Why Liquid Glass Is Making Developers Rethink Flutter
Hey Swift folks! If you’ve been scrolling X or LinkedIn, you have probably caught wind of the buzz: Apple’s Liquid Glass design is supposedly “killing” Flutter. I have been diving into Meet Liquid Glass video and Apple’s official Adopting Liquid Glass documentation to figure out what is driving this talk and what it means for us. Is it time to ditch Flutter for native iOS with SwiftUI? Let’s unpack why Liquid Glass is a challenge for Flutter, what really matters, and how to migrate if you’re ready to go all-in on native.
Why’s Liquid Glass Stirring Up Trouble for Flutter?
At WWDC 2025, Apple dropped Liquid Glass, a stunning design language for iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS Tahoe 26, watchOS 26, and tvOS 26. It’s all about translucent, fluid interfaces with dynamic blur, refraction, and adaptive animations, as shown in the session Build a SwiftUI app with the new design. SwiftUI makes it seamless with the new glassEffect(_:in:isEnabled:)
modifier. But for Flutter devs, it’s a different story.
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Flutter’s Rendering Hurdle: Flutter uses its Impeller engine (built on Skia) to draw UI on a canvas, skipping native iOS components. Even Flutter’s Cupertino widgets which mimic pre-iOS 26 designs, can’t natively use Liquid Glass’s effects, which rely on Apple’s Metal and Core Animation.
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DIY Workarounds: To get a Liquid Glass look in Flutter, you need custom solutions like BackdropFilter, shaders, or community packages (e.g., liquid_glass on pub.dev). These are time-consuming and often don’t match native polish.
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Performance Edge for Native: Liquid Glass is GPU-heavy, and SwiftUI optimizes it with Metal. Flutter’s extra layer can lag, especially on older iPhones or Vision Pro. A 2025 Medium article found SwiftUI uses 20-30% less CPU for dynamic animations compared to Flutter’s Impeller.
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Support Lag: The Flutter team said on June 11, 2025, they’re “not developing Liquid Glass features in the Cupertino library right now,” leaving devs to lean on community fixes, which may not be production-ready. It is the same case with Material 3 design.
What Really Matters?
Before you decide to stick with Flutter or go native, here’s what to consider:
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Native Polish vs. Cross-Platform Speed: If your app is iOS-first and needs that Liquid Glass sparkle, SwiftUI’s glassEffect makes it a breeze, as shown at WWDC. But if you’re targeting Android, web, or more, Flutter’s single codebase saves time, even if it means extra UI effort.
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User Expectations iOS users notice when apps don’t match the platform’s glassy aesthetic. A Flutter app without Liquid Glass might feel dated, but for utility apps, users may care less.
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Team Resources Mimicking Liquid Glass in Flutter requires shader skills or third-party packages. SwiftUI cuts that effort with native APIs. Can your team handle a rewrite?
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Future-Proofing Apple’s ecosystem is racing ahead with the latest APIs announced at WWDC25. Native apps get these instantly, while Flutter waits for plugins.
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Accessibility & Compliance Edge SwiftUI’s accessibility features work out-of-the-box. VoiceOver, Dynamic Type, and Reduce Motion are automatically supported. Flutter developers need to manually implement accessibility for each widget, and even if they nail the Liquid Glass look, they still have to handle accessibility separately. With the EU’s European Accessibility Act and similar regulations worldwide pushing hard for digital accessibility compliance, it’s better to have these features built-in from day one rather than scrambling to add them after the fact.
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Testing Made Simple Xcode’s latest UI testing capabilities make testing Liquid Glass interfaces a breeze. SwiftUI’s declarative nature pairs perfectly with Xcode’s testing tools. You can easily test dynamic blur effects, glass transitions, and responsive layouts. Flutter’s testing story for custom visual effects is more complex, requiring additional setup and often custom testing solutions.
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Regulatory Future-Proofing As governments worldwide tighten accessibility requirements, native iOS development provides a compliance safety net. SwiftUI’s built-in accessibility means you’re already meeting most standards, while Flutter teams need to audit and retrofit accessibility features. This is a costly process that’s better avoided upfront.
How to Migrate to Native iOS
If Liquid Glass has you leaning toward native iOS, migrating from Flutter to SwiftUI is a big step but doable. The WWDC session focuses on building new SwiftUI apps, not migration, but here’s a practical roadmap:
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Break Down Your App: Split your Flutter code into UI (widgets) and logic (networking, state). You can often reuse logic like API calls with minor tweaks.
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Set Up SwiftUI Create an Xcode 26 project targeting iOS 26. SwiftUI’s declarative style feels a bit like Flutter’s widget tree but with native power.
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Rebuild the UI Use SwiftUI’s glassEffect for Liquid Glass. Here’s a simple example, inspired by the WWDC session:
import SwiftUI
struct GlassCard: View {
var body: some View {
VStack {
Text("Welcome to iOS 26")
.font(.title2)
.foregroundStyle(.white)
Spacer()
}
.padding()
.frame(maxWidth: .infinity)
.background(.ultraThinMaterial)
.glassEffect(.regular, in: RoundedRectangle(cornerRadius: 16)) // Liquid Glass magic
.padding()
}
}
struct GlassCard_Previews: PreviewProvider {
static var previews: some View {
GlassCard()
.preferredColorScheme(.dark)
}
}
In Flutter, you’d wrestle with shaders or packages to get close. This is way simpler.
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Port Logic: Translate Dart logic to Swift, using async/await for networking. If you want you can use libraries like Alamofire that can replace Flutter’s HTTP package or else just go ahead with Apple’s URLSession.
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Test and Optimize Use Xcode’s Instruments for performance and check accessibility. Liquid Glass’s transparency needs tweaks, and SwiftUI’s accessibilityReduceTransparency helps.
It’s not a weekend project, but it’s worth it for apps that need to shine on iOS 26.
Let’s Keep the Conversation Going
Liquid Glass isn’t “killing” Flutter, but it’s a wake-up call that native iOS shines for Apple’s latest designs. If you’re iOS-first, SwiftUI’s glassEffect makes Liquid Glass effortless, as WWDC 2025 shows. If cross-platform’s your thing, Flutter’s still viable with some work. I’m curious. What’s your take? Try the SwiftUI code above and hit me up on LinkedIn or X.com with #WWDC25. Oh, and our ohmyswift.com newsletter is launching soon. Let’s build some stunning apps together!
About the author
- Rizwan Ahmed -
Developer Relations at Zoho Apptics | Tech Evangelist at Zoho | AI Researcher | iOS Engineer | Blogger at ohmyswift.com | Speaker | Mentor
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rizwan95/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/rizwanasifahmed
Social media - https://bento.me/rizwan95
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