Hate iOS 26's Liquid Glass Design? Here's How to Tone It Down

[MacRumors]

iOS 26 features a whole new design material that Apple calls Liquid Glass, with a focus on transparency that lets the content on your display shine through the controls. If you're not a fan of the look, or are having trouble with readability, there is a step that you can take to make things more opaque without entirely losing out on the new look.

Apple has multiple Accessibility options that are designed to customize iOS for different visual needs, and one of these options is Reduce Transparency. Toggling on Reduce Transparency adds a darker background to translucent areas like the Control Center, app icons, and app folders, improving contrast.

You can turn on Reduce Transparency by opening up the Settings app, going to Accessibility, selecting Display and Text Size, and tapping on the Reduce Transparency toggle. If you want to be able to turn the setting on and off quickly, you can add it to your Accessibility Shortcuts to get to it from the Control center interface.

Activating Reduce Transparency does not remove all translucency from the iPhone's interface, but it does give everything more of an opaque look. It does not change the shape of buttons or return things to a pre-iOS 26 look.

We're still very early in the beta testing process, and Apple will make tweaks and refinements to the Liquid Glass design based on user feedback. It's always tough to get used to an entirely new interface, so if you're a developer running the beta and you're having trouble adjusting or reading some text, temporarily activating Reduce Transparency might help ease the transition.

In all likelihood, most people will adjust to the updated Liquid Glass design within a few days. Apple hasn't made significant changes to app interfaces and layouts, so even though there's a whole new look for iOS 26, Apple says it's still going to feel familiar to people.

Liquid Glass could look different by the time that iOS 26 launches to the public, and we'll see it evolve over the next few months. Right now, iOS 26 is limited to developers, but a public beta is coming in July. A launch will follow in September.

Article Link: Hate iOS 26's Liquid Glass Design? Here's How to Tone It Down

 

[Populus]

While the liquid glass of this first beta looks nice, I suspect it will get subtly tweaked to make it a little bit more frosty. Just a tiny bit. I think it’s a bit too transparent, at least in elements like the dock, but I this new look anyway.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I wish we could turn off the dock

Also, do any of the accessibility options put a background specifically behind the text of App/Folder names?

In all these shots I still find the text harder to read than I would prefer and enjoy.

 

[JohnC1959]

I'm sure having it mostly transparent is great IF you have a well chosen background. but if you choose a photo like many people it's going to be hard to quickly find what you want against the noise of the background photo. I strongly suspect I'll be partly reducing the transparency though I'll give it a go with full transparency for a week or so just in case Apple manages to mitigate my concerns somehow.

 

[LoveToMacRumors]

people over 45, euhhhh didn't see this icon

 

[GrassShark]

I wish reduce transparency would also turn off the edge highlights. They look so bad.

 

[Takeo]

I wonder if they tried a “stained glass” or “coloured glass” option instead of just regular or transparent. The transparent icons are a bit much but going back to normal just gives you plain flat coloured icons with a glint on the edges of the button shape.

 

[JaylenFast]

I'm baffled that this passed Apple's entire design team. They need more frost and a darker effect on the background. Any colorful background makes this a mess. Definitely not ADA compliant, even with accessibility features on its low contrast.

 

[Reeneman]

While the liquid glass of this first beta looks nice, I suspect it will get subtly tweaked to make it a little bit more frosty. Just a tiny bit. I think it’s a bit too transparent, at least in elements like the dock, but I this new look anyway.

Would highly guess this as well. A bit more frosty and they definitely need something else for the app icons and the icons in the control center. These thin white lines around the icons looking so cheap. Curious for the changes over the upcoming weeks. Will be thrilling.

 

[ZiinGeats]

While I love the new look, I can understand people wanting it to be toned down a bit. I see the resemblance to visionOS, too. A taste of something I can’t yet get.

 

[HouseLannister]

Unintended side effects. Can’t see what text you are selecting with transparency off.

 

[klasma]

The background colors of the squares here are still determined from the wallpaper, meaning that despite the accessibility setting you aren't guaranteed to get good contrast.

 

[TMRJIJ]

I’m sure Apple will have a little more blur and frost in the coming betas. I honestly don’t really see any major differences anyway.
My eyes are usually pretty bad, especially without my glasses, but taking some of those screenshots and measuring them up on my iPhone 16 Pro, I had no problems reading anything.

 

[Mr Fusion]

So this is the state of Apple these days? "Hate the main thing we just announced? Here's now to trash it."

 

[Woyzeck]

Just why would anyone want transparent icons on a phone ?

Come on - why stop here ? Take it to the next level and reduce the brightness to 10% and add noise to all sound output.

 

[klasma]

Unintended side effects. Can’t see what text you are selecting with transparency off.

That's the price of wanting things to be intransparent.

 

[now i see it]

actually, the clear washed out look might be perfect with a black wallpaper - to tone down the obnoxious over saturated app icons

 

[Love-hate 🍏 relationship]

As others have said I sure as hell hope they add a bit of frost, if not a lot

But I'm doubtful they will, they seem really keen on keeping that "real glass" look

Especially the dude who designed it and is incredibly proud of it

I don't deny it looks good , but it's an horror from a usability standpoint

 

[Love-hate 🍏 relationship]

While the liquid glass of this first beta looks nice, I suspect it will get subtly tweaked to make it a little bit more frosty. Just a tiny bit. I think it’s a bit too transparent, at least in elements like the dock, but I this new look anyway.

Dont really understand why they didn't go with the visionOS design in the first place

 

[JohnC1959]

So this is the state of Apple these days? "Hate the main thing we just announced? Here's now to trash it."

Apple and Microsoft and others have done exactly this for decades. Often when a new interface comes out they have options to partly or completely revert. Two main reasons: the new interface isn't quite perfected yet or some people just don't like change. Companies know about both reasons and try to keep people happy with options. Options are good as long as they don't complicate things too much

 

[klasma]

Just why would anyone want transparent icons on a phone ?

The endgame is to replace the wallpaper by a feed from the camera. At least then you can put a finger on the lense for better contrast.

 

[mblm85]

Without some way of showing that everything within an item's border is protruding out from the surface around it, the borders themselves just look like badly rendered bubbles.

Not sure if some sort of parallax effect would help, or if that would make the whole thing worse.

Personally, I would just like solid borders and less transparency.

Readability of text is a huge issue with this design too.

I'm sure they'll tweak this to prevent the need for constant dark mode.

 

[Boeingfan]

Hate feels an unusually strong word to use for the subject matter 🤔

I like the idea of the liquid glass option very much, though its current scope of adjustment restrict it from being far more pleasant. Hopefully the level of adjustments available will expand as the beta program progresses.

Thus far, I’ve found an issue where the Lock Screen ‘extend wallpaper’ option blends with the carrier and wifi icons significantly, as shown in the snap below.

On reflection (see what I did there), I can’t remember whether this issue presented before liquid glass, but I’m inclined to say it didn’t, as I’ve used the same extended Lock Screen wallpaper prior to liquid glass without issue. I may be wrong!

 

[JohnC1959]

Without some way of showing that everything within an item's border is protruding out from the surface around it, the borders themselves just look like badly rendered bubbles.

Not sure if some sort of parallax effect would help, or if that would make the whole thing worse.

Personally, I would just like solid borders and less transparency.

Readability of text is a huge issue with this design too.

I'm sure they'll tweak this to prevent the need for constant dark mode.

Not sure if this would mitigate your concerns, but I thought I heard this glass effect includes subtle differences in appearance as you move the phone making these look more 3D.

 

[steve333]

When one has to tweak the controls just to make it readable, then it shouldn't have been done in the first place. IMO.