iOS 26 icons for some apps look blurry

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iOS 26 icons for some apps look blurry

How can I change the appearance of iOS 26 icons to look like on iOS 18?

I never thought I'd need to dive into Accessibility setting once I update from my iOS 18.5 to iOS 26.4 on iPhone 16 Pro, but now I'm here and I cannot see the setting to revert the look of the icons. Reducing transparency or increasing constrast or adding borders doesn't help. Some of the icons look really blurry, especially the outlines inside the icons. I guess I have to revert to the iOS 18 somehow

Posted on Mar 29, 2026 3:03 PM

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Answer 1

Mar 30, 2026 6:47 AM in response to -dima-

I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out how the icon appearance works.

As mentioned earlier (and also pointed out by Mac Jim ID), app developers do have some influence over how their icons look. However, there seems to be an additional rendered layer applied by Apple on top.

You can actually notice this when icons take a moment to load — a shiny border and subtle blur effects appear briefly. It looks like Apple is applying some kind of automatic rendering layer, which also adjusts elements like faces to appear slightly more transparent.

You can read more about this here: Adopting Liquid Glass | Apple Developer Documentation

To answer your question: Apple currently doesn’t give users direct control over reducing this part of Liquid Glass (though I personally hope they will in the future).

And honestly, I feel pretty much the same way about this look as you do.

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Answer 2

Mar 29, 2026 3:15 PM in response to -dima-

The app developer can update their app icon to adhere to the look of Liquid Glass and will be required to do that when they update their app for any reason. The developer has to update the app and Apple cannot do it for them.

It is not possible to revert to iOS 18.

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Answer 3

Mar 30, 2026 6:59 AM in response to -dima-

I reccomend you check with your opticians for bluriness. Is this only on your iPhone or on your iPad and/or Mac?

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Answer 4

-dima- Author

Level 1

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Mar 29, 2026 5:52 PM in response to Mac Jim ID

have a look at this. It's got really really really bad. It makes my eyes go wild. The outline of the youtube icon on the iPhone 16 Pro screen look bad. The same is the "play" symbol inside the icon. Apple should restrict doing this kind of style to icon. The lines should be sharp as on iOS 18.X version

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Answer 5

-dima- Author

Level 1

10 points

Mar 29, 2026 5:58 PM in response to -dima-

just to give a bit more info. i got myopia with a slight addition of astigmatism. On iOS 18.X everything looked super great and sharp. Now on 26.4, some of the icons got really blurry. I tried to dive deep into the accessibility settings and tune the look of the system, but nothing helps

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