How to Undo Your IPhone’s New Look After IOS 26
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Apple’s iOS 26 is out today, and with it comes a new design language called Liquid Glass. While the iPhone’s home screen has looked pretty much the same since Apple ditched skeuomorphism in 2013, when you open up your phone today after downloading the company’s latest update , you might be surprised. Apple’s new iPhone design prioritizes transparency, and not everyone is a fan .
Luckily, if you don’t like Liquid Glass, there’s something you can do about it. You can’t get rid of it completely, but here’s how to make your iPhone look as close to how it used to look, both on the home screen and in apps like Safari.
What is liquid glass?
First, know your enemy. If you’ve ever used Windows Vista, you know what you’re up against. That operating system was famous for adding transparency effects to Windows that significantly slowed performance, and while the iPhone seems to have gotten rid of the performance issues with its own update, the goal seems to be the same: allowing you to see what’s underneath buttons and layers by blurring and hiding the background before it shows through.
In theory, this adds depth to the image and can make it easier to understand how different elements on the screen relate to each other. But in practice , some complain that it’s distracting , cluttering the screen with unnecessary information that you can’t do anything with.
Apple has largely addressed these complaints in iOS 26 beta, specifically by making Control Center less cluttered . But overall, design changes are a work in progress.
How to “fix” liquid glass
If you’d rather Apple leave your iPhone’s design alone, you have options. During beta testing, users discovered an existing access control in iOS that also appears to undo most of the Liquid Glass changes. It won’t undo all the updates—the new, wider toggle button will remain the same, for example—but it will go a long way toward making your phone look like it did before.
This control, called Reduce Transparency , has been around for years and was originally intended to add a solid background to any pre-Liquid Glass elements that had a transparent or blurred background, such as the password screen. However, it has now been revealed that it affects Liquid Glass as a whole.
You can see the changes here . Notice how the play button in Apple Music no longer skips blurry album art, allowing you to read the artist name more clearly?
While I haven’t had a chance to try Liquid Glass yet, I think I’ll be turning it on right away. I like big, chunky buttons, and Reduce Transparency seems like a way to achieve just that, even though Apple insists transparency is the future. If that sounds like you, here’s where to turn it on: Settings > Accessibility > Screen & Text Size .
And while it’s not necessarily related to Liquid Glass, you can also enable the Increase Contrast option in the Accessibility settings, which will make foreground elements of apps stand out a bit from the background. Once enabled, you’ll immediately see it in the toggles on the Settings page. When disabled, it’ll turn dark gray. It’s optional, but it helps make buttons pop and add a bit of the depth that Liquid Glass provides without overwhelming the screen.
Bring Back the Old Safari Address Bar
In most cases, enabling Reduce Transparency will get rid of Liquid Glass’s most radical design choices. Technically, the update also lets you make icons transparent or customize widgets on the lock screen, but you’ll need to enable those changes. However, one important default app will look completely different: Safari .
When you open Safari after installing iOS 26, you’ll notice that the address bar is now a small pill at the bottom of the screen, next to a tiny back button and an even smaller refresh button. All the other old navigation features are now hidden either in a three-dot menu or behind various swipes and long presses.
Some of us at Lifehacker think the smaller address bar is worth it, but if you want to go back to the old address bar, it’s possible. Just go to Settings > Apps > Safari . Under Tabs, you’ll see three layout options. Compact is the new default, but Bottom brings back the old look with a full set of controls for back, forward, share, bookmarks, and tabs below the address. There’s also a new Top option that moves the website address to the top of the screen but keeps the navigation at the bottom.