How to disable liquid glass in iOS 26?

if you turn on your reduce transparency and increase contrast settings it pretty much eliminates the Liquid Glass look

pavementjim wrote:

Liquid glass is awful. I would strongly recommend a full switch off mode in the next update. For both desktop and iphone. It is beyond disgusting. It’s offensive. It’s like a kids toy interface. My first computer!

If you had bothered to read past the first post, you'd have known you aren't writing anyone from Apple here. This is a user to user only forum, which no one from Apple reads for user feedback.

You can tell Apple what you want here --> Feedback - iPhone - Apple

I wouldn't hold your breath if I were you. And you'd also understand an on/off switch is not exactly feasible had you read this --> Liquid Glass - Love It Or Hate It - It's … - Apple Community

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.

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).

No.

This has nothing to do with the operating system.

WRONG

ravenby wrote:

it is necessary to implement a function to reduce movement, add the ability to enable the display of animation for minimizing the application and opening the application manager. then the system will be responsive and work well. Now, when you turn on motion reduction, it's very difficult to use an iphone. but only this option saves the iPhone from heating up and preventing the battery from melting before our eyes.

There's nothing anyone here can do about that.

Tell Apple:

Product Feedback - Apple

Liquid Glass is not making your phone "heat up" or causing the battery to "melt before our eyes." If your phone is getting that hot, there's something wrong with it and you should contact Apple and have them run diagnostics.

DanielleMarie89 wrote:

Please allow the option to disable the Liquid Glass feature, the flashes of lights when clicking on things is causing me to get severe migraines. None of the settings I have tried have made a difference. I’m very sensitive to changes in lights and/or flashes of lights :(

It is not a feature it IS the operating system

You can turn on Reduce Transparency and Increase Contrast in Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size

Emi055 wrote:

I agree. I hate the glass and want it gone now. It’s so difficult for me to even see the time because I’m half blind.

please Apple, take the glass away! I’m so serious that I would consider an android at this point,

You aren't speaking with Apple here. This is a user to user only forum. And no one here works for Apple.

If you don't like Liquid Glass and you feel an Android will be better for you, by all means go buy one. As users only, it doesn't matter to any of us what phone you choose.

But if you want to perhaps take the time to adjust what you can adjust in Liquid Glass to better meet your needs, I wrote this, which you might want to read --> Liquid Glass - Love It Or Hate It - It's … - Apple Community

anandamanav wrote:

It would be a great if Apple/iOS could provide a way to opt-out from it. Because this liquid glass design is not nice, looks subpar compare to my old iPhone 14 pro. I see iPhone 17 is going backwards in its look & feel.

That's just not going to happen. Liquid Glass is woven into iOS 26 and there will never be an opt-out of what is hard coded into the OS. Read this --> Liquid Glass - Love It Or Hate It - It's … - Apple Community

I’m doubting this. I’m being as friendly as possible when I ask if you have a source for your first point. Even if it's small, to have a device update elements of UI based on the background element and apply effects based on the background, of course it would cause a device to slow down. There's obviously more processing as opposed to flat ui so it will create more tasks for the processors which can delay tasks, causing hangs.

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.

emcgowen wrote:

Every time there is an update I have to hunt down all these settings and fix them again to turn off the horrible Liquid Glass. Either Apple doesn’t do usability testing with older users or they just don’t want us buying their products. At the very least there should be one setting that completely turns off Liquid Glass.

Many would agree with your viewpoint - but, alas, a setting to fully disable Liquid Glass doesn't exist.

Apple does invite submission of constructive comments and feature requests via its Product Feedback portal. If you would like Apple to consider the ability to disable a signature feature of iOS/iPadOS 26 in a future release, this would be the most appropriate channel to forward your request:

Feedback - iPhone - Apple

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.

To reduce Liquid Glass, I went into accessibility and chose display and text size and turned on reduce transparency. It helped me a lot. Hope it works for you too.