how to turn off liquid glass in Ios 26

You cannot turn it off, but you can reduce it some. Go to Settings>Accessibility>Display & Text Size>Reduce Transparency and Increase Contrast and turn them both on.

Hi Apple Team,

This is my second attempt to express how disappointing iPadOS 26 has been.

I need to be brutally honest:

iPadOS 26 is the worst visual regression Apple has ever shipped.

The new “liquid glass” visual effect is not only blurry and distracting — it is physically uncomfortable.

After using it for a short period of time, it causes eye strain, visual fatigue, and difficulty focusing on text.

This has never happened on any previous version of iPadOS, nor on older iPad models using older displays.

Typing has become visually noisy, icons look smeared, and the UI feels like it’s covered with a thin layer of blur that constantly forces the eyes to “refocus.”

This is not subtle. It is a real, measurable strain.

Who approved this?

For years, Apple was known for clarity, sharpness, and visual discipline — the design philosophy Steve Jobs and Jony Ive built.

Now the system feels like it’s been redesigned for aesthetic experimentation rather than usability, and users are paying the price physically.

The most frustrating part is this:

You shipped a visually broken OS.

It causes eye strain for a non-small number of users.

You removed the ability to revert to the previous version.

And now we are forced to live with it.

This is not innovation. This is negligence.

We are not asking for anything extreme. We are asking for basic visual comfort, something Apple used to excel at.

Here is the minimum Apple must do:

Provide a toggle to completely disable liquid-glass and depth effects.

Allow downgrading to the previous stable version until the issue is fixed.

Officially acknowledge that eye strain complaints are real and widespread.

Right now, iPadOS 26 makes the iPad objectively worse — not just functionally, but physically.

A modern OS should not introduce health-related regressions.

Please take this seriously.

The community already is.

This might help you --> Liquid Glass - Love It Or Hate It - It's … - Apple Community

This is not the Apple team, this is a user to user forum.

You can make a suggestion to Apple here -

Feedback - iPhone - Apple

(sob)

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

>Liquid Glass is hard coded into the very fiber of the OS -- i.e., it would take a major revision of the whole operating system to get us back to opaque icons. I can't wait.

Apparently one may try to get the old, easily visible, undistracting icons back by choosing from several dozen display combinations on a per/icon basis.

You-Tube's Payette Forward has a whole raft of suggestions to try to regain preferred settings and display, especially as to regaining battery time OS 16 may have drastically reduced.

This is the second thread you've posted this in. It doesn't matter how many threads you choose to post this, it won't make a difference by posting here. Here is what I commented to you in the other thread:

You must be under the impression you are writing anyone from Apple here? You're not. This is a user to user only forum, which Apple doesn't participate, nor read for user feedback. There are many things you can change with Liquid Glass, which you likely are unaware. I wrote this user tip to help people who may have any issues --> Liquid Glass - Love It Or Hate It - It's … - Apple Community

Personally, I really really like Liquid Glass, so when you say "we" don't need anything associated with Liquid Glass, you don't speak for everyone, regardless of how many Google searches you do. And if you read my user tip, you'll understand why Liquid Glass will not have an on/off switch and is most unlikely to just go away. But you can customize it enough that I'm sure you'll mange to survive.

If you do want to share your thoughts with Apple, this is where you send them --> Product Feedback - Apple

Bailee125:

You’re only addressing fellow users here.

You can make your thoughts known to Apple via this mechanism:

Feedback - iPhone - Apple

You're welcome.

Thank you! That was a very useful (if depressing) article!

Keep an eye out for a new update......iOS 26.1......that might make you less depressed.

iOS 26.1.0 has been released today. Please backup your iPhone and update to the latest iOS version.