Apple Improves Liquid Glass in iOS 26 Beta 4, Reversing Some Beta 3 Changes

[Daku93]

All the people who suggest using reduce transparency must never have used it themselves. Reduce transparency reduces (even more, rather removes it completely) almost everywhere, not just for Liquid Glass elements.
IT IS NOT A VIABLE OPTION FOR MOST PEOPLE.

 

[Luuthian]

Does anyone else just… really not want this? I don’t give a crap right now about the translucency and so on. It all looks pointless. Change for the sake of change. What really matters here is how much does this affect battery life and performance? If it’s noticeably impactful then take this behind the shed and put it out is misery. No one needs a visual “planned obsolescence” OS update. This whole thing seems like a massive waste of development resources

 

[Rogifan]

It’s really not, never was. People are so unhinged and overreactive these days. Everything was clear and perfectly usable from Beta 1. Of course there are people who play dumb and swear they can’t see **** for internet points, but in reality Beta 1 was a really fresh looking iOS.

I don’t use developer betas. I saw some of the screenshots of notifications in the early betas and things seemed really hard to read. Looks like that might be better now? Regardless, legibility issues with liquid glass need to be fixed by Apple, not users via accessibility settings.

 

[lanomds1]

This doesn't look good at all. Please, remove this Liquid Glass altogether.

 

[Lotsacaffine]

I like the stacked layers of glas in the first picture giving a 3D effect.
The iOS screenshots on the other side look quite flat and less glassy.

Will there at least be some parallax effect when tilting the phone?

There’s a minor effect where the app icon edge lighting changes on the Home Screen and control center (in certain scenarios). It’s not consistently applied though, and very subtle.

 

[lanomds1]

People be complaining just to complain. Upgrade and use reduce transparency, it’s not that big of a deal.

'Complain just to complain' — have you ever heard of accessibility?

 

[carswell]

Better The Notification Centre screens are better than before but still significantly less legible than the current UI. In other words, form over function once again.

 

[Lotsacaffine]

I don’t use developer betas. I saw some of the screenshots of notifications in the early betas and things seemed really hard to read. Looks like that might be better now? Regardless, legibility issues with liquid glass need to be fixed by Apple, not users via accessibility settings.

I felt the same way looking at marketing material. But actually using it on your device, full screen, correct aspect ratio, etc. is very different.

 

[Rogifan]

That option was literally added as a result of iOS 7 design changes.

It’s called reduce transparency, not turn off liquid glass. And it affects lots of things, not just the new design.

 

[MikeZTM]

That’s so weird. Aren’t you exaggerating a bit? How is that even possible? It looked amazing to me.

Beta 1, best looking so far:
View attachment 2530932

Beta 4, meh:

View attachment 2530933

Did you notice that the dynamic gyroscope light effect was only present if you pull the control center from springboard not in an app in Beta3?
That looks like is fixed now in beta 4.

 

[thiscatisfat]

I don’t use developer betas. I saw some of the screenshots of notifications in the early betas and things seemed really hard to read. Looks like that might be better now? Regardless, legibility issues with liquid glass need to be fixed by Apple, not users via accessibility settings.

So you haven’t used it and you already have legibility issues? How? 😄

 

[Rogifan]

This looks better, though I’m not sure how it would look on a very busy wallpaper.

Brandon Butch (@brandonbutch) on Threads

iOS 26 Beta 4 adds a dynamic tint to the Notification Center as you scroll through notifications!

www.threads.com

 

[Lotsacaffine]

It’s called reduce transparency, not turn off liquid glass. And it affects lots of things, not just the new design.

Regardless, it was added as a concession to those who didn’t like the added transparency at the time. People give these nonsensical arguments that transparency is bad and less legible, but then complain about using Reduce Transparency because it takes away too much transparency. If transparency = illegibility, then opaqueness = legibility. Reduce transparency should provide the best legibility and experience. Just use that?

 

[matt_and_187_like_this]

good idea to give the menu a different glass effect in every single app. fire cook already.

 

[kyemaloy]

Just reading this thread and while I do love Liquid Glass, sometimes it can be hard to read. Here’s an example where I can barely make out the artists name under the current song.

But I like it how it is, and this is only when two colours don’t blend well, a few pixels up or down and the issue would be gone.

 

[Dog Bone Malone]

Have I got a setting wrong or something? I'm not seeing a more liquid effect in B4. I only really saw it in B1.

 

[MrGimper]

I wish Apple would get a grip on themselves and do something right the first time without having to rely on beta testers to tell them how a user interface should work. Whether they work in this department or not, everyone who works at Apple should be embarrassed with what's taking place in public view. It's downright pitiful how far they have fallen.

My frustration is that they went thru a major UI redesign with iOS 7 but these betas look like they didn’t learn a single thing from that experience. There’s still absolutely shocking stuff that shouldn’t have even made it to beta 1.

 

[TheDailyApple]

On the one hand, they need to get it right by putting the right side on the right before comments are left telling them to put the right image on the left before the right image on the right. On the other hand, it’s important to put the left image on the left with the right text describing both the right image and the left image, reading left to right, so no reader is left wondering whether the left image is right or if the right image has been left on the left or on the right in a way that’s not right. Hopefully it’ll all be alright in the end (by which I mean clearly half-left and half-right, respectively).

And here I was recovering from my fox in socks trauma. Thanks for that.

 

[neotint]

Can "glass" fx be entirely turned off for those of us who value good UX over battery draining gimmicks?

Since it seems like there are major usability issues inherent to core of the "glass" concept it would be ethical to have it off by default.

 

[sleeptodream]

I like the stacked layers of glas in the first picture giving a 3D effect.
The iOS screenshots on the other side look quite flat and less glassy.

Will there at least be some parallax effect when tilting the phone?

Parallax is still broken on the home screen

It exists, but when you swipe to the widget page or app library it stops working until you reboot

 

[alanvitek]

I'm not a fan of the color icon/text in the menu bar.

The new Games app is much easier to read and discern the active state than the Music app's menu design imo

Not sure if every app needs an accent color for branding purposes

 

[Reeneman]

Folks we‘re on a good way

 

[matt_and_187_like_this]

Just reading this thread and while I do love Liquid Glass, sometimes it can be hard to read. Here’s an example where I can barely make out the artists name under the current song.

But I like it how it is, and this is only when two colours don’t blend well, a few pixels up or down and the issue would be gone.

it's funny (tragic) how the glass effect is so much different in ios than it is in macos. In macos it's essentially a blurred window with minor breakage on the edges.

 

[Lotsacaffine]

I'm not a fan of the color icon/text in the menu bar.

The new Games app is much easier to read and discern the active state than the Music app's menu design imo

Not sure if every app needs an accent color for branding purposes
View attachment 2530957View attachment 2530953

Agreed. Getting rid of accent would go a long way in improving legibility. Active view is already shaded white.

Edit: spelling

 

[star-affinity]

I find it interesting that it seems so problematic to get the transparency and readability right, when the intro video for Liquid Glass from WWDC25 makes it seem all about it is very thought through and ready: