How did we get ready for Liquid Glass?

A v8 designed flat, an iOS 26 that changed the rules mid-development, and an app that blends a little more into the system with every release.

Tom Hélière

August 19, 2026

Translated by AI

Papillon's Home tab in the Liquid Glass tab bar

Papillon's v8 was designed flat when iOS 26 brought Liquid Glass right in the middle of development. Rather than redesigning everything, we first adapted with a few shadows and more contrast, then blended in more glass with each release, up to a fully Liquid Glass home screen in v8.4 and a splash of color on iOS 27.

Liquid Glass is Apple's new visual language, introduced with iOS 26 in June 2025. Bars, buttons and menus become pieces of glass that let the content underneath show through and react to touch.

For Papillon, it arrived at an odd moment: right in the middle of developing v8.

So how did we get ready for it?

A v8 designed flat

Around April–May 2025, we started designing and then developing Papillon v8. At that point, nobody knew yet what Apple was going to announce.

So the app was designed for a flat, static interface: a classic tab bar stuck to the bottom of the screen, headers separated from the content by a simple border, cards stacked one under another. And the design system followed the same logic: no gradients, no shadows, nothing sticking out. Just colors and borders.

The v8 schedule with a flat tab bar separated by a border — The schedule in the first v8 mockups, completely flat

It was clean, readable, and it suited us just fine.

iOS 26 changes the rules

Then iOS 26 came out, while v8 was still in development. And with it, some things changed without us asking for anything. When building Papillon for iOS 26, the tab bar became a floating glass bar, and the header buttons turned into Liquid Glass pills. All enabled by default.

So our first build on iOS 26 looked a bit odd: a flat interface, with a piece of glass floating on top.

Tasks screen under construction with the new iOS 26 floating tab bar — Papillon's very first build on iOS 26

Redesigning everything a few weeks before release was out of the question. So we adapted slightly: a few shadows to lift elements off the background, and more contrast so everything stays readable around the glass. Enough for v8 not to clash with the rest of the system.

The v8 schedule with shadowed cards and the floating tab bar — The v8 schedule, with its shadows and the new tab bar

First explorations

Shortly after v8 came out, we started asking ourselves another question. Adapting to Liquid Glass is good. Truly integrating with it is better.

So we started a few interface explorations, to see how far we could take the material in Papillon. Like this grades screen, with its bluish header and pill-shaped filters.

Exploration of the grades screen with a bluish header and pill-shaped filters — An exploration of the grades screen

More glass in the app

Little by little, Liquid Glass then made its way into Papillon, notably:

Headers: their buttons turn to glass, like in Apple's apps.
Papicons: our icons were adapted to the new tab bar, to stay readable on glass.

Papillon's home screen with Liquid Glass buttons in the header — The home screen, with its glass buttons in the header

v8.4: an all-glass home screen

For v8.4, we decided to go further. This time, the whole home screen switches to Liquid Glass: shortcuts, classes and cards. And behind them, a more immersive, customizable wallpaper that shows through the glass.

Papillon v8.4 on an iPhone held in hand, with the home screen in Liquid Glass

iOS 27: time for color

With iOS 27, Apple refined Liquid Glass. It's more readable, and above all much easier to integrate.

So we took the opportunity to extend our use of the material even further: color in the glass, and more Liquid Glass containers. The goal: a more fun interface, better integrated with the OS.

Papillon's home screen on iOS 27 with colored glass shortcuts — Papillon's home screen on iOS 27

Conclusion

We started v8 with a completely flat interface, and iOS 26 changed the rules along the way. Rather than throwing everything out, we moved forward step by step: first adapt, then explore, then integrate the glass a little more with each release.

The biggest lesson from this project is that an app doesn't live on its own: it lives in a system that evolves. And it's better to let iOS help us than to fight it.

Papillon is open source on GitHub. Feel free to try the latest version and send us your feedback!