Contacts flickering or strobing in Tahoe--a bug in Liquid Glass?

Since update to Tahoe or perhaps 26.0.1--not sure if it was there the first week with MacOS Tahoe 26.0 or not--I see flickering of the Contacts screen sometimes preventing me from selecting or editing the Contact info when my screen view is my default groups on left, list in the middle, and right pane is a single selected contact. The strobing/flickering is annoying enough, but besides the distraction, it's interfering with use.


I see at least one other post mentioning the same complaint here but that post's title does not mention flicker or strobe and I hope this will make it easier for others who have the same issue to come together and maybe for someone else to find a solution for all of us.


I'm suspecting this is a side effect of liquid glass because the first thing I see when I click on a contact is a moment of black screen/gray text boxes/white text, simple/clean/legible, and then the strobe/flicker starts when the view changes to gradients and not simple flat colors/tones.


Heading over to feedback, thinking bug, but maybe the right title with help this find a solution that doesn't require an OS update.

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 26.0

Posted on Oct 6, 2025 9:54 PM

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Posted on Oct 7, 2025 5:08 AM

Seems reproducible to me, both on the internal display of my 16" M4 Pro MBP (ProMotion) and with the same Mac connected to an LG 5K:2K (60 Hz). Flickering is not constant and unlike the OP it is not even close to severe enough to cause an issue interacting with the app...but it is noticeable. Seems independent of the background image, occurs on photo wallpapers and in front of a plain white or black background.


It's not a static phenomenon, the easiest way to see it is to scroll to the bottom of a contact card then keep trying to scroll down. It's definitely an interaction with the display because when I see the flickering and noticeable artifacts on the screen, they don't show up in a screenshot. Image below, left side is a screenshot and right side is an iPhone pic of the display where a rendering artifact is clearly visible.


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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 7, 2025 5:08 AM in response to tbirdvet

Seems reproducible to me, both on the internal display of my 16" M4 Pro MBP (ProMotion) and with the same Mac connected to an LG 5K:2K (60 Hz). Flickering is not constant and unlike the OP it is not even close to severe enough to cause an issue interacting with the app...but it is noticeable. Seems independent of the background image, occurs on photo wallpapers and in front of a plain white or black background.


It's not a static phenomenon, the easiest way to see it is to scroll to the bottom of a contact card then keep trying to scroll down. It's definitely an interaction with the display because when I see the flickering and noticeable artifacts on the screen, they don't show up in a screenshot. Image below, left side is a screenshot and right side is an iPhone pic of the display where a rendering artifact is clearly visible.


Oct 7, 2025 3:31 AM in response to Donot_Haveone

It is a bug that is confirmed by multiple users, some did even post a screencapture of the flickering. It has everything to do with Liquid Glass. Apple uses a screenrendering method that is causing this behaviour. There are more and more post confirming this issue which means Apple must fix this issue. The issue is they are using this rendering method to smooth out gradients. To me it seems almost impossible not to notice this during development. The reason why you see this in Contacts is the (horrible) background gradient.

Contacts flickering or strobing in Tahoe--a bug in Liquid Glass?

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