iOS 26.1 as well as macOS 26.1 brought the new Liquid Glass mode called "Tinted". I switched over to it (as I think the Liquid Glass UI is a disaster) hoping that it would remove all that transparency effects, but I didn't notice any changes. What does the mode do?
iPhone 14 Pro, iOS 26
It makes certain things less transparent such as control bars and notification bubbles.
It's most noticeable in the Notification Center as it makes the bubbles gray and opaque instead of transparent.
The best way to eliminate the transparency effects is to go to System Settings > Accessibility > Display (MacOS) or Display & Text Size (iOS/iPadOS) and enable 'Reduce Transparency'. This immediately eliminates pretty much all the Windows Vista style nausea inducing transparency effects, but unfortunately you'll still be stuck with a less useful product as they've stolen a lot of your screen real estate by making various UI elements more bloated to better show off their Aero Redux, sorry, I meant Liquid Glass 'design'. You'll also find lots of places where the UI gets broken by a lack of transparency, as there are a lot of 'fake' rounded elements that turn into hard rectangles (sometimes with rounded elements superimposed over them) with transparency disabled.
Seems like the tinted effect was kind of last minute cobbled together. I agree that it is not universally applied to the OS. I am still hoping for an off toggle for Liquid Glass.
Liquid Glass isn't going away, but with some tweaks you can customize it to better meet your needs. Its by no means a disaster and many, like me, really like and appreciate it. Read this link to learn of all the ways you can adjust Liquid Glass --> Liquid Glass - Love It Or Hate It - It's … - Apple Community
By "disaster" I meant not only how the UI looks and feels (I could get used to it eventually), but it drains the battery 1.5 times faster. I tried the tips you provided by the link some time ago, it didn't help in this case (and in terms of UI it looked worse than in iOS 18, and I saw a lot of visual glitches). Looks like the cause of the battery's draining is because UI plus other features, not only UI
And the Battery Drain is also possibly due to your Battery Health. If you see it below 80% at Settings > Battery > Battery Health > Maximum Capacity, it should be replaced. For an iPhone 14, it would not be unusual for the battery to need a replacement, and of course make sure that is done only at Apple or Authorized Apple Service Provider.
I've got 86% health. I noticed the battery's draining after update to iOS 26. Usually it took 2-3 days after a major update (due to internal OS processing) to get back to normal, I got it, but it's being drained much faster still after 2 months on the new iOS.
I wouldn't compare Vista to the Liquid Glass UI, that is more akin to the Aqua style interface from years ago. The blur and transparency of Liquid Glass is just the latest trend in UI that is also found in the latest version of Android 16. The only difference there is that they call it Material Design 3.
These trends come and go where we previously saw the skeuomorphic design, followed by the Flat UI. Based on past UI designs, you can expect the next one in about 5 years and you will find some users that don't like that one when it comes out and will say they preferred Liquid Glass. Expect further refinements with updates during that time and feel free to use the Feedback link to let Apple know how you feel.
I see now, thanks. At least on the lock screen and on the notification center it looks much better. But when I open a folder of icons it looks like this painting to me :)
Tinted Glass mode is not working
