Liquid Glass is one of Apple’s more contentious design choices in recent memory. Some love its transparent surfaces and light refractions, while others hate its readability. Over the last year, Apple slowly rolled out ways to tone down the glassy look, and thanks to iOS 27, now you can almost get rid of it entirely.
I wasn’t a fan of Liquid Glass when it showed up in Apple’s operating systems last year. The glassy panels made text hard to read, and the light refractions around app icons and buttons cheapened the refined look of Apple’s mobile platform. Even a year later, I still don’t love it.
Instead of forcing a binary choice between clear and tinted surfaces, there is now a whole spectrum of options.
I wasn’t alone either. There was plenty of blowback online to the point that Apple caved and added a “tinted” surface option alongside the default “clear” aesthetic in iOS 26.1 that turned down the glassy appearance of its new design language. I enabled that the moment it was available and never looked back.
Now that iOS 27 is officially here, a quick dig through the settings shows that Apple has capitulated even further — or rather, it has given users the rare chance to customize the design language of their iPhone as they see fit. Instead of forcing a binary choice between clear and tinted surfaces, there is now a whole spectrum of options, thanks to a new Liquid Glass slider that lets you choose the level of glassy liquidity you want in your iPhone.
RELATED: The latest iPhone security threat has a nasty fix
Moor Studio/Getty Images
To locate the new option in iOS 27, open the Settings app and choose “Appearance.” Tap on Liquid Glass halfway down the page. Here, you will see the new slider with 100% clear on the left and 100% tinted on the right. Above that, you’ll find an example article about Apple Park with a search bar laid on top. Scroll up on the article, and you will see how the search bar interacts with the content underneath it.
Zach Laidlaw/iOS 27 on iPhone 18 Pro Max
It’s here where the mistakes of Liquid Glass are most apparent. As you scroll in clear mode, the words in the search bar mingle with the words in the article, creating an unreadable mess of content that I still find baffling. How did Apple ever approve this?!
Scroll through the same article in tinted mode, and the search bar remains completely legible without taking anything away from the main content. Although it isn’t as fancy, this mode is easiest to read, in my opinion. Meanwhile, the middle option offers a nice blend of both worlds.
Zach Laidlaw/iOS 27 on iPhone 18 Pro Max
The best thing Apple did, though, was make the slider completely moveable from left to right, so you can dial in the exact amount of transparency to fit your preferences and to save your eyes. Finally! We get to choose!
I’ve been using 100% tinted mode since iOS 27 launched, and although I vastly prefer this look to the full transparency of Liquid Glass, it’s still not perfect. Some of the surfaces throughout the operating system, like Control Center, appear the same in both modes, offering more transparency than I’d like. But beggars can’t be choosers, and I’m happy that Apple gave users the option to decide if they want to read their phones or not.
Screenshot by Zach Laidlaw/iOS 27 on iPhone 18 Pro Max
While iPhone will be the biggest benefactor of the new Liquid Glass slider, it’s not the only device in Apple’s lineup to get some relief. You can also find this option in iPadOS and MacOS, officially bringing opaque unity to the hero products in Apple’s ecosystem.
To access the new Liquid Glass slider, update your devices to iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 Golden Gate, all available now.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Iphone, Ios, Update, Tech