How to Change Liquid Glass Design Settings in iOS 26
Apple released iOS 26.5 on May 11, and this update brought End-to-end encrypted RCS messaging to your iPhone and more. But when Apple released iOS 26.1 In November, this update introduced a way to adjust certain Liquid Glass elements on your device. This new setting could help resolve readability issues noted by some people on Reddit in iOS26. So, if you are having trouble reading things on your device and you have downloaded iOS 26.1 or later, you should try this setting.
Apple presented the Liquid glass design in September alongside iOS 26. This is the first major visual change to iPhones since iOS 7 in 2013. Before iOS 26.1, you only had a few ways to change Liquid Glass elements on your iPhone. You can add a dark tint to home screen elements or adjust the Reduce transparency setting to change the appearance of Liquid Glass on your device.
But Apple introduced new Liquid Glass settings in iOS 26.1 that let you change specific elements of your iPhone, such as your Notification Center and some search bars, without affecting other elements, like your Home screen.
Here’s where to find Liquid Glass settings if you’re using iOS 26.1 or later, along with my recommended configuration.
Where to find clear and tinted liquid glass options
1. Press Settings.
2. Press Display and brightness.
3. Press Liquid glass.
In the Liquid Glass menu, you will see two options: Clear and Tinted. Clear is the default setting and Tinted makes Liquid Glass elements less transparent.
“Clear is more transparent, revealing the content underneath,” Apple writes for the setting. “Tinting increases opacity and adds more contrast.”
Tinté doesn’t completely eliminate Liquid Glass elements in menus, but it does minimize the design effects. Once tinted is enabled, some items and menus appear almost opaque, like the search bar in Messages, until you scroll through something colored or bold.
Dark mode with Tinted Liquid Glass (far right) is my personal preference.
These Liquid Glass settings also won’t change your iPhone’s light or dark display settings. You can enable Tinted and be in Light mode or enable Clear in Dark mode. But dark mode with the Tint setting looks clean to me and is my personal preference.
For more iOS news, here’s everything you need to know iOS 26.5 And iOS 26.4. You can also view our iOS 26 Cheat Sheet.
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