Apple is fixing its Liquid Glass design in iOS 26, one update at a time

A screenshot of WWDC 2025 showing the redesigned iPhone homepage in-hand

(Image credit: Apple)

Apple has just released the iOS 26 developer beta 3 update
This adjusts the Liquid Glass design to make it less transparent
It’s not the first time Apple has tweaked Liquid Glass in iOS 26

When Apple unveiled iOS 26 at its WWDC 2025 event in June, the thing on everyone’s lips was the Liquid Glass redesign. This has brought glassy effects to Apple’s operating systems and has divided opinion in a big way, but the latest iOS 26 beta looks to have dialed it back significantly – and I’m glad to see it.

Compared to previous betas, iOS 26 beta 3 has added a little more opacity to interface elements, reducing their transparency in the process. Toolbars and buttons are now a bit more solid, making it harder to see what lies beneath them.

That addresses one of the key criticisms of Liquid Glass so far: that it’s too difficult to read top-level elements when text or images are visible beneath them. By adding more opacity, Apple has gone some way to putting that right.

This is not the first time Apple has tweaked Liquid Glass. In iOS 26 beta 2, the company reduced the translucency of buttons and boxes in the Control Center, which were especially difficult to read in previous releases. There will no doubt be further adjustments before iOS 26 launches fully in the fall.

A little more legible

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A comparison between the Liquid Glass design in iOS 26 beta 2 and iOS 26 beta 3. — Liquid Glass in the Apple Music app. The updated version in iOS 26 beta 3 is on the right.(Image credit: Future)

I’m a fan of Liquid Glass, but I prefer it in macOS Tahoe than in iOS 26, simply because the larger screens you get on a Mac versus an iPhone mean there are fewer overlapping elements, That enables macOS to avoid some of the worst legibility issues that plague iOS 26.

Despite iOS 26 beta 3 making things a little more readable, not everyone is a fan of the change. For example, writing on X, Apple pundit Sam Kohl wrote that “iOS 26 beta 3 completely nerfs Liquid Glass,” adding that “it looks so much cheaper now and feels like Apple is backtracking on their original vision.”

With plenty of time until the full release of iOS 26, we can expect Apple to make more changes as the year progresses. Hopefully, that will give it time to get Liquid Glass right – or at least make it a little more legible.

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Alex Blake has been fooling around with computers since the early 1990s, and since that time he's learned a thing or two about tech. No more than two things, though. That's all his brain can hold. As well as TechRadar, Alex writes for iMore, Digital Trends and Creative Bloq, among others. He was previously commissioning editor at MacFormat magazine. That means he mostly covers the world of Apple and its latest products, but also Windows, computer peripherals, mobile apps, and much more beyond. When not writing, you can find him hiking the English countryside and gaming on his PC.

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Apple’s Liquid Glass redesign in iOS 26 is cracking – here’s why that’s a good thing

A little more legible

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