The new Apple liquid glass design is noticeable on the home screen when you unlock your iPhone, although the degree of change is customizable. We have gathered everything that changed with the main iphone interface.
Liquid glass design
By default, the application icons have a layer appearance with a subtle depth, essentially appearing as several glass sheets stacked on each other to create a translucent look similar to a glass.
Apple has created liquid glass application icons for applications like safari, cards, photos, the App Store, mail and more. Third -party application icons adopt the same aesthetic, and for applications with a simple design on a solid background, no update is necessary. Icons like this already have a liquid glass look.
The platform is transparent and blends into the background behind, and the same goes for the search button. Application folders have an frosted glass design which also changes the shade according to your wallpaper. When you change your home screen, the buttons you interact with are also transparent.
Interface elements such as the platform, the folders and the search button have a lighting effect that changes when you move your iphone, which makes them look like a real glass.
Clear, dark and tinted modes
The liquid glass effect is apparent in clear and dark mode, with icons continuing to have the same stacked glass look, just with a lighter or darker background.
Apple technically changed the “default mode” lighting mode in the customization settings where you can adjust the color (press long press the display and press customize).
There are new “always” and “automotive” flip -flops to allow permanent light or dark styles or adjust them depending on time, and small and large buttons to change the size of the icon were moved to the top right of the personalization interface.
The tinted mode seems different in iOS 26 than in iOS 18. Rather than icons with a black background with colorful graphics, the icons adopt the complete color that you select with white graphics in light mode. In dark mode, the backgrounds are a much darker shade of the color you choose, but are not entirely black.
With tinted icons, the glass look in layers is not as obvious, but it is still present.
Erasable icons
Apple added an “clear” icon option in ios 26 which is available alongside default, dark and tinted. As its name suggests, Clear has a dramatic liquid glass look with fully transparent icons. The icons adopt the color of your wallpaper, with white text and conceptions.
There are clear and dark options for clear adjustment. Light looks like frosted glass, while darkness looks like tinted glass. If you want to go all-in on liquid glass and have your iphone, especially different, it is clear that it is the option of choice.
Widgets
Widgets have some of the same icons as icons, but overall, they are not too different from their appearance in ios 18 in default mode.
With the clear option activated, the widgets are transparent and have a more consistent design that corresponds to your wallpaper.
Wallpaper
You can change your wallpaper directly from the home screen in ios 26. Press the display long, then press the new option “Modify the wallpaper”.
The wallpaper interface allows you to change the image you use on the home screen, but it does not affect the locking screen. If you have a photo set as a wallpaper, for example, you can change the color, select a gradient or choose a photo, in addition you can deactivate the images or images.
Wallpaper plays a main role in ios 26 because it affects the color of the quay, files and icons, according to your parameters.
Control center
The control center adopts liquid glass, so although the functionality is the same, the general aspect is different. Compared to the ios 18 control center, the ios 26 version has a depth for the icons with the light -changing liquid glass effect.
The icons are tinged to look like frosted glass, and some of the underlying buttons to adjust the control center have been modified with the updated look. The icons are slightly larger and some of the bar -shaped icons for volume, brightness and other parameters are rounder.
Other elements of the home screen
The dynamic island, the notification center, long press gestures and the application library have not changed beyond aesthetics. The application library files are translucent and the search bar is rounded, and for widgets, there is a variable intensity glass appearance depending on the choice of the color of your icon.
The icons of the application library are also slightly larger, with less padding between them.
Web applications
When you add a website to your home screen in ios 26, it always opens as a web application. Web applications were available on the home screen in ios 18, but web developers had to configure them to operate as web support.
If the websites were not configured properly, they would open in Safari when added to the home screen. Now, a website will open as a dedicated web application, even if it has not been explicitly configured to work in this way.
There is an open web application option that can be moved when adding a website to a home screen if you prefer that websites open in Safari.
Learn more
We have a dedicated iOS 26 Roundup This in detail on all the new features available in the update.
