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
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!
Hello~ You need to let Apple know your views in the link below as they will not see them here.
~Katana-San~
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)
It needs to be gone.
Then click on the link in the post just above yours and let Apple know. Complaining about it in this user to user forum accomplishes nothing
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.
Unfortunately, reduce transparency and increase contrast settings only somewhat mitigate the issue. Still hard to see.
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.
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.
How to disable liquid glass in iOS 26?
