Three More Apple Apps Just Got Liquid Glass Updates

Apple today updated three more of its apps for iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and macOS Tahoe, introducing new Liquid Glass-compatible icons for GarageBand, Photomator, and Pixelmator Pro across its platforms.

garageband
GarageBand for iPhone and iPad has an overhauled icon featuring a realistic-looking guitar instead of the silhouetted neon guitar icon that Apple previously used. Apple uses this same icon for the Mac, but curiously, the GarageBand for Mac app hasn't been updated yet.

We first saw the new GarageBand icon on Apple's ‌iPhone‌ tech spec pages after the September ‌iPhone‌ event, and now it has rolled out. Apple is also planning new Liquid Glass icons for iMovie, the App Store, Keynote, Numbers, and Pages, but these apps haven't had icon updates yet.

Apple bought Pixelmator, Pixelmator Pro, and Photomator in November 2024, and some of those apps were also updated today. Photomator for Mac, ‌iPhone‌, and ‌iPad‌ got an update with a new icon. The icon actually looks the same on ‌iPhone‌ and ‌iPad‌, but on Mac, it no longer has the unappealing border design in ‌macOS Tahoe‌.

Pixelmator Pro for Mac was updated as well, and while it has the same general icon design, it also no longer has the awkward squircle border around it.

With ‌macOS Tahoe‌, Apple made updates to icon design requirements. App icons that don't comply with the updated size and design rules are displayed with a translucent gray border around them until developers provide updated artwork.

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Top Rated Comments

Joseph C Avatar
8 weeks ago
Neither Photomator or Pixelmator Pro got a dark mode Tahoe icon, and their UIs are completely untouched.

Apple is really, really annoying me recently with its failure to implement its own UI conventions consistently and promptly. It's such a fall from grace from a company that used to have such a high attention to detail and standards, and was famed for its software.

Just unforgivable for a company with its resources.
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
pbau Avatar
8 weeks ago
Amazing, 3 Trillion $ company. Updating icons months after updates. Going the microsoft road i see
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jacklroberts Avatar
8 weeks ago
None of these apps have Liquid Glass. They may have updated icons but none of the internal UI elements have been updated. In fact the keyboard in GarageBand is still the old iOS 18 style keyboard.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
now i see it Avatar
8 weeks ago
Isn't Garage Band the first app everyone deletes from their iPhone?
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jz0309 Avatar
8 weeks ago
would have preferred to see the 26.1 releases today ...
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
infinitedreams Avatar
8 weeks ago
They only got icon updates. No Liquid Glass UI
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)