YouTube Music may be getting Apple's Liquid Glass look

Google's YouTube apps look set to catch up with Apple's iOS design language, based on feature flags spotted ahead of any official announcement. Both YouTube and YouTube Music appear headed for a Liquid Glass overhaul, alongside a less obvious addition: support for Live Activities, the real-time updates that populate the Dynamic Island.

MacRumors analyst Aaron Perris shared a screenshot on X revealing newly added feature flags referencing Liquid Glass, though it's unclear which of the two apps the image came from. Perris says both are getting the update. 

Feature flags typically surface in an app's code well before a design actually ships, so timing beyond "in development" remains unconfirmed.

A Liquid Glass refresh is predictable; Google has already brought the look to Chrome and Gemini on iOS. Live Activities is a strange fit for a video app. 

One plausible explanation floated by the source: YouTube TV could use the Dynamic Island to surface live sports scores without requiring the app to stay open, similar to how ESPN and other sports apps already use the feature.

This wouldn't be YouTube's first brush with Apple's design system. The main video player picked up Liquid Glass styling back in October 2025, months before Apple's broader iOS 27 rollout expanded the look further.

That makes this leak less a first step and more a continuation, closing the gap between YouTube's player and the rest of its interface, including menus, search, and settings that haven't been touched yet.

Gmail and Google Maps still run their older iOS interfaces, and a reader survey run by Android Authority last year found most respondents preferred Google's own Material 3 Expressive design over Liquid Glass. Third-party Android developers have largely avoided the aesthetic too, aside from a handful of exceptions.