iOS 26.1 Beta 4 Lets Users Control Liquid Glass Transparency With New Toggle (macrumors.com)
- Reference: 0179837944
- News link: https://apple.slashdot.org/story/25/10/20/2113254/ios-261-beta-4-lets-users-control-liquid-glass-transparency-with-new-toggle
- Source link: https://www.macrumors.com/2025/10/20/ios-26-1-liquid-glass-toggle/
> With the fourth betas of iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, and macOS 26.1, Apple has introduced a new setting that's [1]designed to allow users to customize the look of Liquid Glass . The toggle lets users select from a clear look for Liquid Glass, or a tinted look. Clear is the current Liquid Glass design, which is more transparent and shows the background underneath buttons, bars, and menus, while tinted increases the opacity of Liquid Glass and adds more contrast.
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> Apple says that the new toggle was added because during the beta testing period over the summer, user feedback suggested that some people would prefer to have a more opaque option for Liquid Glass. The added setting provides additional customization in iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, and macOS Tahoe 26.1. Increasing opacity and adding contrast applies to Liquid Glass throughout the operating system, including in apps and Lock Screen notifications.
[1] https://www.macrumors.com/2025/10/20/ios-26-1-liquid-glass-toggle/
Liquid Glass is Apple's Vista (Score:1, Informative)
It isn't just the transparent look that makes this Apple's Vista, but everything also loads noticeably slower. Choosing a section in the System Settings now feels like loading a webpage... between the lag of showing the section after a click and how the icons on the section load one by one.
I've been a Mac user on and off for 20 years, this is the first time in a while I'm seriously thinking about jumping ship. This is the largest miss by Apple in a long time.
Some people? (Score:5, Informative)
...during the beta testing period over the summer, user feedback suggested that some people would prefer to have a more opaque option for Liquid Glass.
It is possible and likely that most users prefer the opaque option. Particularly when you show them text getting rendered on top of text. You really do not want transparency in such cases. Transparency is lunacy in UI design. It may look "cool" in some controlled demos. But otherwise looks like a hot mess.
I remember in the early 2000s seeing some Linux terminals that implemented it. The cool factor lasted all of 5 seconds for me because readability was shit.
Bluetooth? (Score:2)
Cool, but does it fix all the issues Iâ(TM)m having with Bluetooth ever since updating?
Save transparency for ... (Score:1)
... negligees.
Just tried this out (Score:3)
It's definitely much better. I've been using Reduce Motion which also, for some reason, increases blur and opacity on the glass, and this is similar but without the jarring animation reduction. Not sure why it's a switch instead of a slider but I'll take it.
imo if content is behind something else and I can't interact with it then I don't need to see it.
thank you (Score:3)
I really don't like the current setup