "we're gonna make everything look like frosted glass and call it a day." I mean, remember when Samsung tried to make its TouchWiz UI look like iOS? Yeah, that didn't end well. And now, it seems like Android devs are doing the same thing with Liquid Glass.
And don't even get me started on the user experience. I mean, have you tried using an app with Liquid Glass elements on a non-iOS device? It's like they forgot that not everyone's rocking an iPhone. The animations are weird, the transitions are clunky, and the whole thing feels like a mishmash of different design languages. It's like someone threw a bunch of design elements in a blender and hit puree.
But hey, what do I know? I'm just a tech journalist who's been covering smartphones for 15 years. Maybe I'm just old and out of touch. Maybe Liquid Glass is the future of mobile design and I'm just too blind to see it. But I'm willing to bet that in a year or two, we'll all look back on this design trend and laugh. Mark my words.
For now, though, it seems like Liquid Glass is here to stay - at least on the iOS side of things. But for Android devs, I've got a message: can we please just stick with Material 3 Expressive? It's a great design language that's perfectly tailored to our platform. Do we really need to jump on the Liquid Glass bandwagon just because Apple said so? I didn't think so.