Liquid Glass Adoption & Migration
iOS 27 retuned Liquid Glass and added a clear-to-tinted range that users can push from their own settings. If you built against the old material, your app looks off now: contrast that breaks over a tinted background, custom screenshots that no longer read, a paywall button that lost its emphasis. I do the adoption pass, so your app looks like it belongs on iOS 27 instead of like it missed the update.
- the iOS 27 Liquid Glass adoption pass: recompile against the new SDK and fix what the retuned material breaks
- testing across the clear-to-tinted range users now control, because a layout that works clear can fail tinted
- tinting the right element (your primary call to action) to your brand, without turning the whole app into a colour cast
What clients say
"Vadim was instrumental to the success Epsy enjoyed on iOS, taking it from an idea on a Miro board to the highest rated and most downloaded app of its kind on the store."
James C. · Mobile Engineering Lead, Epsy
"We had a strict deadline, and Vadim managed to complete the job in time. He gave us meaningful feedback and suggested better approaches, not trying to blindly stick to our specification."
Founder · Pre-seed streaming service
"I can say with confidence that it will be difficult to find a better developer. Vadim is achievement-oriented, highly organized, with very good communication skills."
Alex Z. · Co-Founder, eda.so
Related work
Common engagements
Adopt Liquid Glass on a live app
The recompile is the free part anyone can do. What it surfaces is the work: text gone unreadable over glass, controls that lose their definition, custom backgrounds that fight the new material, and none of it shows up unless you check every screen across the full clear-to-tinted range. I find and fix all of it, so you look current without a redesign and without a user emailing you a screenshot of the broken bit.
Migrate off old blur and material effects
If your app leans on hand-rolled blur views or the older material APIs, the new system will look inconsistent next to them. I move the custom effects onto glassEffect and the standard materials so your UI matches what the OS draws everywhere else, and I keep the few places where a custom effect genuinely earned its keep. Knowing which is which is the experience you are paying for.
Tint and polish for brand
The new clear-to-tinted spectrum is partly a user setting, so you cannot fully control it, but you can tint your key controls toward your brand colour. I set the primary actions, your paywall button first, so they hold emphasis across the range, and I check that your App Store screenshots still match what users see, because a retuned material can quietly age your store listing while you are not looking.
Pricing
Architecture reviews, hiring help, second opinions on that thing that's been bugging you.
Features, MVPs, migrations, firefighting. Minimum 5 days.
Priority support: review agency code, join architecture calls, catch problems before they ship.
Questions
Isn't Liquid Glass automatic when we recompile? Why pay for it?
Recompiling against the iOS 27 SDK applies the tuned material automatically. What it does not do is fix the screens that material now breaks: dark text unreadable over a light glass panel, a custom background that clashes, stale screenshots. The recompile is trivial. Finding and fixing everything it broke, across every screen and the full tint range, is the actual job, and that is what you are paying for.
Our app uses heavy custom UI. Does Liquid Glass force a redesign?
Usually a reconciliation rather than a redesign. Custom UI does not vanish; it just risks looking out of place next to the system's new glass. I keep the custom work that carries your identity and bring the incidental chrome onto the standard materials so the two stop fighting. The goal is an app that looks deliberate on iOS 27 rather than one frozen in last year's design language, and telling those two apart on your screens is the judgment I bring.
How does the user-controlled tint affect us? Can our brand colours break?
The clear-to-tinted setting sits partly with the user, so you design for a range instead of one fixed look. Your brand colours do not break, but their contrast can shift as the material goes from clear to tinted, which is why every key control needs checking across the whole range. You still get to tint your primary actions to brand; you just cannot assume everyone sees the clear version, and designing for that range is the part that is easy to get wrong quietly.
Will skipping this actually hurt us, or is it cosmetic?
It is cosmetic right up until it costs a sale. An app that looks a year out of date reads as abandoned, and that perception hits paywall conversion and reviews well before any technical issue does. There is also an accessibility tail: contrast that passed on the old material can fail on the new one, which draws complaints and eventually App Review attention. So 'just cosmetic' is carrying more weight than it looks.
How quickly can you start?
Advisory calls can happen within days. For project work, I typically need 1-2 weeks notice to clear the calendar, though I keep some buffer for urgent firefighting. Check the availability badges above for current openings.
Do you work with early-stage startups?
Yes, from pre-seed to Series C and beyond. For very early teams, the advisory tier often makes more sense than project work: you get architecture guidance without committing to a large engagement before you've validated the product.
What's included in the day rate?
Everything: code, architecture decisions, code review, documentation, async Slack availability during working hours. No surprise add-ons. I bill for time spent working on your project, not for "thinking about it in the shower."
We're in a different timezone. Will that slow things down?
I'm currently in Vancouver (PST), with full overlap for North American teams. For UK and Europe, I'm online by their afternoon. For Gulf or APAC, we'd agree on overlap hours and handle the rest async. I've worked with teams from San Francisco to Dubai.
Areas I cover
Where I've worked CV LinkedIn
Adopting Liquid Glass on iOS 27?
Tell me what you're working on. I reply within 48 hours.
work@drobinin.com