How to disable liquid glass in iOS 26?

You have no other choice. Public beta was available for the last few weeks which is ideal for people with sight and hearing limitations which could have been reversed.

Feed back here https://apple.com/feedback

On an older iPhone 14 here. Updated my iOS to Liquid Glass and it feels like a step backwards to the Aqua days. The “bouncy” animations are completely unnecessary and serve absolutely no purpose. Despite turning on “Reduce Transparency”, it still makes things slower and harder to read.

There are also weird layout moments. For instance, the screenshot attached below shows how my headers look in Messages. Why is the initials icon overlapping the contact’s name? How do I fix that? And how do I turn off Liquid Glass COMPLETELY?

How does a $3.8 Trillion company make a decision like this?

[Edited by Moderator]

why can't they just clearly allow you to only choose security updates or at least give you a clear and easy way to go back to at least the most recent screen display before the update. it's so frustrating and irritating when they do this. all the apps now have weird layouts and non-intuitive ways of doing things. i'm seriously rethinking the apple ecosystem.

[Edited by Moderator]

RaeRaeRae123 wrote:

Liquid glass makes me dizzy and sick to my stomach. This will definitely help reduce me using my iPhone.

The only thing that slightly helps is changing the background to a solid color.

How do we request a change from apple? Don’t want a product that makes me physically sick.

Read the thread.

Of course, dark is worse than light (I.e. black screen rather than grey screen with a few shadows). My eyesight isn't particularly poor in the great scheme of things, most day-to-day activities are fine.

I too am experiencing visual issues with the Liquid Glass. Everything is a bit blurry as is I’m looking through glass at fish in a fish tank. I did workaround, it doesn’t help. Nothing is clear and crisp. My phone is essentially unusable at this point. I don’t know what to do. My company requires our devices to always be updated.

Martyn2605 wrote:

Of course, dark is worse than light (I.e. black screen rather than grey screen with a few shadows). My eyesight isn't particularly poor in the great scheme of things, most day-to-day activities are fine.

Different people find different things helpful. Not everyone has the same needs or preferences.

I just want to agree with everyone in this thread, I do not like the Liquid Glass effect and would like the option to turn it off completely! It is much harder for me to read text and just give a blurry pastel look to everything. I really hope apple responds to feedback and makes a change. I am a lifetime iPhone user and this just feels like a marketing gimmick to offer something different from the competition rather than a substantial practical improvement.

Convoy84 wrote:

I just want to agree with everyone in this thread, I do not like the Liquid Glass effect and would like the option to turn it off completely! It is much harder for me to read text and just give a blurry pastel look to everything. I really hope apple responds to feedback and makes a change. I am a lifetime iPhone user and this just feels like a marketing gimmick to offer something different from the competition rather than a substantial practical improvement.

The interface prior to iOS 26 was also unpopular when it was first introduced.

Kurtosis, I looked this one up too— the jump from 18 to 26 is not skipping versions, but a change in format to a ‘year’ version format, similar to how car manufacturers put out 2026 cars sometime late in 2025. Though, I know this doesn’t solve the issue for which we all came to this discussion thread…

ThePhysic wrote:

Kurtosis, I looked this one up too— the jump from 18 to 26 is not skipping versions, but a change in format to a ‘year’ version format, similar to how car manufacturers put out 2026 cars sometime late in 2025.

That's exactly what Kurtosis12 said. He explained there is no 19-25, that the numbering skipped from 18 to 25.

I completely agree. As a device user that can ONLY comfortably use iOS devices, due to various visual related neurological issues - migraine, pattern flare syndrome & visual snow. Just upgraded to a new ipad, due to the other one having screen issues messing with my vision - and Im flukked with this latest update. Literally can’t focus on the screen without issues triggered. They need to release updates with these non essential options as OPTIONAL.

Zedairder wrote:

Thank you, I just didn’t mention it because it’s been said so many times here.

One of the unfortunate things about the way the forums work now is that people don't read the whole thread. Very often, they just read the initial posting and then respond. The default sort order isn't chronological so that adds to the confusion. So, I figure it never hurts to repeat things.

There's nothing appalling about Liquid Glass. It's simply different. If you don't like the look, open Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size - Turn on Increase Contrast and Reduce Transparency. If you don't like the animation, turn on Reduce Motion as well.

If you don't like change, technology is likely not for you. Every year, things change. That's not going to stop.

Hello~ Downgrading has never been supported. There are risks associated in doing so. Arguing with fellow forum members here is not supposed to be doable either as this is a technical site and not a social media platform.

~Katana-San~