New system apparently broke icon resolution. They seem out of focus now, very low quality. It happens for default icons only. Dark icons or tinted looks fine. Is this intentional? It looks like a design mistake or a bug.
iPad Air, iPadOS 26
Many users are having difficulties with the new "glass" UI introduced with iOS/iPadOS 26. You are definitely not alone.
While many are happy with the new look, some find difficulty. There are three Accessibility settings which may help with the appearance - each can be used singly or together.
The two principal settings are:
Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size >
The third Accessibility setting, which may help, is found here:
Settings > Accessibility > Motion > Reduce Motion - set to ON
This third setting removes some of the UI cosmetic motion effects, such as parallax and the lensing effect of the background/wallpaper. After many hours of testing, I have found that enabling this setting in isolation improves the clarity significantly - without introducing additional contrast artefacts or visual issues.
This setting provides additional benefit, in particular for older models of iPad and iPhone, in reducing CPU/GPU loading - resulting in smoother scrolling without visible jitter. In reducing CPU/GPU overheads, you may also see benefit in reduced battery utilisation.
If there are specific aspects of the new appearance and user-interface over which you would like to see change, or more configuration control, you would be best advised to submit constructive comment and feedback to Apple using the Product Feedback portal. For iPad and iPadOS:
[Edited by Moderator]
I wished I had never upgraded. Liquid Glass is total rubbish. My phone now looks an out of focus, faded and poorly drawn cartoon.
Yes unfortunatelly ios26 is not beta ersion anymore, so legal downgrade is imposible.
[Edited by Moderator]
So for me, I’m not buying anymore Apple products until they give the option to turn off Liquid Glass altogether. It’s like the next phase of the VisionOS catastrophe.
You should always use the product that best meets your needs and desires.
FYI: this is a user to user technical support forum and Apple will not see your post.
True that :)
17 pro max. Middle East version, apps icon looks discolored and blurry
Such as YouTube ,App Store ,Pinterest. Also out of the box. I got cycle count 1.
The iOS 26 is the worst redesign of an iOS to date. It looks horrible and isn’t user friendly, along with the many glitches and lagging
I've noticed it's just not the stock app icons that look faded even washed out. From the attached screenshot I will point out the differences I noticed. For the Huntington app, the black logo looks faded and not bold, crisp like it did before IOS 26. Facebook messenger, Youtube/Youtube Music, Shazam and others simply look faded.
When I customize the app icons and select "dark" then the logos all look bolder in color.
I have submitted Feedback because I'm just not liking the look. Hopefully they will add a setting for those who don't like it to make them look like they did previously.
[Edited by Moderator]
I have seen this issue with app icons on iOS26 devices and based on some experimentation I believe it is related to the DPI of the app icons, not specifically to any end-user settings for liquid glass.
I have 1024x1024 PNG app icons at 72dpi with dark text on a colored background and the new UI attempts to apply a glass-effect bevel to the individual glyphs, effectively blurring them since you don't really see the detail. Increasing the resolution to 400dpi results in the icons being rendered flat (as desired) with only the top left and bottom right corner bevel effect being imposed by iOS.
I'm unclear why they would be messing with the actual icon content at all - it may just be a bug. If it's intentional I haven't found any documentation to explain the implications or rationale.
Sullymags wrote:
I hate to do it, but I think I’m trading it in and go with a different brand. These 70 year-old eyes just can’t read it very good.. was not a problem until they did the update
I'm in my 70s and have no difficulty seeing the App Icons. But then I made changes which work better for me and so can you, by reading this ALL the way through and adjusting things to better meet your needs --> Liquid Glass - Love It Or Hate It - It's … - Apple Community
Or sure, you can go buy an Android. You should buy what you want. But very soon Android will be releasing Material Design 3, which too will incorporate many of the Liquid Glass elements in their upcoming OS.
I hate to do it, but I think I’m trading it in and go with a different brand. These 70 year-old eyes just can’t read it very good.. was not a problem until they did the update
iOS 26 icons are out of focus, blurry
