Friends I've asked don't seem to be seeing this. In iOS 26 on my iPhone, if I double-tap in Messages to select a word there's an annoying glow that appears. Is there a way to get rid of it? I created a screen recording to show you what I mean.
iPhone 13 Pro, iOS 26
I am so happy to finally see this being annoying for other people. I was Dark Mode only for a long time but I've been exclusively on Light Mode since getting on board with Beta 3 because of this issue. I thought I was going crazy because I saw nobody else actually complaining about it. You aren't alone. I've sent in feedback myself trying to get this at least toned down. Oddly enough, if the message box gets big enough and there's enough text on the screen, it isn't nearly as harsh and would be pretty neat. But with a few lines, it's blindingly white, so Light Mode it is.
Pretty sure there's no option to turn it off, too. Even changing Accessibility options doesn't affect it.
I am so happy to finally see this being annoying for other people. I was Dark Mode only for a long time but I've been exclusively on Light Mode since getting on board with Beta 3 because of this issue. I thought I was going crazy because I saw nobody else actually complaining about it. You aren't alone. I've sent in feedback myself trying to get this at least toned down. Oddly enough, if the message box gets big enough and there's enough text on the screen, it isn't nearly as harsh and would be pretty neat. But with a few lines, it's blindingly white, so Light Mode it is.
Pretty sure there's no option to turn it off, too. Even changing Accessibility options doesn't affect it.
Useruser365 wrote:
It’s also like that on safari, and when you type in your phone pass code. It is so overstimulating and hard on the eyes, but ESPECIALLY on iMessage. I really don’t like it, have heard other people with eye sensitivity or epilepsy say it’s very hard to use their phones because of it. I agree, have been avoiding using my phone too much because of the white flashes in dark mode. Seems like dark mode is the issue which sucks
Tell Apple:
It’s also like that on safari, and when you type in your phone pass code. It is so overstimulating and hard on the eyes, but ESPECIALLY on iMessage. I really don’t like it, have heard other people with eye sensitivity or epilepsy say it’s very hard to use their phones because of it. I agree, have been avoiding using my phone too much because of the white flashes in dark mode. Seems like dark mode is the issue which sucks
Let Apple know. They won't see bug reports in this user-to-user setting.
Use this:
Feedback - Messages for iOS and iPadOS - Apple
Light vs dark mode seems to be the issue with the distracting glowing. I set mine to Automatic (light mode is just too light at night) so it's light mode during the day and dark mode after sunset, and in light mode the "glowing" issue isn't obvious.
MrsBrunswick wrote:
Yeah they need to have an option to turn this off. It makes my phone slow too.
Tell Apple:
You're the first person who has said they also see it. All my friends here and on another forum say they don't see it. I can live with it I guess. But I wonder why so many people say they don't see it.
I think I'm giving up dark mode. It's not just the "glow" when selecting text, there are also various apps which end up letting you enter black text on dark backgrounds - making the text unreadable. I found that the Night Shift setting is sufficient for the evening.
I am also having this issue and because of the light background of my most frequent group text, it turns everything totally white and I can’t read any of the text in the area when it happens. It makes it hard to see if I have placed my cursor in the correct spot to make edits to my text, and when I mess up because I can’t see and have to keep trying again, it’s very frustrating and hard on the eyes.
I also tried testing it with light mode as I use dark mode always, and it made no difference - light or dark mode, the keyboard remained dark for all my texts with background photos and the issue remained.
Now, can I change the background to something else? Well duh. But when we pay such huge amounts of money for our phones, why not just make this optional?
“This is a test also I can’t read it well lol”
When you give users customization options but don’t offer ways to make those options realistic, the users aren’t lazy or crazy for being frustrated by that. Apple is ridiculously expensive, wanting to see what’s on your phone screen when you use features they gave you is what you anticipate. Hope they make it an on/off choice soon.
[Edited by Moderator]
btw: this took 3 submission attempts for my reply to go through and then I got an email that a reply was removed because I guess it went through more than once and I looked spammy - for the record for the mods, I got the red box that wouldn’t allow me to submit the first two times, had no intent to spam when I submitted it a third.
I also have this issue and it is extremely frustrating. I wish I could disable the flash as well as the Liquid Glass app folders. All of it is way too visually stimulating and I’m about to sell my iPhone because of how increasingly frustrating it is. I hope they introduce an update to allow the user to disable these visually stimulating features.
That is a visual clue that your touch is recognized and draws your eye to it.
Doesn’t bother me at all so I don’t know if it can be disabled.
It only shows when I select something in the text input box in messages, in the address/search bar in Safari, select spotlight search on home screen.
So, yes I have noticed it.
I am 100% dark mode, as I have sensitive eyes, and this glow is quite disturbing and washes out the text almost completely for me. I hope Apple let me disable this feature.
Yeah they need to have an option to turn this off. It makes my phone slow too.
Annoying glow in iOS 26 when I select a word in Messages
