Apple brought Liquid Glass to iPhones when the company released iOS 26 in September. This redesign is the most dramatic visual update Apple has brought to your iPhone since the company released iOS 7 in 2013. But if you’re not a fan of the design and your device is on at least iOS 26.1, you can adjust the new design across your iPhone.
Some people were torn about the design when Apple released the developer beta of iOS 26. Apple tweaked the design during the iOS 26 beta process to improve legibility by adding more of a frosted look, but you still might not be happy with it. However, you can adjust the Liquid Glass design in just a few steps, significantly reducing its transparency.
Here’s how to make the Liquid Glass design in iOS 26 more legible across your whole device.
How to adjust Liquid Glass
1. Open Settings.
2. Tap Accessibility.
3. Tap Display & Text Size.
4. Tap the toggle for Reduce Transparency.
This will darken any menus or elements affected by the Liquid Glass design, including in apps like Messages and your Control Center.
On the left, we see the Liquid Glass design in its full effect, and on the right the Reduce Transparency setting has been enabled.
In the Display & Text Size menu, you can also tap the toggle next to Increase Contrast to help set Liquid Glass elements apart. When I enabled this toggle, it darkened app icons and made it easier to distinguish between certain elements on my iPhone.
If you want to use the Clear app icon option, I would not recommend enabling Reduce Transparency or Increase Contrast. I really like the Clear icons because they ensure your background is the main focus, but the icons are still visible enough to distinguish between each one. When these other options are enabled, it’s like the icons are taking center stage.
Liquid Glass with no alterations (left), Liquid Glass with Reduce Transparency enabled (center-left), Liquid Glass with Increase Contrast enabled (center-right) and Liquid Glass with Reduce Transparency and Increase Contrast enabled (right).
If you want to bring the Liquid Glass design elements back to your device, follow the above steps again to disable Reduce Transparency.
For more iOS news, here’s what to know about iOS 26.4 and iOS 26.3. You can also check out our iOS 26 cheat sheet for other tips and tricks.
Watch this: Sharing Our Biggest Apple Memories After 50 Years
Read the full article here