Chinese phone brand Vivo is turning heads with its upcoming OriginOS 6 update, which appears heavily inspired by Apple’s Liquid Glass design language from iOS 26. The preview showcases UI elements like translucent overlays, rounded buttons, blurry glass-like backgrounds, smooth fluid animations, and even app icons and widgets that shift between opaque and translucent states — all visuals that recall Apple’s recent design refresh.
Vivo’s designers seem to lean into “water-inspired” visuals, emphasizing fluid motion, subtle reflections, and soft depth effects. The design teaser includes a “hovering dock” and notifications that look layered, floating over underlying content. A music widget, for example, transitions its background from solid to more transparent, matching an aesthetic very similar to one Apple introduced. While OriginOS 6 still runs on Android, the resemblance is strong enough that many users and observers are debating whether the similarity crosses into imitation.
Vivo has not officially said it’s copying Apple; instead, the company frames its style tweaks to enhance visual sophistication and fluidity in its UI, presenting them as an evolution of their own design approach. Whether consumers will see OriginOS 6 as derivative or as a thoughtful reinterpretation remains to be seen. For Vivo and other Android brands following suit, design is now a key front in the competition — not just specs or features, but how software looks, feels, and moves.
