HyperOS 4 Liquid Glass effect limited to Snapdragon 8 Elite and newer Xiaomi chips

The long-awaited Liquid Glass effect in the HyperOS 4 update will only work on a limited number of devices. According to a leaked source code, the new visual feature is available only on smartphones with specific flagship processors. Owners of older or budget models will miss out on this design, though other update features are likely to reach them.

Liquid Glass is an interface style where elements look like translucent glass with light refraction. Menus, widgets, and cards are no longer flat: wallpaper colors show through them, and the image shifts dynamically as you navigate. HONOR already uses a similar approach in MagicOS 11, but Xiaomi goes further.

According to insider Digital Chat Station, Xiaomi employs real-time light field rendering, glass materials, and AI-based color blending. This means the phone constantly recalculates transparency and light behavior under interface elements, which is far more complex than the simple background blur in current HyperOS versions.

The heavy load on graphics and other processor blocks is exactly why the effect is limited to powerful platforms. The found selection rules list only Snapdragon 8 Elite and newer, Xiaomi's own XRING O1 and XRING O3 chips, as well as Dimensity 9500 and newer MediaTek solutions. Older Snapdragon and other platforms did not make the cut.

Besides Liquid Glass, HyperOS 4 is expected to bring widget and notification stacks on the lock screen, customizable folders, and a floating island with an AI assistant. However, the visual effect is set to be the update's main highlight, and its absence on many devices may disappoint users.