iOS 26 brings iPhone changes you might not like. Here’s how to change them back

The iOS 26 update is one of the most important software changes in terms of the iPhone for years. Not only does it bring with it the brand new liquid glass overhaul, but there are also major adjustments to the features of your iPhone at all levels.

Although you are happy to see some of these changes, others could leave you without impression or even frustrated. The good news is that you can return many of these adjustments to the way they were before iOS 26, while keeping the latest version of the operating system on your device. Here, we will show you how it is done with five major new features that have arrived in iOS 26.

Tone liquid glass

There is no doubt that the visual redesign of liquid glass is the addition of the title to iOS 26. But its clear and glassy look turned out to be divided since the time it was revealed at the Global Conference of Apple Developers (WWDC) in June 2025.

Apple

In any case, there is unfortunately no way to deactivate it entirely if you have iOS 26 running on your device. However, what you can Have it considerably reduce the transparency effect. This should make it a little more bearable if you are not a fan of liquid glass.

First, open the Parameters application on your iPhone and head to Accessibility > Text display and sizeSo activate the rocking next to Reduce transparency. You will notice that this immediately reduces many glass effects in iOS 26, such as the translucent platform and application files. The control center is also much more opaque, just like many other parts of the operating system. Certain glass effects remain, such as the slight shine of the edge on the icons of the application, but this change removes the most important aspects of liquid glass.

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Disable large screenshots

In the previous versions of iOS, taking a screenshot would produce a small preview in the lower corner of your display – you can then slide this to save the image, or press to start the edition. In iOS 26, however, the editing window opens automatically in full screen mode, taking control of your screen and requiring additional taps to continue with everything you did before.

If you don’t like this new behavior, you don’t need to worry, because it is very simple to change the old fashioned. Just open the Parameters Apply and access General > Screenshot and deactivate the rocking next to Full screen spot. From now on, you will start seeing the miniature overview in the corner of your iPhone each time you take a screenshot.

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Deactivate the backgrounds in messages

The Message application obtained a pinch of updates in iOS 26, and one of them was the introduction of personalized horizons for your cats, which can add a little character to your group conversations.

The problem is that if a person changes the history of a group cat, each participant will see this wallpaper. But if you don’t like it, you can always deactivate it and give things to what they were.

Apple

To do this, head to Applications > Messages In the Settings application, then find the Conversation parades Top and deactivate it. This will restore the ordinary white background before iOS 26 on all your sons.

You can also deactivate message backgrounds on a chat base rather than using a coverage rocking. To do this, you will have to open the thread in question in the messages app and press your title, press the History Tab, then select None. Note that this will change the background for each member of the group, not only for you.

Spatial scenes

When visualizing a photo or wallpaper you have selected, you may notice that it seems to move when you move your iPhone. This is an example of Apple’s new spatial feature, but if you just want to enjoy the image without smooth 3D effect, you can deactivate it with a few taps.

Start by pressing your lock screen for a long time, then typing Personalize. On the left of the button … should be a hexagonal icon that contains a landscape scene – Press to deactivate the effect. You can do it with other images by pressing the background sticker in the bottom left, selecting choosing photos, then choosing an image and pressing the same hexagonal icon to deactivate the space scene.

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There is also a way to deactivate space scenes in the Photos Application. There, you will want to press the small hexagonal icon under the button … in the upper right corner during the visualization of an image. If your image is already spatial, the hexagonal icon will be blue, while a gray icon indicates that it is extinguished.

And if you want to prevent photos from transforming your images into space scenes in the first place, open the Parameters Apply and go to Applications > Photosthen scroll down and deactivate the switch next to Creation of the creation of spatial photos.

Call screening and pending call

Spam calls and long maintenance times are scourges of modern life, and Apple has taken measures to fight them in iOS 26. It takes the form of appeal screening – which obliges the unknown appellants to identify before they reach you, giving you the possibility of refusing the call – and the appeal pending, which sits on hold on your name before you go up when you are a human.

But you might decide that these features do not suit you. If you don’t get a lot of spam and prefer not to hinder people who call you, you may want to deactivate calls for calls, for example. (Note that it only works on unknown callers, so your family and friends would probably never meet it.) Fortunately, it’s easy to do in iOS 26.

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To deactivate the calls for calls, open the Settings app and head to Applications > Phone. Scroll down Unknown appellants screen section and type Never. Alternatively, you can choose to silence calls from unknown numbers and send them to voicemail, or simply stay with Ask the reason to call.

As for the pending call, you will find options for this in the same phone menu. Next to Detect the pending callSimply deactivate the rocking to deactivate the functionality.