A lot has been made of the new liquid glass announcement from Apple, however I believe the key area they have taken the lead in is overall dynamatism in the UI. Gaussian blur looks better in my opinion, however one ui 8 needs further implementation of animations when interacting with the UI, no matter how small, something Google has done with their redesign. To prevent falling behind, more attention to the small details are needed, with fun, interactive animations wherever you interact with the phone
