Apple’s glossy “Liquid Glass” look has gone from futuristic flex to everyday reality on the iPhone, and not everyone loves how intense it can feel on the lock screen and widgets. With iOS 26.1, I can finally dial that effect back instead of living with a default that sometimes prioritizes spectacle over comfort.
The new transparency control does not kill Liquid Glass outright, but it gives me a practical way to soften the reflections, blur, and depth so the interface feels calmer, more legible, and in some cases easier on battery life. It is a small toggle with outsized impact on how modern iOS actually looks and behaves in my hand.
What Liquid Glass actually is, and why it matters
Before talking about toning it down, it helps to be clear about what Liquid Glass is trying to do. Apple’s design language leans heavily on translucent layers, blurred backgrounds, and glossy highlights that make panels feel like physical glass floating above your wallpaper. That aesthetic builds on long‑running research into “glassmorphism” and depth cues, which usability experts describe as a way to suggest hierarchy and focus through transparency, blur, and light rather than hard borders, as detailed in the broader analysis of Liquid Glass interfaces.
On the iPhone, that vision shows up in the lock screen, Control Center, widgets, and system menus that seem to melt into whatever photo or color sits behind them. When it works, the effect can make the interface feel alive and context aware, with subtle parallax and reflections that respond as I move the phone. The trade‑off is that heavy transparency can also reduce contrast, distract from text, and make some people feel like the phone is constantly shimmering in the corner of their eye, which is exactly the tension iOS 26.1 is now trying to address.
iOS 26.1 brings a dedicated transparency control
Apple’s latest point release quietly adds a system‑level slider that lets me reduce how intense Liquid Glass appears across key parts of the interface. Instead of burying this inside accessibility menus that feel like a compromise, the new option is framed as a mainstream customization feature in iOS 26.1, which is part of the broader set of all new features in iOS 26 that Apple has documented for this cycle.
The control is not a simple on‑off switch. It adjusts the strength of transparency and blur, so panels that once looked like polished glass now appear closer to frosted plastic or even solid color, depending on how far I drag the slider. Reporting on the update notes that this change is rolling out as part of the same build that refines other visual tweaks and under‑the‑hood improvements, with availability tied to the general iOS 26.1 rollout for iPhone across supported models.
Where to find the new Liquid Glass slider
Apple has tucked the new control into the same area where I already manage appearance and motion, so it feels like a natural extension of existing personalization tools. The setting lives alongside options for things like system tint and blur, which means I can adjust how translucent surfaces behave without hunting through obscure developer menus. Guides walking through the change show that the toggle is part of the standard Settings flow for iOS 26.1, and that it directly affects the signature Liquid Glass design on iPhone rather than acting as a separate theme.
Once I flip the option and move the slider, the effect is immediate on the lock screen, Control Center, and widgets, so it is easy to experiment until the interface feels right. Step‑by‑step breakdowns highlight how the control interacts with other appearance settings, noting that it works in tandem with existing Reduce Transparency tools rather than replacing them, which is clear from the practical how‑to on reducing Liquid Glass effects in iOS 26.1.
How dialing back Liquid Glass actually changes your screen
Turning down Liquid Glass does more than just mute a visual flourish, it reshapes how information sits on the screen. With the slider lowered, widgets and notifications stand out more clearly against busy wallpapers, because the system no longer pulls as much color and texture through the translucent panels. That shift can make calendar entries, weather details, and music controls feel more like stable cards instead of shimmering overlays, which is especially noticeable on larger displays like the iPhone 16 Pro Max when I glance at the phone from a distance.
Early adopters have been sharing side‑by‑side comparisons that show just how dramatic the difference can be when the transparency level is reduced. In one widely circulated thread, users posted screenshots of the lock screen at different slider positions to illustrate how text contrast improves and reflections fade as the effect is toned down, a change that is clearly visible in the community’s discussion of the iOS 26.1 transparency toggle.
Why some users are turning the effect down
For a portion of the iPhone audience, Liquid Glass has always been more polarizing than Apple’s marketing suggests. High transparency and animated reflections can be visually rich, but they also introduce motion and contrast shifts that some people find tiring over long sessions. By letting me reduce the intensity without disabling the effect entirely, iOS 26.1 acknowledges that what looks impressive in a keynote demo can feel overwhelming when I am reading long email threads in Outlook or scanning Slack notifications all day.
There is also a practical angle. Less aggressive transparency can make small text easier to read on compact devices like the iPhone 15 or iPhone SE, especially when the wallpaper behind the lock screen is a detailed photo. Coverage of the new setting notes that Apple is pitching it as a way to personalize the phone’s look while also improving comfort, a balance reflected in the broader explanation of how Apple’s Liquid Glass can be turned down for users who prefer a calmer interface.
Accessibility, legibility, and cognitive load
From an accessibility standpoint, the new control is more than a cosmetic tweak. High transparency can blur the boundary between foreground and background, which increases cognitive load for people who rely on clear separation to process information quickly. By letting me reduce the glassiness of panels, iOS 26.1 effectively adds another layer of control on top of existing accessibility features, so I can fine‑tune how much visual complexity I am willing to tolerate without sacrificing the overall design language.
Usability research has long warned that overusing translucent layers can hurt readability, especially when text sits on top of dynamic imagery or gradients. The new slider gives iPhone owners a way to reclaim contrast and hierarchy while still keeping the modern aesthetic that Liquid Glass is meant to deliver. That trade‑off is consistent with the broader critique of glass‑heavy interfaces in the analysis of iOS 26.1’s transparency controls, which frames the feature as a response to real‑world comfort and clarity concerns rather than a purely stylistic experiment.
Battery life and performance side effects
Liquid Glass is not just a static texture, it relies on blur calculations, compositing, and sometimes subtle motion that all require GPU work. On modern chips like the A18 Pro, that overhead is usually invisible, but over time and across a full day of use, every bit of rendering effort can add up. By reducing the intensity of the effect, I am effectively asking the system to do less heavy lifting on those translucent layers, which can marginally ease the strain on both graphics and power, especially on older devices that still qualify for iOS 26.1.
Hands‑on coverage of the update notes that while Apple is not advertising the slider as a battery feature, some users are already testing whether a less glassy interface feels smoother or more efficient in everyday use. In video walkthroughs, reviewers show the lock screen and Control Center with the effect turned down and point out that animations can appear slightly more restrained, which may help the system stay responsive under load, as seen in one detailed video tour of iOS 26.1’s visual changes.
How to experiment with different looks
The most interesting part of the new control is how it interacts with wallpapers, widgets, and app icons. With Liquid Glass at full strength, a saturated photo of a city skyline at night can make the lock screen feel like a pane of wet glass over neon lights, which is striking but busy. Pull the slider back, and the same setup suddenly looks more like a matte dashboard, where the time, weather, and calendar tiles sit on soft, opaque cards that barely echo the colors behind them, which can be a better fit for productivity‑focused home screens built around apps like Notion, Things, and Fantastical.
Reviewers who have spent time with the feature recommend trying a few combinations: a bright abstract wallpaper with high transparency for a playful look, a muted gradient with medium transparency for balance, and a solid color with low transparency for maximum clarity. One walkthrough shows how changing the slider can transform the feel of the lock screen in seconds, turning a glossy, reflective panel into something closer to paper, a shift that is easy to see in the guided demo of iOS 26 customization that highlights the new control in action.
How this fits into Apple’s evolving design strategy
Apple’s decision to expose a control like this suggests a subtle but important shift in how tightly it wants to hold the reins on visual design. For years, the company has pushed cohesive aesthetics that left little room for users to deviate from the intended look, especially when it came to system‑wide effects. By letting me tune a marquee visual feature like Liquid Glass, iOS 26.1 acknowledges that taste, comfort, and context vary, and that a one‑size‑fits‑all approach can clash with how people actually use their phones throughout the day.
That flexibility sits alongside other personalization moves in the iOS 26 era, such as expanded lock screen layouts and more granular widget behavior, which collectively point to a platform that is more willing to let users bend the rules without breaking the overall brand. Coverage of the update frames the transparency slider as part of a broader pattern of giving people more control over how their iPhone looks and feels, a pattern that aligns with the detailed rundown of changing the iPhone’s Liquid Glass design through the new setting.
More from MorningOverview