How to disable liquid glass in iOS 26?

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

Lawrence Finch wrote:

lobsterghost1 wrote:

Did you check your facts?

Facts? AI bots never check facts. They just make them up.

I'm not sure the post was written well enough to have been AI generated. But we both know it was 100% wrong!

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

Leilabano wrote:

My screen flickers on the top when changing to another screen after updating to iOS 26. This hurts my eyes, so since updating I don’t want to spend time on my iPhone as i find it very uncomfortable to work with, i get headaches.

Open Settings > Accessibility > Motion - make sure Reduce Motion is turned off and see if that helps.

The reduce transparency worked well for me. I had to change my wallpaper to a darker one because I couldn’t read anything on the screen with Liquid Glass, it’s terrible! Looks like a cheap third party UI 😖

JockoSr65 wrote:

Most everyone that I spoke with ( family, friends & coworkers) aren’t crazy about it. They can live with it but they’d like the option to be able to toggle it off as would I. I’ve made the adjustments in my settings but I’m still not completely satisfied. Apple really should’ve given us the right to choose for those who aren’t interested. The one feature that I’m glad that they did think ahead about was giving us the option to make the time solid.

Many mistakenly think Liquid Glass is a simple skin, which should have an on or off switch. It's not. It's a fundamental part of the UI in iOS. While it might sound such a simple thing to do, it's not. It IS the iOS and as with all operating systems, users don't get to pick and choose the parts of the operating system they want.

And telling your fellow users on this user to user only forum what you think Apple should have done, won't be read by anyone at Apple. They don't participate here, nor read for user feedback. You can if you like, provide your thoughts to Apple here --> Product Feedback - Apple

I truly don't think what people are suggesting is something they're going to get, but it never hurts to provide feedback anyway.

Five_bells wrote:

They’re just asking for the option to disable Liquid Glass, period, regardless of how you define “feature.” (And I know, this isn’t the forum for that, but please cut DanielleMarie89 and the rest of us whose devices have now become less usable some slack.) Reducing transparency doesn’t affect the flashes of light they were referring to—I’m betting that’s one of the settings they mentioned trying unsuccessfully.

You're right. If people actually read the terms of use they agreed to when they joined this forum, they already know Apple doesn't participate here, nor read here for user feedback. So posting how someone wants to remove Liquid Glass, which can't be removed to other users on this user to user only forum won't get anyone anywhere. People also don't read past the first post. So we get a lot of me too posters here, which becomes rather annoying when it's been explained what options are available to people.

Vaibhavtiwari wrote:

It is a request, please remove liquid glass

That is not possible here and if you want Apple to see your request, then you will have to send feedback to them where it will be read. This is a support site made up of mostly other users like you where none of us have a backdoor communication channel to let Apple know how you feel.

Product Feedback - Apple

T-MobileAWFUL wrote:

A security update should not affect the appearance of the phone. The white lines and white bubbles around everything are appalling. Especially in dark mode.

You seem a bit confused. iOS 18.7 was a security and bug fix update for iOS 18. iOS 26 is the new for 2025 iOS version, which most definitely was intended to change how things look and in some cases how things work.

Read this --> OS - iOS 26 - Apple

If you installed iOS 26, you get a new look and feel and it was quite intentional. In an earlier post, you suggested there was no warning. There was plenty of advance notice on what iOS 26 was bringing to our phones. For months, Apple showed off iOS 26 on their website. There were as there ALWAYS are with every iOS update, release notes on the update page on your iPhone. You didn't have to read them, but then that's really on you, if you didn't. YouTube had literally hundreds if not thousands of videos about iOS 26 before it was released. If you didn't do any research at all before you upgraded, that's really not Apple's fault.

George_Lampropoulos wrote:

Guys I got it:

I managed to clear it completely :

I went in a shop, bought a new iPhone 16. Disabled auto update on settings.

Now my phone is amazing again.

(I am being serious unfortunately)

There's an old saying........."Don't cut off your nose to spite your face." So, you'll never ever update again, right? That's not really sustainable, and you'll ultimately wind up with a device which is vulnerable to security issues. And you'll wind up with apps at some point, which will no longer be supported on the iOS version you intend to freeze yourself at. But if this is the right solution for you, good for you.

pocketpenguin04 wrote:

Agree, I can’t read any of my notifications with the liquid glass effect! Not sure why I would want a non-optional feature that makes basic functions of my phone unusable. Really appreciate all the suggestions to help people make this at least a little better.

Update your iPhone to iOS 26.1, which was released 2 days ago, then read this link and you'll see how you can change how your notifications are displayed --> Liquid Glass - Love It Or Hate It - It's … - Apple Community

Spinoza_Ed wrote:

I think liquid glass is awful. Reducing transparency helped some but it is still awful. I am writing messages with another message showing up underneath. It is distracting and I think it is ugly. Asking Apple for a feature to completely disable what I think is a total mess.

You're not writing anyone at Apple, by posting here. This is a user to user only forum, which Apple neither participates nor reads for user feedback.

You can use this link to share your thoughts with Apple, but I wouldn't expect Apple to disable a key feature of iOS, which is hard coded throughout the entire operating system --> Feedback - iPhone - Apple

You might want to read this all the way through and make adjustments, which may better meet your needs --> Liquid Glass - Love It Or Hate It - It's … - Apple Community

Mee369 wrote:

Here is the simplest answer… You Can’t. But if you have IOS 18 backup(s), you can open Time Machine on Mac and select an iOS 18 backup, with iPhone in recovery mode.

That will not restore iOS 18 to the phone. Backups do not contain the system software.

No off switch. Very upsetting I want an off switch so bad but apparently Apple said no cause Liquid Glass is “hard coded into the OS” like man… at least let us downgrade or something idk I’m just so desperate to get this thing gone. You don’t understand how close I am to switching to samsung

Easiest way to almost eliminate Liquid Glass is to enable a black background on your home screens.