iOS 26 — What’s New and How to Tweak Liquid Glass
iOS 26 is officially available (released Sept 15, 2025). The headline change is the new “Liquid Glass” translucent UI that appears across the home/lock screens and in apps. Alongside the design refresh, Apple added numerous feature upgrades across Phone, Messages, Camera, Photos and AirPods.
Quick highlights
- Liquid Glass translucent design (you can reduce transparency via Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size > Reduce Transparency, or reduce motion to tone down animations)
- Phone redesign with Hold Assist (notify you when an agent answers so you can leave the call on hold)
- Live Translation for Phone, FaceTime and Messages (on-device Apple Intelligence)
- Messages: filtering for unknown senders and polls in group chats
- Visual Intelligence: search what’s on your screen (like reverse image search)
- Camera & Photos improvements, new Preview app for PDF edits and image background removal
- AirPods updates: live translate support and new AirPods Pro 3 with heart-rate monitoring and enhanced recording
How to make Liquid Glass less translucent
- Settings > Accessibility > Motion > toggle on Reduce Motion
- Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size > toggle on Reduce Transparency
- To change app appearance: Long-press an app > Edit Home Screen > Edit > Customize > choose Default, Dark or Tinted
Eligible iPhones
Most iPhones from 2019 onwards are compatible. If you have an iPhone 11 or newer you should be eligible; older XR/XS generation devices may not be supported.
Release & links
Official Apple iOS 26 page: https://www.apple.com/ios/ios-26/
AirPods Pro 3 (Amazon search): https://www.amazon.com/s?k=AirPods+Pro+3&tag=f1rede-20
If you want a deeper feature walk-through or screenshots, check Apple’s official page above. If you’d like, I can add screenshots, a device compatibility table, or step-by-step upgrade instructions to this post.