iOS 26.1 beta 4 does the unthinkable: You can control how glassy Liquid Glass should be

Macworld

Liquid Glass is perhaps the marquee feature of iOS 26, and it’s definitely not universally loved. While most of the interface design elements—flyout menus that shrink away, universal bottom search locations, etc.—seem to be well-received, the excessive use of transparency is frustrating some users.

Fortunately, it looks like iOS 26.1 is going to give users some control over the experience. In iOS 26.1 beta 4, Apple has added a toggle to adjust the transparency effect of Liquid Glass. Open Settings > Display and Brightness, and you’ll see a new Liquid Glass section. In this menu, you can set it to Clear or Tinted. The fact that this is a whole submenu rather than just a single toggle suggests that Apple may add more options to adjust Liquid Glass in the future. In macOS 26.1, you’ll find this control under System Settings > Appearance.

As it suggests, the Tinted look returns menus and buttons to a similar look as iOS 18, with more of a frosted appearance with some slight color peeking through, whereas Clear is the new Liquid Glass aesthetic.

This is the fourth beta release of iOS 26.1, and we expect the final release as soon as next week. It brings a number of refinements and visual updates, adding a nice layer of polish to Apple’s big release.