Following a week of X and YouTube complaints, Apple has
further reduced the transparency of its Liquid Glass design in the latest iOS 26 developer beta, making navigation bars, buttons, and tabs more opaque to improve readability. The Verge reports: "iOS 26 beta 3 completely nerfs Liquid Glass," AppleTrack developer Sam Kohl says in
a post on X. "It looks so much cheaper now and feels like Apple is backtracking on their original vision." Others
ask Apple to "stop ruining" Liquid Glass and call the new design a "step backwards." Some
users in the
beta found that the transparency level can vary depending on the app they're using.
This is still just a developer beta, so it's likely that Apple will continue to make tweaks before it releases iOS 26 to the public in September.
