Indeed, Liquid Glass does bring somewhat of a major change to iOS 26, or what we would have called iOS 18 (Apple is switching iOS numbers to years, and iOS 26 will release in the fall). I've been using the developer beta of iOS 26 for some weeks now,

Apple has had two months to refine Liquid Glass since introducing the design language at WWDC. It’s dialed the effect back, then amped it back up. It’s addressed some of the biggest complaints — the Control Center, for one — and left us to live with some of the others. So after all the tweaks, how is everyone feeling about it?

Apple has confirmed iOS 26’s public launch this fall, following the release of beta 4 to developers and testers with major UI and Apple Intelligence updates.