A new setting in iOS 26.1 gives you more control over how Liquid Glass elements appear across your iPhone. This new setting can help resolve readability issues Some people on Reddit As mentioned, 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 publicly released iOS 26, which introduced a new liquid glass design. This was the first major visual change to the 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 color to Home screen elements, or adjust the Reduce Transparency setting to change the look of Liquid Glass across your device. The new setting lets you tweak specific elements on your iPhone, such as the Notification Center and certain search bars, without affecting other elements, such as your Home Screen.
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Here’s where to find the new setting on iOS 26.1, along with the recommended setting.
Where to find clear and colored liquid glass options
1. Press Settings.
2. Press Display and brightness.
3. Click Liquid glass.
In the Liquid Glass menu, you’ll see two options: Clear and Tinted. Clear is the default, while Tinted makes Liquid Glass elements less transparent.
“Scanning is more transparent, revealing the content underneath,” Apple wrote of the setting. “Tinted increases opacity and adds more contrast.”
Tinting doesn’t completely remove Liquid Glass elements from menus, but it does reduce the design effects. Once you enable Tinted, some items and menus appear almost opaque, such as the search bar in messages, until you hover over something colorful or dark.
Dark mode with the tinted liquid glass (far right) is my personal preference.
Liquid Glass settings will also not change your iPhone’s light or dark display settings. You can enable Tinted in light mode or enable Clear in dark mode. But Dark Mode with the Tinted setting looks clean to me which is my personal preference.
For more iOS news, here’s everything 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 the alarm and lets you change the liquid glass