How to disable liquid glass in iOS 26?

amdc101 wrote:

There is a serious issue around accessibility with the Liquid Glass display, it’s not just an aesthetic issue. I do personally think it’s an unnecessary overlay, and don’t like it, but part of that is that I work for a charity for blind people and in terms of apples usual excellence with accessibility this is a huge fail.

iOS/iPadOS 26.1 introduced a new setting that subtly charges the appearance of Liquid Glass:

Settings > Display & Brightness > Liquid Glass - select Clear or Tinted

Sadly, for iPad, this new setting makes very little difference for those that struggle with both the appearance and overlapping screen elements introduced with Liquid Glass - an issue that is often not understood by those that have perfect eyesight.

If you are experiencing difficulty with the new Liquid Glass UI, there are other settings that can significantly improve the appearance and suppress the majority of unwanted effects:

1. Settings > Accessibility > [Vision] Display & Text Size > Reduce Transparency - set to ON
2. Settings > Accessibility > [Vision] Display & Text Size > Increase Contrast - set to ON
3. Settings > Accessibility > [Motion] Reduce Motion - set to ON

Each if these settings can be used individually, or in combination. Setting Reduce Transparency alone (1) will likely suppress the majority of your issues. The Reduce Motion setting (3), if used, will eliminate the "lensing" effects of the Liquid Glass UI. Experiment; you should find a combination that works for you.

I suggest that you begin with setting Reduce Transparency to ON - and then, if needed, experiment with additional use of one or more of the other options.

NB: The new Display & Brightness > Liquid Glass setting can only be changed/toggled while Reduce Transparency is set to OFF. You might find that setting Liquid Glass to Clear, prior to enabling Reduced Transparency to ON, may give the best result.

Liquid Glass is here to stay - and will likely evolve throughout the lifespan of iOS/iPadOS 26. Hopefully, Apple will provide additional controls over time with which to selectively eliminate aspects of the new UI to better meet the functional and visual needs of the wider user population. Liquid Glass is very "pretty" - but for some is arguably form over function, reducing legibility and usability for some users.

You - and anyone else that has an issue with the Liquid Glass implementation - should submit constructive comments via Apple's Product Feedback portal. For iPhone:

Feedback - iPhone - Apple

Every Report counts.

kellytinck wrote:

My eyes literally cant take it,since the update and new phone i noticed the strain straight away, i wear glasses now and this is the first time since i was a teenager in considering buying a different phone actually feel like it’s wrecking my eyes

This is a long discussion thread, of which you may have tired reading to find effective advice. Sadly, some users with certain [potentially undiagnosed] eyesight or neurological conditions have difficulties with the new Liquid Glass user interface.

iOS/iPadOS 26.1 introduced a new setting that subtly changes the appearance of Liquid Glass:

Settings > Display & Brightness > Liquid Glass - select Clear or Tinted

Sadly, this new setting makes very little difference for those that struggle with both the appearance and overlapping screen elements introduced with Liquid Glass - issues that are often not understood by those that have "normal" or optically corrected eyesight.

If you are experiencing difficulty with the new Liquid Glass UI, there are settings that can significantly improve the appearance and suppress the majority of unwanted effects:

1. Settings > Accessibility > [Vision] Display & Text Size > Reduce Transparency - set to ON
2. Settings > Accessibility > [Vision] Display & Text Size > Increase Contrast - set to ON
3. Settings > Accessibility > [Motion] Reduce Motion - set to ON

Each if these settings can be used individually, or in combination. Setting Reduce Transparency alone (1) will likely suppress the majority of your issues. The Reduce Motion setting (3), if used, will eliminate the "lensing" effects of the Liquid Glass UI. Experiment; you should find a combination that works for you.

I suggest that you begin with setting Reduce Transparency to ON - and then, if needed, experiment with additional use of one or more of the other options.

NB: The new Display & Brightness > Liquid Glass setting can only be changed/toggled while Reduce Transparency is set to OFF. You might find that setting Liquid Glass to Clear, prior to enabling Reduced Transparency to ON, may give the best result.

The new Display & Brightness > Liquid Glass setting can only be changed/toggled while Reduce Transparency is set to OFF. You might find that setting Liquid Glass to Clear, prior to enabling Reduced Transparency to ON, may give the best result.

Liquid Glass is here to stay - and will likely evolve throughout the lifespan of iOS/iPadOS 26. Hopefully, Apple will provide additional controls over time with which to selectively eliminate aspects of the new UI to better meet the functional and visual needs of the wider user population. Liquid Glass is very "pretty" - but for some is arguably form over function, reducing legibility and usability for some users.

You - and anyone else that has an issue with the Liquid Glass implementation - should submit constructive comments via Apple's Product Feedback portal. For iPhone:

Feedback - iPhone - Apple

A quick Google search and I found this....To disable or reduce the "glass effect" (Liquid Glass) in iOS 26, go to Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size and turn on Reduce Transparency and Increase Contrast, and Settings > Accessibility > Motion to turn on Reduce Motion, which removes the frosted glass look, making UI elements solid and improving readability and contrast across apps and the system. While there's no single "off" switch, these settings effectively hide the transparency. 

SewerIbis wrote:

I also think this update is annoying and I should have the choice of what my phone looks like as it is MY PHONE. It’s not my job to always stay up to date with the updates 24/7 and check in every 5 minutes to know what an update is going to do to my device.

Be assured that you're not alone. While many like Liquid Glass (many contributors here very vocally support the new appearance) there are also many that really dislike the feature - and prefer visual appearance seen throughout iOS 7 to iOS 18. Preferences and needs inevitably differ between users.

I’m neurodivergent and have neurological issues so the sudden change to my carefully organised phone was incredibly distressing (I cried about it twice) and I happy that it didn’t do its thing in WhatsApp… and now even WhatsApp has been infected by this inaccessibility.

Clearly, some users experience difficulty with change for a variety of reasons. Unfortunately, change is an inevitability of progress. As for WhatsApp, the respective App Developers have clearly updated their App to explicitly support Liquid Glass. Any complaints concerning their App can only be laid at the door of the Developer:

How to contact an app developer - Apple Support

the need to add an option to have this update on or off. From many people I know it has distressed them and it’s almost against the useability to add a useless visual affect to all devices when it’s something we should just choose to do ourselves.

Many users, like you, would like to have the flexibility within settings to completely disable Liquid Glass in favour of the previous clarity offered by iOS 18 and earlier. While there are many settings that can largely suppress much of the new appearance (discussed widely throughout this thread), Liquid Glass cannot, at this time, be fully disabled.

Apple invite submission of constructive comment and feature requests via its Product Feedback portal. If you would like to see changes or enhanced controls for Liquid Glass in a future release of iOS, this would be the most appropriate channel through which to communicate your request (along with reasoning if appropriate) to Apple:

Feedback - iPhone - Apple

While you are unlikely to receive a personal reply, we are assured that all feedback is logged/analysed and forwarded to the appropriate team(s) for consideration.

You can ask all you want but it won't happen. Downgrading the operating system is not supported.

And there is no such version as 24 or 25. It made the jump from iOS 18 to 26.

You can partially reduce the effect by going to Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size and enabling Reduce Transparency and Increase Contrast. However, there’s no way to fully disable the “Liquid Glass” visual effect in iOS 26—it can’t be turned off completely.

Best,

[Edited by Moderator]

There is no way to do so. Turning on 'reduce transparency' ( settings -accessiblity - display and text size - reduce transparency ) will fill the notification/now playing background with a dark overlay. You cannot change that color whatsoever, so you are basically stuck on dark mode while on your lock screen. I HATE this feature and would love to have the option to COMPLETELY turn off the liquid glass effect.

There's no off switch but however what I did is I went to settings-accessability-display & text size and reduced transparency and if that still isn't okay for you I would recommend scrolling down (same settings) and reducing white points atleast by 50% or however you like. It makes the icons less "shiny" in a way

karen-maven wrote:

Thank you for the link to the feedback form. I sent mine in today. It was this: "My eyes strain constantly from the liquid glass effect. I've used every accessibility setting available to reduce this but it's not enough. I can't possibly tell you the level of disgust and frustration from this without using profanity. It's miserable to the point that I am shopping for an Android phone, which is something I thought I would never do.

I don't want my phone's OS to entertain, I need it to function and perform at a high level to make my tasks easier and more efficient. This iOS has made things harder, so much harder.

Please remove it or provide a way to disable it completely. The essence of my difficulties have been captured in this thread: How to disable liquid glass in iOS 26? - Apple Community

Please pay attention to the feedback and release a version that people can use."

Did you try the suggestions in this user tip? --> Liquid Glass - Love It Or Hate It - It's … - Apple Community It would be pretty hard not to be able to adjust your phone to better meet your needs if you actually tried what is detailed in the link. If you read the link you'd understand why Apple won't turn off or remove Liquid Glass. So you need to use the setting options available to you. Or you can buy something else, but assuming it would be an Android, you'll be hugely disappointed as Android is rolling out Material Design 3, which incorporates many of the same design elements.

fluxappeal wrote:

Not wallpaper, a screenshot of what appears when I pull down. It's my lock screen content + notifications being overlaid on top of my whatever app or icons are there. Here's another with LinkedIn app open

Okay. I was able to somewhat reproduce that by pulling down very slowly on the Notification Center. However, the moment I lift up my finger, the Home Screen disappears. If your Home Screen is not disappearing behind the Notification screen, there's something wrong.

I'd start by doing a forced restart.

Restart your iPhone - Apple Support

mcdermk wrote:

A quick Google search and I found this....To disable or reduce the "glass effect" (Liquid Glass) in iOS 26, go to Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size and turn on Reduce Transparency and Increase Contrast, and Settings > Accessibility > Motion to turn on Reduce Motion, which removes the frosted glass look, making UI elements solid and improving readability and contrast across apps and the system. While there's no single "off" switch, these settings effectively hide the transparency. 

I'm not sure why you're directing this to me? I'm well aware of these options, which is why I wrote this User Tip, which has been posted dozens of times in this thread --> Liquid Glass - Love It Or Hate It - It's … - Apple Community

TechMuse88 wrote:

I hope that in future updates, they will have the option of either being able to use this liquid display, or the old normal style. I really don’t like this new look.

Tell Apple what you'd like to have --> Product Feedback - Apple

it's unlikely however. You're suggesting Apple maintain two different versions of iOS, which they are most unlikely to do. Liquid Glass is woven into the fabric of iOS. It's not something which lends itself to an on/off switch as is explained here --> Liquid Glass - Love It Or Hate It - It's … - Apple Community

You can go to Settings>Accessibility>Display & Text Size and turn on Reduce Transparency and Increase Contrast and that will do some, but you cannot "turn off" Liquid Glass.

I just discovered that reducing motion (Settings -> Accessibility -> Motion -> Reduce Motion) eliminates that weird glass distortion effect when you swipe to unlock!

Dmitry Sazonov wrote:

The “reduce transparency” is actually a weak workaround. You can check it by recording screen and playback it in slow motion. You can see that the “glass” effect doesn’t go anywhere, there is just a black shade added at some animation step.

To be fair…”reduce” doesn’t mean it would take the glass effect away at all so there’s no surprise that it wouldn’t literally take away the effect but simply “reduce” it.

As mentioned numerous times in this thread and pretty much any thread where there is something built into iOS that the user can’t change or disable the only real option is to contact Apple directly to submit feedback. And of course if the issue is something the user just can’t deal with or wait to see if any changes may occur in future updates they could make a more extreme decision to switch to a different brand phone. I personally opted to not update to iOS 26 on my current devices (although I did do it on my MacBook Pro and don’t have issues with it) simply because I wanted to wait to see it on my iPhone 17 Pro Max first in case there were any bugs or issues. Of course that doesn’t help anyone that maybe wasn’t upgrading or if they were getting the new devices and didn’t have a choice in not updating to iOS 26. But for those with older devices I always recommend waiting before updating so you can monitor any issues others may bring up and hold off if they seem to be big ones or things you know you wouldn’t like. Not to diminish those who truly are having what sounds like visual or sensory issues with iOS 26 but there are always hundreds of threads every year when a major update happens complaints (with many being more opinions and issues with not liking change…hence when people declare it’s “ugly” when that isn’t something that has anything to do with functionality…and is completely subjective). So every year you can almost predict what will be said…until there is a true and major functional issue…like when wireless charging issues were happening to most users (just one example).