Liquid Glass Effect in Flutter: A Modern UI Trend

The Liquid Glass effect is one of the most eye-catching new design trends in user interfaces. Apple even showed it off in their iOS 26 design preview, where menus and panels looked like smooth, see-through glass that bends light around them. The effect mixes blur, transparency, and shiny highlights to make apps feel deeper and more alive. Apple describes it as glass that “reflects and refracts its surroundings,” and it’s easy to see why people are excited about it.

To kick things off, you could show a full-width mockup of a Flutter app screen using this effect — a clear glass panel floating over a blurred background.

What Is the Liquid Glass Effect

Liquid Glass, also called glassmorphism, is a design style that makes parts of an app look like frosted, see-through glass. It blurs and bends what’s behind it, so the background looks soft and out of focus. It’s like the old frosted glass filters, but smoother, more colorful, and more fluid.

Flutter tutorials describe it as a mix of blurred, translucent panels, layered depth, and frosted glass effects. Apple calls it a material that combines “the optical qualities of glass with a fluidity only Apple can achieve.” It even changes tint and brightness automatically depending on the background or whether the app is in light or dark mode.

Key parts of the effect:

• Background Blur: The area behind the glass gets a soft blur (usually a Gaussian blur).
• Semi-Transparent Tint: A light color overlay (like white or the app’s theme color) makes it look frosted.
• Soft Borders & Highlights: Rounded corners, light edges, and subtle shine give it a glass feel.
• Dynamic Effects: Small animations, like shifting light or parallax, make the glass look “alive.”

Similar UI Effects (Comparison)

• Frosted Glass / Backdrop Blur
  The classic iOS frosted glass look makes parts of the screen see-through and blurry at the same time. In Flutter, you can do this with a BackdropFilter and ImageFilter.blur, usually wrapped in a ClipRect to keep the blur effect inside a shape.

• Glassmorphism Trend
  Liquid Glass is part of a bigger design style called glassmorphism. This trend became popular through iOS and later web CSS effects. The idea is to use transparency and blur to make layers look like real glass. Designers often place semi-transparent cards on top of colorful or gradient backgrounds. This way, the background still shines through, but the text on top stays easy to read.

• Neumorphism & Other Styles
  • Neumorphism uses soft shadows and highlights so buttons and cards look raised or pressed, almost like molded plastic.
  • Flat / Material Design avoids blur completely, sticking with strong colors and clear contrast.
  • Liquid Glass stands out because it feels sleek and futuristic. It blurs what’s behind it, making the focus on the panel itself while still showing hints of the background.

 

Implementing Liquid Glass in Flutter (Tutorial)

1. Project Setup
First, make sure you’re on Flutter 3.10 or higher. For smoother graphics, enable Impeller.

• For simple effects, you can use Flutter’s built-in tools.
• For advanced effects, install a package like liquid_glass_renderer or liquido from pub.dev.

2. Basic Frosted Glass (Beginner Friendly)
The easiest way to start is with Flutter’s BackdropFilter. Put an image or widget in the background, then overlay a blurred container that looks like frosted glass.

(This code shows how the blur only affects what’s behind the panel.)

3. Using a Liquid Glass Package
If you want a more advanced, fluid glass effect, use a package like liquid_glass_renderer. You wrap your widget in a LiquidGlass, and it automatically handles the blur and refraction.

Tip: With Stack + LiquidGlass, only the background directly under the panel gets blurred.

4. Customizing the Glass
Most packages let you adjust:

• Blur strength (how soft the background looks)
• Color tint (usually white or theme color with opacity)
• Thickness/refraction (how glassy or fluid it feels)
• Highlight intensity (the “shine” or glow around edges)

For example:

Design Considerations & Tips

Layering and Focus
Liquid Glass panels should always feel like a separate layer on top of the background. They work best when placed over colorful wallpapers, gradients, or photos because the blur creates contrast. Apple shows this in iOS 26, where tab bars and buttons look like floating glass that smoothly blends with the content behind them.

Legibility
Keep the blur light (around 5–10px). This softens the background without making it too messy. Add a light tint (like white with low opacity) to make text and icons stand out. Be careful with very high blur (over 20px) because it can look fake and heavy. Always test your text or icons on top of the glass – if it’s hard to read, add a faint background layer or darker tint.

Visual Style
Round shapes, soft shadows, and gentle highlights fit the glass look perfectly. Apple often uses superellipse shapes and even adds tiny shiny edges to make panels feel real. To push the effect further, you can overlay a soft gradient or even a tiny bit of noise texture to copy the look of real frosted glass.

Intelligent Behavior
Liquid Glass works best when it feels alive. You can:

• Change its tint automatically in light and dark mode.
• Add small parallax shifts (so the glass moves slightly with scrolling or device tilt).
• Make highlights react in real time, like Apple’s design, where the glass changes color depending on what’s behind it.

Performance & UX Optimization

Limit Usage
Blur is heavy on the GPU. Every glass panel you add costs performance. Use Liquid Glass only where it adds real value, like menus, cards, or toolbars. The liquid_glass_renderer docs even warn against stacking too many on the same screen.

Impeller Engine
For advanced liquid glass shaders, you need Flutter’s Impeller engine. Packages like Liquido only run with Impeller on iOS and Android. Desktop and web may not support these effects yet, so always test on the actual device you’re targeting.

Optimal Settings
Keep blur between 5–15 (sigma). Very high blur (20+) usually looks bad and can cause lag. Also, avoid cranking saturation too much—it can cause glitches. If you’re using BackdropFilter, wrap it in a RepaintBoundary so Flutter doesn’t waste power re-blurring the whole screen.

Testing & Accessibility
Make sure the background is still readable through the glass. If the blur makes things too messy, tone it down or disable the effect on lower-end devices. For accessibility, always use high-contrast text/icons and consider adding a “reduce transparency” option. Overusing blur not only slows down devices but can also confuse users.

• Do: use moderate blur, test readability, keep overlays light.
• Don’t: stack too many panels, max out blur radius, or rely only on transparency for contrast.

Real-World Examples and Case Study

• Apple’s iOS 26 Design
  Apple uses Liquid Glass everywhere in iOS 26. The lock screen clock looks like it’s made of glass, notifications slide in as frosted cards, and the control center panels have the translucent look, too. The new dock and tab bars are especially striking—they shrink and expand with a soft blur. Apple describes it simply: “Controls and navigation across apps are crafted from Liquid Glass.” The goal is clear: keep the UI familiar, but give it focus and depth.
• Flutter Demo App
  In the Flutter community, you can see Liquid Glass in action through demo projects. One example is Souvik Biswas’s “Liquid Glass Demo” app. It uses the liquid_glass_renderer package to build a real-estate UI with smooth animations and multiple layers of glass. As he puts it: “A stunning Flutter demonstration app showcasing beautiful glassmorphism effects using the liquid_glass_renderer package.” It’s a great source of inspiration if you want to see what’s possible.
• Tutorial Showcase
  Developer Pranav Dave also published a guide on recreating the iOS 26 style in Flutter. His reusable GlassContainer (shown earlier) demonstrates how to build home screens with glassy navigation icons and panels. This ties the design style directly to Flutter code, making it easy to follow.

Conclusion and Creative Takeaways

• Summary
  Liquid Glass gives Flutter apps a fresh, premium feel. You can build it with Flutter’s own BackdropFilter or use packages like liquid_glass_renderer and liquido. The core recipe is simple: blur the background, add a light tint, and shape the panel with soft corners. Best practices matter—keep the blur moderate, test performance on real devices, and always make sure text/icons stay easy to read.
• Potential Improvements
  This effect still has room to grow. Imagine interactive distortion, where the background ripples as you drag a panel. Or mix Liquid Glass with neumorphic shadows for a hybrid style. Advanced devs could go even further with custom shaders, 3D transforms, or animated glass refractions when scrolling.
• Creative Exploration
  Don’t be afraid to push boundaries. Try stacking multiple layers of glass, experimenting with non-rectangular shapes, or animating the glass “thickness” to react to touch. With Flutter’s upcoming graphics upgrades and better shader support, these designs will only get easier and faster to run.
• Final Note
  The Liquid Glass trend is still new and evolving. Share your takes, play with themed wallpapers, or let the tint adapt to user themes. The more designers experiment, the more this style will grow. In the end, it’s about combining Flutter’s tools with creativity to build UIs that don’t just work—but truly captivate.

Sources: Pull in the above insights from Apple’s design release, Flutter tutorials and packages, and UI design trend articles, ensuring each major point is backed by a citation.