How to get the new Glass Effect in iOS 26

What is the “glass effect”?

• Liquid Glass is Apple’s refreshed visual language in iOS 26, featuring translucent, frosted glass-style UI surfaces and layered depth. (Source: MacRumors)
• How to see and enable the full glass effect:

If your iPhone is running iOS 26 or later, the Liquid Glass effect is automatically enabled system-wide, eliminating the need for a separate toggle.

How to get the glass icons on your Home Screen:

To enable the glass effect on your Home Screen, follow these steps:

1. Long-press an empty area on the Home Screen.

1. Tap Edit → Customize.

2. Under the icon style options, select one of the Clear / Liquid Glass icon styles (e.g., Clear or similar).

This will transform your app icons into the translucent glass look that interacts with your wallpaper. (Source: Tom’s Guide)

How to adjust the strength of the glass effect:

While Apple hasn’t provided a way to completely remove Liquid Glass, you can adjust its transparency or reduce its intensity:

1. Reduce Transparency (Accessibility):

This option makes most of the glassy UI more opaque and easier to read.

• Open Settings.

• Go to Accessibility → Display & Text Size.

• Turn on Reduce Transparency.

This will convert translucent elements into more solid backgrounds, maintaining the iOS 26 style but with reduced transparency. (Source: MacRumors+1)

2. Tint/Opacity Control (iOS 26.1+):

If your iPhone is updated to iOS 26.1 or later, Apple introduced a Liquid Glass setting:

• Go to Settings → Display & Brightness.

2. Tap on Liquid Glass.
4. Choose between Clear (full glass) or Tinted (more opaque/frosted) options.

This allows you to maintain the design while adjusting the perceived transparency. MacRumors+1

🧠 Tip: If you don’t see the Liquid Glass option under Display & Brightness, ensure your device is running iOS 26.1 or later.

🔹 Other settings that influence the glassy UI

While these settings don’t completely turn off the glass effect, they can help reduce its prominence:

🟣 Dark Mode

Switching to Dark Mode makes glass effects less noticeable because dark backgrounds conceal transparency more effectively. Beebom Gadgets

⬛ Increase Contrast

Under Accessibility → Display & Text Size, enabling this option can enhance the visibility of UI elements. BizzBuzz

🔹 Reduce Motion

Also under Accessibility → Motion, this setting doesn’t eliminate the glass appearance but minimizes parallax and visual motion associated with it. Reddit

❗ What you can’t do yet

• There’s currently no official toggle to completely disable the Liquid Glass system visuals.
• Turning it off entirely (returning to the old iOS visual styles) isn’t supported in iOS 26. Macworld

If you’d like, I can guide you through the exact locations of each of these settings on your device step by step!

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Dan Uff

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