iOS 26: Reduce Transparency of Apple's Liquid Glass Design

[Tozovac]

It was better before.
And in decades of using Apple products, I never imagined I would have to say that—so fundamentally.

It’s the same as with iOS 7. Some new things are good but they're wrapped in a “shiny new package for the sake of offering something new” that introduces many steps backwards alongside the new good things.

For the iPhone and iPad, so far I’d like iOS 26 better than 18, but only with certain Accessibility fixes. Increase contrast, reduce transparency, bold text, button shapes, etc.

What I personally like about iOS 26 with these settings is that interface items are more obvious and intentional than before. Better-defined borders/zones, "smart 3D/dropshadow effects" (i.e., less flat design), better button shapes and differentiation of actionable vs. info vs. content…less flat design and more definition translates into more intuitiveness. Even if a little clunky and inelegant at times since obviously, iOS 26 was not optimized for those accessibility settings which seem to rescue it from itself.

How funny that some iOS’s prior to ios7 felt more elegant and cohesive, maybe because the focus was on function first and not flash/form. With iOS6 being some 20 years older than the first mobile OS, iOS 26 in its purest, non-accessibility-fixed form is like the 45 year old actress with too much plastic surgery that looks more worse than more improved.

What I don’t like about iOS 26 w/o those accessibility fixes are gingerbread like translucence for the sake of being able to do that, and the blurring of things near the edges. It’s amazing that Apple doesn’t recognize the value of clearly defining “zones of content” or how certain people’s eyes/minds fixate on blurry things and try to unblur them to the point of distraction. But even more generally, there doesn’t seem to be any obvious functional gain by the translucense and blur roll-off other than “newness.”

More definition is better for me. I don’t need my device’s interface to be a minimalist art expression. I need it to intuitively just work.

 

[jakebrosy]

I turned the glass stuff off but get odd flashes of glass interface sometimes, like when swiping between screens the icons are glass-like for half a second then go back to flat.

And some apps have a sort of spasm when opening: they open normally and after half a second or so they ‘pulse’. Like the app gets bigger then shrinks back down. So odd and annoying when you’re just about to touch a button.

 

[litmag01]

I just found I can reduce visual glitches on my watch, iPad and phone by turning OFF "Reduce Transparency"

I am thinking Apple went into this thinking that nobody will want anything but Liquid Glass - at the expense of accessibility. To go so all out on a design feature that does not improve function - and can actually hinder function - is a step down a path paved with the bones of companies that had to work very hard to claw back dissatisfied customers.

There is a lot of chatter that the iPhone Air is a failure. It is. It is a financial failure. At least (like with the Vision Pro) its technical innovations can be applied to future endeavors. Liquid Glass is no iPhone air and no Vision Pro.