Hacker News is a community-driven platform for sharing and discussing technology news, startups, and programming-related topics. Through user submissions and comments, Hacker News offers insights into emerging technology trends, industry developments, and entrepreneurial ventures. Readers can participate in discussions, share their insights, and stay informed about the latest advancements in technology and innovation.

Hacker News

Apple has developed a private CSS property called `-apple-visual-effect` that enables Liquid Glass effects in web content within iOS apps. The property supports various system materials including the new glass effects from iOS 26, but requires enabling a private WKPreferences setting called `useSystemAppearance`. While this feature can't be used in App Store apps due to its private nature, it suggests Apple is using webviews with native UI integration in their own applications without users realizing it.

Apple has a private CSS property to add Liquid Glass effects to web content

I have strong doubts about such approach. Everybody remember the hell of having browser specific glitches and issues related to CSS and HTML, and how much work and hacking was needed to make page look same on all devices.
Now we approaches the point, where almost all CSS is working consistently everywhere, and we as developers can focus on the main tasks, instead of compatibility issues.
What if xiaomi, google, samsung and others will start adding own custom CSS stuff to their browsers? Will we have a new era of crating browser-specific code and modules? I can imagine situation that client will say “I want it to look like on x device, why you can’t make it work the same everywhere?”.

Really interesting find!
Would have been golden if they just said developers can leverage this to better target webkit users.

interesting how we are going back to glassy ui’s . windows 7 was a classic

Useless for everyone outside of Apple.