New system apparently broke icon resolution. They seem out of focus now, very low quality. It happens for default icons only. Dark icons or tinted looks fine. Is this intentional? It looks like a design mistake or a bug.
iPad Air, iPadOS 26
Many users are having difficulties with the new "glass" UI introduced with iOS/iPadOS 26. You are definitely not alone.
While many are happy with the new look, some find difficulty. There are three Accessibility settings which may help with the appearance - each can be used singly or together.
The two principal settings are:
Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size >
The third Accessibility setting, which may help, is found here:
Settings > Accessibility > Motion > Reduce Motion - set to ON
This third setting removes some of the UI cosmetic motion effects, such as parallax and the lensing effect of the background/wallpaper. After many hours of testing, I have found that enabling this setting in isolation improves the clarity significantly - without introducing additional contrast artefacts or visual issues.
This setting provides additional benefit, in particular for older models of iPad and iPhone, in reducing CPU/GPU loading - resulting in smoother scrolling without visible jitter. In reducing CPU/GPU overheads, you may also see benefit in reduced battery utilisation.
If there are specific aspects of the new appearance and user-interface over which you would like to see change, or more configuration control, you would be best advised to submit constructive comment and feedback to Apple using the Product Feedback portal. For iPad and iPadOS:
[Edited by Moderator]
Yes but those setting are not enough since following problem persists
1) the thin frames arround icons even when motion off causes eye pain. We need an option to completelly diseppear
2) Also the new SMS keyboar letter are thinner compared to iOS18
Wee need to remove any thin elements (icons) or make them bold (keyboard letters) since increasing contrast does not help. It still causes eye pain.
3) the ios18 motion was ok. Current motion is not only the icon glass efect but also shaky = motion overshots upon exit of application and back to the main UI. This is annoyng, but the motion was great at ios18. I can switch it of but why not to have an ios18 motion which was great
RadarAlpha wrote:
So for me, I’m not buying anymore Apple products until they give the option to turn off Liquid Glass altogether. It’s like the next phase of the VisionOS catastrophe.
And absolutely no one here in this user-to-user forum cares what consumer products you buy or don't buy. We also can't do anything about the changes.
Tell Apple what you'd like to see:
RadarAlpha wrote:
So for me, I’m not buying anymore Apple products until they give the option to turn off Liquid Glass altogether. It’s like the next phase of the VisionOS catastrophe.
As we are all other end users, no one here cares whether you stop buying Apple or not. Have fun on the Dark Side.
Just wanted to add my reply to ‘check in’ as an additional user having these issues.
I remember looking into this ~year and a half ago and there not being anywhere near the amount of community feedback as there is now surrounding these newer display issues some are experiencing.
And what were the ‘replies’ to these discussions? If they weren’t outright gaslighting “you’re just imagining that and it’s probably some anxiety disorder”, the replies were “this is a you problem, I love the screen”—nice, wonderful input.
I have a hard time understanding what people like this ‘get’ (emotionally; for their sense of self) out of their rash responses that ‘assume guilt’ for lack of better words; “no, you are not experiencing that because I love how it looks”. It reminds me of opinionated parents who don't like when child's perspective isn't the same as theirs; so they meet it with judgment, dismissal, etc.
Anyways, I digress on my shade; just here to validate, as I appreciate the way people are talking about this more.
I regret updating to iOS26. I have low vision and now everything is blurry. I’ve typed all the fixes noted, and just want the clear icons back. Can I revert the iOS or is this being fixed in the software?
I think this is what’s call the placebo effect. others complain that the iPad screen is burry. Your eyesight is bad to begin with so let’s blame it on the iOS update. Why isn’t mine burry? I’m legally blind and even with out my glasses I can read the iPad if I have too… not easy but I can do it. Why, because my screen is sharp to begin with.
I already have all the settings that can reduce transparency etc but I hate ios26. The screen is blurred - the keyboard is smaller - Apple clearly hates anyone who doesn’t have their top range model or whatever iOS 26 was introduced for. Why don’t they simply have a classic look toggle - end of problem. I wish I’d never updated. Apple doesn’t care About people’s vision
My profile picture in iMessage is blurred so are videos and other photos. Is there a fix for ios26 to not do this? I have never had this issue in IOS18.7
Yup. There is definitely a bug here!
I don’t like blurry icon images
Hi even camera & photos icon also blurred
[Edited by Moderator]
Your photo… they look ok to me.
All icons are blurry due to the new frames. It really lookd blurry I have a headache from rhis and considering ios18 downgrade!
Also the keybort fonts are worse (tiny) compared to previous ios
You can not downgrade back to 18.
Have a look at this thread. The keyboard looks a bit smaller, but it’s actually bigger. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/256140994?answerId=261601863022&sortBy=oldest_first#261601863022
iOS 26 icons are out of focus, blurry
