Liquid Glass - Love It Or Hate It - It's Here To Stay

NOTE: While I highly recommend you read all the way to the end of this User Tip, iOS 26.1 was released today (November 3, 2025), which offers even more flexibility to tailor the Liquid Glass Look. Most notably, please see the following:

1. In Settings > Display & Brightness > Liquid Glass, you'll see a new setting - Tinted or Clear. Tinted brings more of what people are used to before Liquid Glass and Clear gives you the full Glass look. For example, if you don't like the white text on a dark background with notifications, turning on Tinted, will restore notifications to what you were accustomed to previously.
2. In Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text size there is a setting for Show Borders. This will outline prominent UI features on your screens.
3. If you change the settings recommended below for Reduce Transparency and Increase Contrast, coupled with the new settings in iOS 26.1 referenced above, you will have very nearly eliminated the Liquid Glass look, if that is your desired result.

With iOS 26, iPadOS 26, WatchOS 26, TVOS 26 and MacOS 26, Apple ushered in a new era which is called Liquid Glass. Apple describes it as an elegant new software design, with universal design across platforms, which brings more focus to content and a new level of vitality, while maintaining the familiarity of Apple’s Software. It is a BIG change. And some people, like me absolutely LOVE it. While others are less in love with the change or for that matter change at all.

Just what is Liquid Glass?  Alan Dye, Apple’s vice president of Human Interface Design said Liquid Glass is Apple’s broadest software design update ever. Meticulously crafted by rethinking the fundamental elements that make up our software, the new design features an entirely new material which combines the optical qualities of glass with a fluidity only Apple can achieve, as it transforms depending on your content or context. It lays the foundation for new experiences in the future and, ultimately, it makes even the simplest of interactions more fun and magical.

To read more about Liquid Glass and see samples of ways you can see the effect, please open this link --> Apple introduces a delightful and elegant new software design - Apple

As I mentioned, some love it, some hate it. But remove it, you CANNOT do. People seem to be under the impression it would be so simple for Apple to just offer a switch which turns Liquid Glass off or on. These would be people who don’t really understand how software works. Liquid Glass is hard coded into the very fiber of the OS corresponding to the platform you’re using (iPhone/iPad/Apple Watch/Mac/Apple TV). It goes to the fundamental core of the operating system. Adding further complication are the third party application developers, who for months were given the Application Protocol Interface to make their apps work with Liquid Glass. Expecting an On/Off switch just isn’t realistic or something anyone should be expecting.

But that doesn’t mean you don’t have any control over Liquid Glass. You can’t remove it, but with some simple setting changes you can make it work better for your needs. 

Let’s start with the Lock Screen:

• Press on your Lock Screen and tap on Customize to reveal the following options:
• You can now enlarge the Clock, by pulling on the bottom right hand corner.
• Tap the Clock and either choose Solid or Glass
• You can still add Widgets by tapping the +
• And you can add a Spatial Effect by tapping the octagonal icon above the camera shortcut

Now let’s go to your Home Screen:

• Press on your Lock Screen until you see the apps juggle and Edit button on the top left of the screen and tap the Edit button then choose Customize.
• On the bar on the bottom of the page, you can choose Default – Dark – Clear – Tinted to customize how you want your app icons to look. 
• As you go through each option, you’ll immediately see how they will look on your home screen, including the hue of the tint if you want to make it a custom tint color. Samples are below for your review:

Default:

Dark:

Clear:

Custom Tint:

Now, let’s change how much effect you’d like with Liquid Glass:

• Open Settings > Accessibility.
• Look for and tap Display & Text Size
• Look for and either turn on or off Reduce Transparency and Increase Contrast.

With Reduce Transparency and Increase Contrast turned on, this is how your home screen will look:

With Reduce Transparency and Increase Contrast turned off, this is how your home screen will look:

Finally, Liquid Glass has animations, which for some people with visual issues, can be difficult for them. To turn off the animations, again go to Settings > Accessibility > Motion – Turn ON Reduce Motion and things won’t move about your screen.

Now you know you can’t turn off Liquid Glass, but you can customize its effects to better suit your needs. I would be remiss to not mention that coming here to this forum, which is a user to user only forum, which Apple doesn’t actively participate nor read for user feedback, is not the place to vent, fume or complain about features which are built into the operating system. We are all users here. We don’t work for Apple. We can’t change anything, nor can we give you an on/off switch, which many think is so simple, but is far from simple and not likely going to happen. But Apple does listen to feedback which is given constructively. If you’d like to share constructive feedback with Apple, this link is how you can be assured it will be read by Apple --> Product Feedback - Apple

I am very confident over time Apple will continue to refine Liquid Glass as future updates are released. In the meantime, yes, it’s a big change, which can be an interesting and to me, very cool visual change.  But a change you need to accept and hopefully come to appreciate.