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

Posted on Sep 16, 2025 8:14 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 25, 2025 7:02 AM

Zedairder wrote:

The best you’ve got is reduced motion, which I assume you already have enabled.

Also Settings>Accessibility>Display & Text Size>Reduce Transparency and Increase Contrast.


But yeah, definitely not optional!

465 replies

Oct 11, 2025 10:20 AM in response to shubham.jante

shubham.jante wrote:

This is the worst iOS version so far. I have an iPhone 14 Pro, and with this version, it's getting really slow. I lag almost every time when I try to open an app from the recent apps list. I've tried the suggested workarounds, but they don't help.

I regret upgrading to iOS 26.

And next year, some people, maybe even you, will say the same thing about iOS 27. They will talk about how much better iOS 26 wasn't and how awful iOS 27 is and how it has destroyed their battery life and made their phone slow.


Either Apple is making progressively worse operating systems that routinely destroy the usefulness of their phone (in which case why do people buying them and keeping them?) or some people find it hard to adjust to change. Occam's razor.

Oct 11, 2025 4:12 PM in response to Zyrcon8

Zyrcon8 wrote:

Apple needs to add an on/off setting for for liquid glass in a future patch/update. It looks horrible! I wish I had never installed the update. I'm upgrading my 15 Pro to a 16 Pro and not updating it.

You may think it's simple to add an on/off switch, but it truly isn't and expecting one is unlikely.


You might benefit from reading this --> Liquid Glass - Love It Or Hate It - It's … - Apple Community

Oct 20, 2025 12:57 PM in response to GrBear

I reduced the transparency of Glass on my phone, but it didn’t change much. I still can’t read the clock on my Lock screen unless I squint - and I have pretty decent vision. As a former a product design manager and art director, I can’t believe Apple's flagrant disregard for accessibility with iOS 26. My designers would never have submitted something like this, they paid close attention to little things like usability.



Oct 22, 2025 10:17 PM in response to GrBear

My eyes and head hurt to look at my phone ever since updating to iOS 26. I’ve tried the different accessibility features and reducing the white point helps a bit but then if you do it too much, you can’t even see your phone outside in the sun. As far as the contrast goes most things look better when you turn on increase contrast, however if you go into messaging and try to search for contacts and use dark mode, the contact names and numbers blended with the background and you can’t really read them. So the whole OS is buggy no surprise. I really don’t understand how they push updates like this. It is insufferable to use and my eyes and have been hurting the last two days and I had to put down my phone and use it much less. So maybe it’s a blessing in disguise to get me off my phone more.

Nov 6, 2025 7:53 AM in response to turri48

turri48 wrote:

I installed it yesterday. It's the aesthetic apocalypse. Who thought that this was going to be an improvement or an innovation? OMG

I think it looks great, so I guess some people thought it would be an improvement. If you don't like it, look just above your post and you'll see a user tip I wrote which will help customize it some to better meet your needs.

How to disable liquid glass in iOS 26?

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