How to disable liquid glass in iOS 26?
Is there a way to completely disable the liquid glass functionality on iOS 26? I'm not going to get into a lengthy diatribe over why it's awful, I just want it gone.
iPhone 13 Pro Max, iOS 18
Is there a way to completely disable the liquid glass functionality on iOS 26? I'm not going to get into a lengthy diatribe over why it's awful, I just want it gone.
iPhone 13 Pro Max, iOS 18
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:
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:
Every Report counts.
Seeing the background move distortedly messes with my motion sickness, I either get dizzy or slightly nauseous. When I select the tinted option it does not look like anything changes. Please give us the option to turn it off, I don’t want to feel sick every time I use my phone.
It's awful. You can't read the time if you have a picture set for your wallpaper. That's the biggest issue for me. I wish we could disable it. I can adapt to the rest but it's a useless feature. So much for accessibility.
I also struggle a lot with the Liquid glass since the upgrade to IOSpad 26.. Unfortunately even on my Android phone with Android 16 some graphical elements go the same route. It will probably gets worse by the mandated Times Roman Character set for all computers, phones and tablets. Some companies already started mandating Times Roman back in their Word and Powerpoint Templates. I am not sure if that is a good evolution too for visual impaired people, because all works then only for the sharp eyed.
Times New Roman font is only something proposed by a Senator for all government docs. Not some nationwide or global change. Info on it: https://www.npr.org/2025/12/11/nx-s1-5640715/state-department-font-times-new-roman-calibri
inetbas wrote:
It will probably gets worse by the mandated Times Roman Character set for all computers, phones and tablets. Some companies already started mandating Times Roman back in their Word and Powerpoint Templates. I am not sure if that is a good evolution too for visual impaired people, because all works then only for the sharp eyed.
Computer companies are not being mandated to use Times New Roman. The only entity that is being required to use Times New Roman is the U.S. State Department.
This has been on iOS for a long time. I found an image with it from iOS 12. And the fix you seek for is within that bar above the keyboard. You simply click the up or down arrow to scroll up or down and reveal the text box.
Disliking the iOS 26 update is not about preference or "getting used" to the placement of new icons. There are real accessibility issues that Apple has seemed to ignore. I appreciate all the guidance on how to minimize the negative impact of these features on vision and vertigo.
sashwa32 wrote:
Yes please help apple. This new figure is horrible
Apple isn't here. Just other users like yourself on this user to user only forum. There are many options and links posted throughout this thread. As opposed to responding to the first post in a thread, take YOUR time to read and learn how you can positive improvements.
Herr it is in iOS 26. It hovers above the keyboard text predict area and blocks out several site’s form submission buttons. With that and the keyboard almost half of the usable screen space is taken. Makes typing forms and responding to forum posts tricky. See screenshots. Hopefully a fix is coming.
You seem to have completely ignored my solution. There’s little to no change from other versions in terms of that bar covering text. They both were above the keyboard and therefore both cover up any text under it. Use my solution in my previous post.
Egd71 wrote:
It was installed last night. It is wretched and will likely be what finally drives me off of iPhone.
Don't forget to update to iOS 26.2, where there are additional Liquid Glass options. It was just released today so may take a little of time to propagate to your device. You can certainly choose any device you wish and no one here will stop you or even cares. Ironically those same kind of comments are seen on the Samsung/Android support page where they claim they are switching to the iPhone due to the problems they are having. It seems to be a moot and irrelevant statement.
dcsj_canada wrote:
Yeah but in this case the Liquid Glass effect truly is ugly.
That's a matter of opinion. I like it. I was unsure when it was first released, but as time went on and I used it, I realized that I really like it.
dcsj_canada wrote:
Yeah but in this case the Liquid Glass effect truly is ugly. Programmers with too much time on their hands, doing something that doesn’t increase functionality at all.
Not everyone hates Liquid Glass. I quite like it and I'm glad the engineers worked hard on it. It add a high degree of visual interest, which to me was lacking in flat lifeless icons. You'd better get use to this. This is THE design language of the future with more skeuomorphic designs.
Of course it’s a matter of opinion. Except please tell me how an esthetic change increases functionality at all? Yeah, some might prefer it, but it doesn’t allow them to do anything on the phone that I can’t do.
dcsj_canada wrote:
Of course it’s a matter of opinion. Except please tell me how an esthetic change increases functionality at all? Yeah, some might prefer it, but it doesn’t allow them to do anything on the phone that I can’t do.
Tell Apple what you think:
How to disable liquid glass in iOS 26?