A new setting in iOS 26.1 gives you more control over how Liquid Glass elements appear on your iPhone. This new setting could help resolve readability issues some people on Reddit Note that, so if you are having trouble reading things on your device, you should download iOS 26.1 and try this setting.
Apple released the update on Monday, November 3, more than a month after the tech giant released iOS 26, which introduced a new Liquid Glass design. This was the first major visual change on iPhone since iOS 7 in 2013.
Before iOS 26.1, there were only a few ways to change Liquid Glass elements on your iPhone. You can add a dark tint to Home screen items or adjust the Reduce Transparency setting to change the appearance of Liquid Glass on your device. The new setting lets you change specific elements on your iPhone, such as your Notification Center and certain search bars, without affecting other elements, like your Home screen.
Don’t miss any of our unbiased technical content and lab reviews. Add CNET as your preferred Google source.
Here’s where to find the new setting on iOS 26.1, along with my recommended configuration.
Where to find clear and tinted liquid glass options
1. Press Settings.
2. Press Display and brightness.
3. Press Liquid glass.
In the Liquid Glass menu, you will see two options: Clear and Tinted. Clear is the default setting and Tinted makes Liquid Glass elements less transparent.
“Clear is more transparent, revealing the content underneath,” Apple writes for the setting. “Tinting increases opacity and adds more contrast.”
Tinted doesn’t completely eliminate Liquid Glass elements in menus, but it does minimize the design effects. Once tinted is enabled, some items and menus appear almost opaque, like the search bar in Messages, until you scroll through something colored or bold.
Dark mode with Tinted Liquid Glass (far right) is my personal preference.
These Liquid Glass settings also won’t change your iPhone’s light or dark display settings. You can enable Tint and be in Light mode or enable Clear in Dark mode. But dark mode with the Tint setting looks clean to me and is my personal preference.
For more iOS news, here’s everything you need to know about iOS 26.1 and my iOS 26 review. You can also check out our iOS 26 cheat sheet.
Watch this: iOS 26.1 update fixes alarm and lets you change liquid glass
