iOS 26 Adds All-New 'Clear Look' Option Alongside Light and Dark Mode

[mlayer]

I was listening to SOTU at lunch. It was mentioned that when submitting updated apps for xOS 26, devs will have to submit monochrome images for icons and perhaps other assets as well. That should allow for testing of uniformity for Clear and Tinted views, the latter of which I haven't seen screenshot because people are so drawn to Clear. The kids who love to customize with Widgetsmith are going to go nuts. Personally I might have to change to less contrasty wallpaper, woohoo.

I don't expect this to be a repeat of iOS 7, they learned a bunch of lessons from that.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1932159239834972239

 

[citysnaps]

How do you look at this and not think Apple has lost its ways?

People have been saying that for at least 25 years. And somehow Apple manages to limp along with its 1+ Billion active and repeat customers. Year after year after year.

 

[flexwithmarius]

And the readability and contrast ratio of this UI a joke right?

It’s a first beta. Follow up with me when the final version ships. We went thru this with iOS 7.

 

[Shin-Ra]

This (MacRumors) article seems focused on the new Home Screen icon styling but more generally, here’s how Liquid Glass is designed to keep things legible and there’s additional (layered) accessibility options if you’re still struggling:

Meet Liquid Glass - WWDC25 - Videos - Apple Developer

Liquid Glass unifies Apple platform design language while providing a more dynamic and expressive user experience. Get to know the design...

developer.apple.com

I won’t be jumping into the dev beta but wouldn’t assume everything’s behaving correctly in the early beta’s, or even at public launch! But the intention looks well thought out.

 

[AriaAmaris]

Apple Aero

 

[flexwithmarius]

How do you look at this and not think Apple has lost its ways?

Because not everyone is nihilistic like you. It’s clear they have a vision for this. Let them refine the UI and play this out.

Marketing images aren’t necessarily what’s to be expected in the final version, especially if enough people give constructive criticism, not worthless simpleton remarks like “it sucks”.

I’m betting most people testing this won’t log a single report in Feedback Assistant while they whine endlessly about how ugly it is.

 

[contacos]

Have not tried it yet but my first thought was "this glossy look does not seem very accessibility friendly" and would potentially even fail the new EU law? We had to change our company blue because it wasn't "readable" enough on a white button. Imagine glossy clear buttons ...

 

[GioGiusi]

Looks great. I’m enjoying it.

 

[GioGiusi]

How do you look at this and not think Apple has lost its ways?

Cry harder. This entire redesign is brilliant from top to bottom.

 

[tuckerjj]

What is going on at Apple?

View attachment 2517794

Clearly, when the wraparound all-glass iPhone eventually gets released it’s going to have some low-power, low-res, always on cameras on the back to pass through whatever’s behind it and this is the UI they’re going to hero in demos.

 

[Jgreg00]

Clear mode looks downright stupid. I would think almost everyone identifies their icons quickly by color.

Lots of people do monochromatic for all their apps...especially younger people.

 

[Boardiesboi]

Text / icons against a transparent or blurry background is the worst interface they could've come up with.
It's not legible at all

 

[turbineseaplane]

Clear mode looks downright stupid. I would think almost everyone identifies their icons quickly by color.

I know I do.

It's one reason the tinting thing was lost on me straight out of the gate.

It made it super frustrating as I wasn't nearly as quick to find what I was looking for w/o the distinct icon colors.

 

[platinumaqua]

From a usability standpoint it’s terrible. People subconsciously automatically aim for a colour they associate with the app without actually looking at the icon, if they are all the same colour it makes that impossible.

They didn't fix other parts of the UI using monochromatic icons in this revision either. I miss the more sensible designs regarding color and contrast of UI of the iOS 6 and earlier era (entire industry, not Apple specific)

 

[applevisionpro]

They didn't fix other parts of the UI using monochromatic icons in this revision either. I miss the more sensible designs regarding color and contrast of UI of the iOS 6 and earlier era (entire industry, not Apple specific)

Apparently this thread says the design is perfect top to bottom

 

[mlayer]

I would like to see what 26 Clear looks like with these options turned on in Accessibility. They’ve been there for years, BTW.

 

[Warped9]

You do realize Apple is the leader in accessibility, right?

Not today apparently.

 

[turbineseaplane]

This looks absolutely awful.

Yep, back when I was jailbreaking my iPod touch back in 2009 I had better looking themes than this.

What the **** is going on at Apple?

What's going on is that nobody is left with software product and design sense and taste.

We've finally timed all them out and here we are.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Looks very minimalistic and beautiful if you’re ok with sacrificing some usability.

That should never be a "thing"

 

[flexwithmarius]

Not today apparently.

It’s the first…ah screw it.

 

[mlayer]

That should never be a "thing"

Why not have choice? People have complained for years about stale, flat UI. More skeuomorphism! No, more modern elements with greater depth! Skeuomorphism may not be coming back, but users will get FOUR UI themes plus an array of customization options including the accessibility features that most people ignore. If that doesn't work for you, stay on iOS 18.

 

[ErikGrim]

It looks terrible in screenshots, but much nicer in person. This isn't the disaster tinted icons were. I love the subtle lighting changes as you move your phone around. The automatic glassification of regular icons is also incredible.

 

[sleeptodream]

Anyone noticing the homescreen app icons are blurry? Chrome and Photos for instance are definitely blurry where as the Camera app, Phone and Messages are fine, Outlook and Teams also are noticeably blurrier.

Yes they’re blurry/pixelated on my iPad Air, what device are you on?

I’m wondering if they haven’t made the assets in every necessary resolution yet, and just decided to use whatever they’ve made so far across all devices on beta 1

 

[sleeptodream]

It looks terrible in screenshots, but much nicer in person. This isn't the disaster tinted icons were. I love the subtle lighting changes as you move your phone around. The automatic glassification of regular icons is also incredible.

Agreed, I see the potential. I’m surprised they still haven’t fixed the parallax bug on it though, where if you swipe to your widget page or app library parallax breaks until you restart.

You’d think that would be top priority with this new design for the added depth effect 😕

 

[groove-agent]

WHO thought this was a good idea?

Probably people who get paid a LOT of money.