How to disable liquid glass in iOS 26?

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.

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.

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

I am having trouble with this new update too. I suffer from migraines and vestibular imbalance. This animation of the apps bouncing about and effects on anything I open is making me queasy. Will have to return to old iOS if they can’t switch it off for people like me.

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.

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.

brentgrab wrote:

My eyes and head hurt to look at my phone ever since updating to iOS 26. ...

I have been using it since June without problems and I am 74. I strongly advise you seek help from an optician or doctor

Hello~ You can take a look at this User Tip by *lobsterghost1*…

Liquid Glass - Love It Or Hate It - It's … - Apple Community

This and other helpful information has already been posted in the 16 pages of this thread.

~Katana-San~

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.

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

If you installed it yesterday, you have iOS 26.1. That means you can turn off Liquid Glass if it distresses you that much.

I really like it. Lots of people do.

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.

Also can be problematic to neurodivergent people who physically "feel" certain visual effects. Without the transparency reduced it made me nauseous and reminds me of when I experience a visual migraine. How do we report to the EU Data Team? (Obviously I can try looking it up, but if you already have a link I would appreciate it!)

Appreciate that but while I moved to an IPhone for the simple fact they support their hardware longer. But I think this change, while an interesting option should allow a user to opt out via a simple on/off. Really don’t see that as “too much to ask”.

RattlerMD17 wrote:

Appreciate that but while I moved to an IPhone for the simple fact they support their hardware longer. But I think this change, while an interesting option should allow a user to opt out via a simple on/off. Really don’t see that as “too much to ask”.

Read this to learn why a simple "opt-out" will never happen, but you can certainly optimize aspects of Liquid Glass more to your liking --> Liquid Glass - Love It Or Hate It - It's … - Apple Community

I really love this article because it explains why Apple did it and even mentions the accessibility concerns: https://medium.com/@sidgtl/why-youre-looking-at-apple-s-liquid-glass-ui-the-wrong-way-990648b0f25d. Also, Apple isn’t the only one doing this. You might’ve noticed a lot of companies using frosted glass in their designs whether that be promotional or for their websites/apps/OS. Realme 7 and OriginOS 6 are using this look too, just not as glassy and sophisticated as Apple.