In iOS 26 beta 3, Apple dials back the transparency, after user complaints that its new Liquid Glass design language made parts of the UI more difficult to read
5 tips you need to know before trying the public beta Tyler Lee / Phandroid : Is Apple is quietly killing off iOS 26's Liquid Glass design? Ayushi Jain / Digit : Apple releases iOS 26 beta 3 with toned-down liquid glass: Here's what's new Rajat Saini / The Mac Observer : Apple Releases macOS Tahoe 26 Beta 3 for Developers Bukola Oyeyemi / TechCity : Apple Tones Down iOS 26's Liquid Glass Design in Latest Beta Update Chris Hauk / MacTrast : Apple Seeds Third Betas of iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 to Developers for Testing Rajat Saini / The Mac Observer : Apple Releases iOS 26 Beta 3 for Developers Brandon Butch / Brandon Butch on YouTube : iOS 26 Beta 3 Released - What's New? Nick Heer / Pixel Envy : Liquid Glass Differences Between the Second and Third Betas Alan Friedman / PhoneArena : Apple releases iOS 26 Beta 3 which fixes a major iPhone issue and adds new features Zollotech / zollotech on YouTube : iOS 26 Beta 3 is Out! - What's New? Gary Ng / iPhone in Canada : Apple Scales Back ‘Liquid Glass’ Effect in iOS 26 Beta 3 iDeviceHelp on YouTube : iOS 26 Beta 3 Released - Goodbye Liquid Glass Jean Leon / Android Headlines : Apple's Liquid Glass Design Melts Away in Latest iOS 26 Beta 3 Pururaj Dutta / Appleosophy : Apple rolls out the third beta of macOS Tahoe to developers Marko Zivkovic / AppleInsider : What's new in iOS 26 beta 3: Wallpaper color options, stronger blur effects, and more Tom Sykes / The Apple Post : Apple tones down Liquid Glass effect in iOS 26 beta 3 Taimur Asad / Redmond Pie : iOS 26 Beta 3 Changes And New Features All In One Place Jamie Cuevas / OS X Daily : MacOS Tahoe 26 Beta 3 Download Available Now for Mac iClarified : Apple Releases iOS 26 Beta 3 and iPadOS 26 Beta 3 [Download] Bluesky: Mike Elgan / @mikeelgan : Apple feature of the moment: “more frost” — www.theverge.com/news/700066/ ... Quinn Nelson / @snazzylabs.com : Beta 1 -> Liquid Glass — Beta 2 -> Somewhat Liquid Glass — Beta 3 -> Glass, Kinda Dare Obasanjo / @carnage4life : A major sign off the fall off of Design at Apple is that it took user complaints for them to realize that Liquid Glass made the UI unreadable. @soulfire.jarexibackblaze.xyz : They're changing the design for liquid glass, and while it looks more readable, it also now just looks like the current design with more ‘border-radius’ — https://9to5mac.com/2025/07/07/liquid- glass-in-ios-26-beta-3-is-much-less- dramatic-as-apple-optimizes-redesign- for-usability/ Mastodon: @viticci@mastodon.macstories.net : As you can see, the “liquid” nature of it has been mostly toned down in tab bars against colored UI elements. — If I were to guess: this is still a work in progress, and they'll land somewhere in the middle by developer beta 5 after a month of public beta. … Louie Mantia, Jr / @louie@pdx.social : The thing that kills me is that this is not Alan Dye's first rodeo. That was iOS 7. His first go at doing software design was fixated on this same thing: translucency. It's as if he can't let it go, forcing everyone else to tag along while he makes discoveries the rest of us have known for quite some time. … Louie Mantia, Jr / @louie@pdx.social : I repeat—anyone who has tried to make translucent UI is familiar with the story being played out right now. The core issue is that translucent UI is fundamentally flawed. You cannot make it too translucent without sacrifice. But every sacrifice you make makes it less cool. … Dare Obasanjo / @carnage4life@mas.to : A major sign off the fall off of Design at Apple is that it took user complaints for them to realize that Liquid Glass made the UI unreadable. — https://techcrunch.com/... David Smith / @_Davidsmith@mastodon.social : A few minutes on Beta 3 after spending the last few days very deep in liquid glass work I'd say it feels a bit too soft for my liking. But that is only on the very subjective ‘fun’ side of things (I liked the playfulness of the Beta 2 glass more). … @viticci@mastodon.macstories.net : Apple significantly toned down Liquid Glass in iOS 26 beta 3 and, honestly, I'm a fan. — Looks modern without feeling like a gimmick with (unfixable?) legibility issues. Still not perfect, but better IMO. — [image] David Smith / @_Davidsmith@mastodon.social : My goodness, Liquid Glass overlaid over a panning radar map is something else. Totally mesmerizing. I just found myself sitting here slowly panning around for a few minutes. — Must get back to work... Stephen Hackett / @ismh86@eworld.social : Beta 3 tones Liquid Glass waaaay down. https://mastodon.social/... Threads: Chance Miller / @chancehmiller : I understand and appreciate Apple listens to feedback from commentators but it's hard not to feel like they caved to the vocal minority on a lot of these changes. Chance Miller / @chancehmiller : Man, iOS 26 beta 3 really tones down the Liquid Glass design. What a huge bummer :( @filipe.esposito : iOS 26 beta 3 reverses many of the Liquid Glass effects. It also disables HDR to highlight content (like when you drag your finger in a text field). X: Mark Gurman / @markgurman : Announce a huge redesign just to throw much of it away. Apple should be allowing users to choose how much glass they want instead of just reversing by 75%. At least rename it now to Frosted Glass. Lol. Sam Kohl / @iupdate : iOS 26 beta 3 completely nerfs Liquid Glass. It looks so much cheaper now and feels like Apple is backtracking on their original vision. [image] Alvin / @sondesix : Apple has increased the blur effect on the iOS 26 Beta 2, and on Beta 3, it looks like the blur is even more intense. Beta 1 • Beta 2 • Beta 3 [image] Mark Gurman / @markgurman : Apple dramatically turned down the Liquid Glass. I don't like the change at all. Mark Gurman / @markgurman : It is incredible that Apple design decisions developed over multiple years can be influenced by a week of Twitter and YouTube commentary. Sami Fathi / @samifathi_ : iOS 26 beta 3 is a step backwards. The Liquid Glass language is now “slightly more blurry” design language. Still early in the beta phase so it will (hopefully) change. [image] Manuel Wenger / @manuch : @iupdate I guess there's nothing Apple can do to satisfy people. If they do liquid glass it's too transparent and unreadable. If they dial it back it's not liquid glass anymore and it contradicts the original vision. It's a typical “damned if we do, damned if we don't” situation... @tollmc77 : @BetaProfiles Indeed, instead of letting users customize it, they just took a beautiful new design and ruined it. It's a shame. I hope @Apple bring back the beautiful liquid glass design from the first beta in the next beta. Alex Guichet / @alexguichet : ironically, now that Apple added more frost to Liquid Glass, beta3 is now closer to visionOS's glass but, it's stylistically worse—I prefer beta 1 & 2's Liquid Glass. a shame that Apple walked it back. let art be bold! make room on the OS for other apps to be even more bold! @slkvinyl : Apple knows liquid glass is bad for accessibility and contrast. It's good that they're getting rid of the original vision for liquid glass. @agbara_chisom : @minimalnerd1 Apple can keep this. This is not liquid glass and it feels like they're listening to/ reading tweets and YouTube videos instead of viable feedback from developers via the feedback app Ethan N / @ethanuhguy : @BetaProfiles Everyone's complaining it's less glass now, but everyone was complaining earlier that it was too transparent & not accessible! Apple can't win here lol Andriy / @blurredplot : ppl when the first developer beta came out: eeeewww liquid ass so unreadable and ugh lee wtf apple stop 😠😠👎👎👎 ppl now: apple stop ruining liquid glass bring it back ☹️☹️☹️👎👎👎👎 [video] Tom Warren / @tomwarren : Liquid Glass? More like Frosted Glass. We always knew Apple would have to walk this back heavily though ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Josh Constine / @joshconstine : The haters said Apple shouldn't do this. And they were right. Great call from the haters. Apple just rolled back the worst parts of liquid glass, substantially reducing the brain-scrambling transparency/refraction in navigation elements Antoine Deschamps / @antoinedsh : @markgurman Apple released iOS 18 for Apple Intelligence without Apple Intelligence now makes iOS 26 for liquid glass without liquid glass 😭 Callum John / @19callum93 : @iupdate Can't Apple just add a slider/toggle in the settings for users to adjust the liquid glass effect to their desire. This would then please everyone's preference? [image] Anshel Sag / @anshelsag : Yup, as expected Apple has backpedaled from heavy criticism. I think it's the right move tbh. Quinn Nelson / @snazzylabs : Beta 1 -> Liquid Glass Beta 2 -> Somewhat Liquid Glass Beta 3 -> Glass, Kinda Sami Fathi / @samifathi_ : Yes. It's in beta and I'm glad Apple is willing to tweak Liquid Glass to be as beautiful as we know it can be. But, my concern is that the tweaks being made seem to be based on feedback from hot takes and negatively charged commentary vs. meaningful and thoughtful feedback. Aaron Zollo / @zollotech : Liquid Glass is very similar from what I see from Beta 2 to 3. May be reduced in a few places. Beta 2 on the left, Beta 3 on the right [image] Sami Fathi / @samifathi_ : Apple is repeating its mistake with the iOS 15 Safari tab bar redesign. Listening to online and Twitter commentary from people who don't know shit about UI design is not the way a $3 trillion company should operate. Parker Ortolani / @parkerortolani : mind you they already had the accessibility toggle to frost the glass they could ship a slider with variable system materials that switches between options for legibility make it part of the onboarding flow alongside light/dark mode liquid glass 1.0 was a work of art Parker Ortolani / @parkerortolani : really confused why they won't just give us a glass slider to pick the level of transparency you get, after all we get even further levels of customization on the home screen and lock screen now Brandon Butch / @brandonbutch : iOS 26 Beta 3 adds new colors for the default wallpaper: Sky, Halo, and Dusk [image]
Context & Ripple Effects
Liquid Glass was introduced across Apple’s 2026 operating-system betas, then quickly became a usability flashpoint. This beta changes the balance toward legibility through reduced transparency and stronger blur in parts of the interface.
The adjustment was not final: the subsequent beta restored more of the liquid effect, while later hands-on coverage still found the design visually impressive but potentially distracting. That makes beta 3 an early example of Apple tuning a system-wide visual language in public.
First-order effects
- iOS 26 beta 3 testers see a less transparent Liquid Glass treatment, directly addressing readability complaints in affected interface elements.
- Apple’s design and software teams must validate the revised appearance across iOS and the concurrently seeded iPadOS and macOS Tahoe betas, rather than treating the original visual treatment as fixed.
Second-order effects
- Developers and designers preparing for iOS 26 face a moving target for contrast, layering, and visual hierarchy as Apple changes the system materials during the beta cycle.
- The reversal creates pressure to preserve Liquid Glass’s distinctive look without repeating the readability trade-off; the first public beta release expanded the audience exposed to those choices.
Third-order effects
- If this iteration pattern persists, operating-system design systems may move from one global visual setting toward more contextual or user-controlled treatments; Apple later introduced a transparency slider for Liquid Glass, consistent with that direction.
- The durable constraint is accessibility and task clarity: a cross-platform design language can become harder to standardize when it must adapt to varied content, backgrounds, and user preferences.
The trend: System-wide interface redesigns are increasingly being refined through beta feedback, with visual distinctiveness constrained by legibility and user control.