I mean… it’s Apple’s product? I can’t think of anyone else in a better position to decide this. Especially since the decision will determine how many millions of dollars they’re making 10-20 years from now or even if they’re still in business.
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Here's How the iOS 26.1 Transparency Toggle Changes Liquid Glass
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OHHHHHHHHHHH! I haven’t enabled it, but this makes more sense.For people who seem confused and can’t read…
This just applies a tint
The reduce transparency setting in accessibility only reduces transparency.
It’s like looking out a car window with tinted windows. Or wearing sunglasses. You can still see clearly…it’s just a little darker. The transparency is the same. It’s just darker. Two totally different settings.
If you hate Liquid Glass then this isn’t going to remove it.
I like the tint effect
What you're talking about here is actually a case of function following form - that is, the form (appearance) comes first and the function of it is forced to take second place (e.g., butterfly keyboards, liquid glass interface). Form following function (what you said) is actually where the function of a thing dictates how it looks. You can still have a beautiful thing with form following function, it just means the form has to take a backseat to the actual use of the thing.
Apple used to know this at an institutional level, but it seems they have to relearn it every 15 years or so.
Looking at an example here, I may be wrong as one screenshot shows the tinted area being darker. It might not be as clear cut as reduce transparency seemed to be.
For all we know this has been a plan for 26.1 beta 4 for weeks now, understanding how code development works. The coding for beta 4 would have been committed two or more sprints ago.
Makes Liquid glass like 10% better, but frankly its still crap.
It drives me nuts how everything at the top and bottom of the screen is blurry. Makes me feel like there's something wrong with my eyes.
And all the blinking, flashing, and useless animation in iOS 26 drives me NUTS!!
It drives me nuts how everything at the top and bottom of the screen is blurry. Makes me feel like there's something wrong with my eyes.
And all the blinking, flashing, and useless animation in iOS 26 drives me NUTS!!
FYI, the Reduce Motion setting under Accessibility helps with the animations.
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Normally I would agree but Apple went WAY too hard on this new look to the point of many UI elements being unreadable in certain instances. Not to mention the constant flashing and changing colors of text from white to black as you scroll. It’s simply a little too distracting right now.
Apple NAILED the liquid part. But they screwed up the glass.
Well problem solved now. People with vision issues now have the choice to turn it off.
For the majority that enjoy Liquid Glass, they don't have to miss out on something good due to the minority.
This! You know there’s an inherent design flaw when everything is constantly flashing and attempting to “adapt” as you scroll. It’s just too over the top and distracting in its current form. I don’t need everything to be the visual version of a fidget spinner for my eyes. They claim Liquid Glass lets you “focus on your content” …..right. Then when you need to tap a button there’s your content right there being overlayed by what look like nearly invisible UI elements which rips you out of your train of thought
I find is bizarre that there are a bunch of people that are so against people having options. They seem hell bent to force their preference as the only way. Just read the comments here. Mind blowing 🤯
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Now they just need a toggle switch that squares the corners off
All the available options still have translucency to some degree, you can't turn that off. You also can't turn off the floating widgets that make it harder to discern content from controls. You can't turn off the glassy edges around icons, and other highlights that increase visual noise.
I'm someone with older eyes. I've used a couple of the options to help improve my ability to quickly identify some things (especially notifications on the lock screen). They seem to work pretty well for me. Sure they don't get rid of liquid glass, but all I really care about is being able to read things and I can.
Apple can go "All in" with designing the best Liquid Glass experience and having that as the default setting, and the default look pushed in their marketing material.
I personally love Liquid Glass. However, I’ve noticed a couple of bugs where the text colour doesn’t switch, resulting in black text on a black background. This issue is particularly noticeable in the photos app. But these are bugs, not the intended design behaviour.
Having the mindset that Apple must go “all in" by not allowing for easy access to tone down the Glass effects is rather immature. My understanding is that the option under the accessibility settings is different from what's offered in Beta 4. This new option still keeps the translucency and offers an option for people who obviously have visual issues with the current design.
This should have been an option on day one with the release of iOS 26.0.
I’m probably in the minority from some of the comments here, but I really like the transparency of the Liquid Glass interface. It doesn’t make anything harder to read or see. Best iOS version in my opinion. I really like the improvements to the home app also.
The people using the product are the ones in the position to decide this. Giving people the option is fine. My way or the highway might well lead to your second sentence, "Especially since the decision will determine how many millions of dollars they’re making 10-20 years from now or even if they’re still in business."
I paid for the device, it had better be useful to me or there will be no repeat sales. Apple already lost me on the desktop and the phone. I got a better desktop for less money than Apple charges, and a lesser but still good enough phone for much less money. If I can't read the screen on this laptop with Liquid Glass it will be replaced with one that does Not have Liquid Glass. For now Sonoma still works fine.
PS, if the mandatory Augmented Idiocy cripples this M1 Air 8/256 then it also leaves or converts to Linux.
I tried it, I like it. More like old times, while retaining some of the new. Now make it work in Control Center and other screens where it should, where the only other solution at the moment is to turn on 'Reduce Transparency', but that turns Control Center's background completely gray (though that's not a bad thing). 'Increase Contrast' has no effect on Control Center transparency.
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The more you use Liquid Glass, the more you might encounter annoying background bleed-through in things you haven't used yet. Unless you have, and you're not bothered by it.
Only controversy is NO OPTION to turn it off. I am sure some people like it and I have no problem with it. Me personally I do not like it at all. Just give us an option.
So many little things with these updates annoy me this time around. Like having to click the three dots in safari to see the open tabs option. The shrinking, glass URL bar that almost disappears on some web ages. Or choosing a workout on my AWU is now one extra step. Chang for change sake.
I was checking out a friend’s new Pixel 10 Pro XL and Android 16 is so clean and elegant compared to iOS 26.
It's the whole interface...the large back arrows, the massive curved radius of all windows, the waste of space with FaceTime now being tiled, the whole dark mode looks shocking overall. It's totally over the top. I mean, the control centre, why invent it when there is no touch screen for MacOS? The new system settings is a convoluted mess of now having to search to find a setting that you cannot remember the new name of..vs System preferences, basic pane where your visual memory knew where the network settings were for example ... and now you have to dig through layers and layers to do what used to be so simple. I don't want a fuxxxx iOS interface for Mac.
It's a Nightmare of absolute arrogance of indulgence and ignorance.