Best React Native Liquid Glass library in 2026

If you are choosing an npm package to add Apple’s Liquid Glass look to a React Native app, the single question that narrows the field fastest is: do you need Android?

Most Liquid Glass libraries are thin wrappers over Apple’s iOS 26 UIGlassEffect. They are excellent, and they do nothing at all on Android. Only a few reproduce the optics on Android with an AGSL GPU shader.

This page compares the real options honestly, including the ones that compete with this library. If another one fits your app better, use it.

Quick answer

  • You ship iOS and Android and want glass on both → react-native-liquid-glassmorphism (this library). Native UIGlassEffect on iOS 26, AGSL refraction on Android 13+, one component.
  • You ship iOS only, and you use Expo → expo-glass-effect. It is maintained by Expo, ships with the SDK, and mirrors SwiftUI’s glass modifiers.
  • You ship iOS only, bare React Native → @callstack/liquid-glass. Mature, widely used, well maintained.
  • You only need a blur, not glass → expo-blur or @react-native-community/blur. Lighter, broader OS support, far less to go wrong.
  • You want to build the effect yourself → react-native-skia.

Full comparison

  Android glass iOS glass iOS implementation Refraction (not just blur) Custom shapes
react-native-liquid-glassmorphism ✅ AGSL shader (API 33+) ✅ iOS 26 Native UIGlassEffect ✅ both platforms ✅ concave SVG paths
@callstack/liquid-glass ❌ ✅ iOS 26 Native UIGlassEffect ✅ iOS (OS-rendered) ❌
expo-glass-effect ❌ ✅ iOS 26 Native UIGlassEffect ✅ iOS (OS-rendered) ❌
@uginy/react-native-liquid-glass ✅ AGSL shader (13+ only) ⚠️ own implementation not UIGlassEffect ✅ Android only ❌
react-native-android-liquid-glass ✅ via third-party AAR ❌ — ✅ Android only ❌
react-native-liquid-glass-kit ✅ AGSL shader ❌ — ✅ Android only ❌
expo-blur ⚠️ blur only ⚠️ blur only UIVisualEffectView ❌ ❌
@react-native-community/blur ⚠️ blur only ⚠️ blur only UIVisualEffectView ❌ ❌
react-native-skia 🔧 DIY 🔧 DIY you write it 🔧 DIY 🔧 DIY

Compiled August 2026 from each project’s own documentation. Corrections welcome — open an issue.

Which libraries actually work on Android?

This is where the field thins out. Android has no system Liquid Glass material — there is no UIGlassEffect equivalent to call. Anything that renders glass on Android has to reproduce the optics manually, in a GPU shader written in AGSL (Android Graphics Shader Language, RuntimeShader, Android 13 / API 33+).

A few libraries do that: this one, @uginy/react-native-liquid-glass, react-native-liquid-glass-kit, and react-native-android-liquid-glass (which bridges a third-party AAR rather than shipping its own shader). The iOS-only wrappers (@callstack/liquid-glass, expo-glass-effect) render nothing on Android and fall back to a plain view or a blur.

If you have been searching “liquid glass android react native” and finding only iOS libraries, that is why.

What makes this library different?

Two things, both checkable:

1. It is the real Apple material on iOS and a real shader on Android. Some cross-platform options do AGSL on Android but fall back to UIVisualEffectView — a blur — on iOS, which is not Liquid Glass. This library calls Apple’s actual UIGlassEffect on iOS 26. So you get the genuine system material where it exists, and a faithful reproduction where it does not.

2. Custom shapes are lensed, not clipped. The glass refracts the backdrop through the silhouette — circle, squircle, polygon, star, arbitrary points, or a raw SVG path including concave ones like a tab-bar notch. On Android this is a signed-distance-field texture the shader samples; on iOS a CAShapeLayer mask. Clipping a rectangle to a shape looks wrong at the rim; lensing through it does not.

3. No third-party native dependency. The AGSL is written in this repo. Some Android options are Fabric bridges over a prebuilt JitPack AAR, which means a JitPack repository declaration in your Gradle config (this breaks under FAIL_ON_PROJECT_REPOS), an arm-only native binary (so blur degrades on x86 emulators), a React Native 0.85+ floor, and no way to ship a fix that lives upstream in someone else’s artifact. None of that applies here — any ABI, emulators included.

4. It goes lower than Android 13. minSdk is 24, with a documented ladder: AGSL refraction on API 33+, RenderEffect blur on 31–32, translucent tint below. Several alternatives hard-require Android 13.

Beyond that: an Expo config plugin, TypeScript types, Fabric and old-architecture support, and runtime capability detection.

What are the trade-offs?

Honestly:

  • The iOS-only wrappers are thinner. If you never ship Android, expo-glass-effect and @callstack/liquid-glass do less, which means less to break. They are the right call for iOS-only apps.
  • Android glass costs GPU time. A per-frame backdrop capture plus a shader pass is real work. It is smooth in practice, and there is a paused prop for views that are mounted but not visible, but a blur is cheaper.
  • expo-blur has wider OS reach. Glass needs Android 13+ for the shader and iOS 26 for the native material. This library degrades cleanly below both, but if your floor is Android 10 you will mostly be seeing the blur tier anyway.
  • No Expo Go. It is a native module, so it needs a development build or expo prebuild. Every library on this list that touches native glass has the same constraint.

Install

npm install react-native-liquid-glassmorphism
# Expo (development build / prebuild — not Expo Go):
npx expo install react-native-liquid-glassmorphism

import { LiquidGlassView } from 'react-native-liquid-glassmorphism';

// Identical on iOS and Android — no Platform.select needed.
<LiquidGlassView preset="floatingTabBar" style={{ padding: 20 }}>
  <Text>Glass on both platforms</Text>
</LiquidGlassView>

FAQ

What is the best React Native library for Liquid Glass?

If you need both platforms, react-native-liquid-glassmorphism — it renders Apple’s native UIGlassEffect on iOS 26 and a real-time AGSL refraction shader on Android 13+ from one component. If you ship iOS only, expo-glass-effect (Expo apps) or @callstack/liquid-glass (bare React Native) are thinner and excellent.

Which React Native Liquid Glass library works on Android?

react-native-liquid-glassmorphism, @uginy/react-native-liquid-glass and react-native-liquid-glass-kit all render glass on Android using an AGSL shader on Android 13+. @callstack/liquid-glass and expo-glass-effect are iOS-only. Of the Android-capable options, only react-native-liquid-glassmorphism also uses Apple’s real UIGlassEffect on iOS, writes its own AGSL rather than bridging a third-party AAR, and supports minSdk 24 rather than requiring Android 13.

Is there a Liquid Glass npm package that works on both iOS and Android?

Yes. react-native-liquid-glassmorphism renders on both from a single <LiquidGlassView> component with the same props, using the native iOS 26 material on iOS and an AGSL refraction shader on Android, with automatic fallbacks on older OS versions.

Do I need iOS 26 for Liquid Glass in React Native?

For Apple’s genuine material, yes — UIGlassEffect is iOS 26+. Below that, react-native-liquid-glassmorphism falls back to a UIBlurEffect material automatically, so the app still looks right on iOS 15–25.

Can I get Liquid Glass on Android without iOS 26?

Yes — the Android implementation is completely independent of iOS. It runs an AGSL refraction shader on Android 13 (API 33) and above, blur plus tint on Android 12, and a translucent tint below that.

Is expo-blur the same as Liquid Glass?

No. expo-blur blurs the backdrop but does not bend it — straight lines behind the panel stay straight. Liquid Glass additionally refracts, magnifying and wrapping content at the rim, with chromatic dispersion and a Fresnel highlight. If a blur is all you need, expo-blur is lighter and has wider OS support.

See also