How to disable liquid glass in iOS 26?

GrBear wrote:

Thank you. You get an upvote for helpfulness.

Unfortunately, these only somewhat reduce the visual issues and doesn't eliminate them. Many visual issues are baked into the base apps now, like messages and phone.

That's right. There is no On/Off switch for liquid glass. You either embrace it fully, or you minimize it using the available controls. But completely disable it, you cannot. I have chosen to fully embrace it and I quite like it. But if I didn't like it, I'd turn on Reduce Transparency and Increase Contrast in Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size and call it a day as you can't get rid of it entirely.

Alpejohn wrote:

I regret updating.. it looks so terrible I might just get an android phone again. Not sure I will be able to live with this awfulness.

You've been told how you can minimize the effect. But you can't turn it off. And I think it looks great.

But if you feel you need to purchase an Android, that's just fine. No one here honestly cares what phone you buy. We're not Apple Support, so your idle threat won't go anywhere here.

Yep I’m thinking the same tbh been with apple since ibm power Mac days.

Why would they use a glass effect is mind boggling to me 🤯 it’s using more gpu power and battery life for an effect 99.9% your eye will not focus on when your moving stuff on a screen.

a flat matte finish would look so much more professional and we would get more battery life. Simplicity is key

Dark-star2k wrote:

Yep I’m thinking the same tbh been with apple since ibm power Mac days.

Why would they use a glass effect is mind boggling to me 🤯 it’s using more gpu power and battery life for an effect 99.9% your eye will not focus on when your moving stuff on a screen.

a flat matte finish would look so much more professional and we would get more battery life. Simplicity is key

It's not using any more power than non liquid glass icons would. It is merely a look which is built into the UI. You don't have to like the look, but suggesting it uses power nefariously, is simply wrong and honestly absurd. Keep in mind that after a major iOS update, battery life will naturally take a hit as our phones are indexing millions upon millions of bytes of data. And if someone has a LOT of data on their phone, it can be reduced for several days. Liquid Glass is not the cause of battery drain.

Apple recently published this on this subject --> About Apple software updates - Apple Support

In contrast, I LOVE the new Liquid Glass look. Simply LOVE it! Most people I know personally who are now on iOS 26 thinks it's really cool and interesting.

Of course it’s going to use more power you have icons reflecting and bouncing around when unlocking etc a static icon will use less power then a animated shiny icon , things are the same in the real world or physics, if something move’s more it uses more energy.

I've beta tested macOS and iOS 26 from day 1 ,all have fully indexed all my data on the devices. so there’s not the problem

As many people will probably be sending feedback asking for a feature to disable Liquid Glass effects, maybe such an option will be added…the more people sending feedback, the more likely the feature will be incorporated.

Dark-star2k wrote:

Of course it’s going to use more power you have icons reflecting and bouncing around when unlocking etc a static icon will use less power then a animated shiny icon , things are the same in the real world or physics, if something move’s more it uses more energy.

I've beta tested macOS and iOS 26 from day 1 ,all have fully indexed all my data on the devices. so there’s not the problem

I'm not going to argue with you. But I certainly don't agree with you. And even if it used a tiny bit of power, it would be so negligible as to be statistically irrelevant. But you can believe what you want. I suspect you'll be disappointed in the end however. Expecting Apple to reengineer iOS 26 to eliminate Liquid Glass, which is a fundamental aspect of the entire OS, which 3rd party app developers have worked for months to incorporate the API for the new iOS simply doesn't make logical sense.

It’s not about redesigning the OS it’s about making it efficient as possible but powerful for working with. To me it’s not even finished beta. Open any app and flick up to go to the Home Screen and you still see the pop in shine load up around the icon you opened on the Home Screen or go to you App Library scroll down as it scrolls press cancel top right button and it still stutters. Instead of the smooth fade back in. Try it let me no 👍🏼 for the time being I’m re installing 18.7 making apps for 26 will have to have a hold for me why they sort it out.

In addition to what is listed above by going to accessibility, I was able to edit my home screen to make it easier to see. Anything I can get rid of that Apple messed up, I will do. Some of the changes don’t make sense at all. They make it more difficult to see the screen.

I totally get where you’re coming from — visual changes in interfaces do mess with your eyes, and when things become less readable, that’s super frustrating. Here are a few thoughts + tips, and some background that might help explain why these changes hurt so much — maybe they’ll help you decide what to do next.

dzeldaz wrote:

Sounds like alpejohn is frustrated and that’s the best way to vent.

That is not, however, the purpose of this forum. This is a technical support forum. For venting, try your favorite social media platform.

I already done that and it hasn’t made much difference. I hate this liquid glass functionality. Everything is different, I wish i could go back to previous display. Also since updating whenever I change my screen it shakes a bit goes up and down.

I agree with you everything is overly animated and honestly, it’s kind of giving me a bit of motion sickness and when you go to the accessibility and reduce that, it just has like this really harsh way of transitioning things that is also not appealing. I don’t know what’s going on here, but everything doesn’t need to swoop or dance and play around with itself. It is literally giving me a headache.

Since the question has already been answered here, that there is no way to go back to the previous look, I want to voice how I feel.

I have to be honest, as a customer, it is updates such as these that turn me off from wanting to use their products any longer. It feels like that with a lot of these one-way updates, consumers no longer have any preferences to what works for them, only what works for the manufacturers. It feels like these updates are saying, “We do this, because we can.” Sure, there are limits to what customers should be able to do, but in the past, there was a lot more customization, preferences, and more flexibility. I do work on the iPad a lot, and so it kind of became my home. But when there is less and less ways on how to design my home, then it does get me to want to look for other alternatives, and not stay.

Bleduc1 wrote:

Since the question has already been answered here, that there is no way to go back to the previous look, I want to voice how I feel.

I have to be honest, as a customer, it is updates such as these that turn me off from wanting to use their products any longer. It feels like that with a lot of these one-way updates, consumers no longer have any preferences to what works for them, only what works for the manufacturers. It feels like these updates are saying, “We do this, because we can.” Sure, there are limits to what customers should be able to do, but in the past, there was a lot more customization, preferences, and more flexibility. I do work on the iPad a lot, and so it kind of became my home. But when there is less and less ways on how to design my home, then it does get me to want to look for other alternatives, and not stay.

You are not the customer of anyone participating in this forum. Apple doesn't read here for feedback or suggestions. You can, however, let them know your thoughts here:

Product Feedback - Apple

Personally, I really like it.