iOS 27 replaces the binary Clear/Tinted toggle from iOS 26 with a proper slider that lets you set the Liquid Glass translucency anywhere on the spectrum. The slider is available on iPhone, iPad, and Mac running iOS 27, iPadOS 27, or macOS 27, so the path below applies across all three platforms
Note that this guide will require you to have iOS 27 installed on your iPhone, which means either the developer beta or the public beta arriving in July 2026, with the full release expected in September 2026.
How to adjust the Liquid Glass slider in iOS 27
- Open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad. This is the standard grey gear icon on your Home Screen or in your App Library. On Mac, open System Settings from the Apple menu instead.
- Tap Appearance. In iOS 27, Apple consolidated visual customization options under this single menu, so this is where Light and Dark mode live alongside the new Liquid Glass controls.
- Tap Liquid Glass. You will see it listed within the Appearance screen, which opens the dedicated Liquid Glass settings panel containing the new slider along with a live preview of how the current setting looks on system elements.
- Drag the slider to your preferred position. The slider runs from one extreme to the other: at the clear end, the glass effect is at full strength, allowing the wallpaper and content behind UI elements to show through prominently. At the opposite end, the glass is frosted to such a degree that it becomes essentially completely opaque, which is close to indistinguishable from switching the effect off entirely.
Most users will find a comfortable midpoint where some depth and translucency is visible but text remains easy to read at a glance.Tip: The changes apply system-wide and update in real time as you drag, so there is no need to confirm or restart anything. Move the slider, look at the preview, and keep adjusting until the result suits you.
Check legibility at your chosen setting once you are done. One of the main complaints about Liquid Glass in iOS 26 was that text overlaid on glass elements was difficult to read, particularly at high transparency. Apple reworked the underlying material in iOS 27, adding a darkened edge around Liquid Glass elements and brighter specular highlights for depth and separation, and early testing of the developer beta confirms that everything remains legible even at maximum transparency.
That said, opening a few apps you use daily, such as Messages, Mail, or Safari, to confirm the setting looks right across different content types is a reasonable check before settling on a position.
Additional tips
If you use accessibility features, check those settings too. The iOS 27 accessibility features picture is broader than just the slider. The Liquid Glass effect now adapts to Reduce Transparency and Increase Contrast, both of which are found under Settings > Accessibility > Display and Text Size. If either of those options is already enabled on your device, they will interact with the Liquid Glass slider and may override or modify its appearance further. Users with visual sensitivity may find that combining a mid-range slider position with Increase Contrast gives the most readable result.
You can return to the slider at any time to refine the setting. The same path, Settings > Appearance > Liquid Glass, gets you back whenever you want to adjust. Because the slider is continuous rather than a toggle, small refinements are straightforward to make.
What else changed with Liquid Glass in iOS 27
The slider is the headline change, but Apple made broader improvements to Liquid Glass in iOS 27 beyond this single control. The gyroscopic specular highlight from iOS 26, which caused a widely reported optical illusion as the effect shifted with device movement, appears to have been removed entirely in the developer beta.
Icons still carry edge highlights, now fixed at the top and bottom rather than moving, and they are considerably more subtle than before. Apple also addressed the behavior when content scrolls under floating bars, where a uniform toolbar now appears to keep text legible and contrast consistent.
Apps that already use Liquid Glass will pick up many of these improvements automatically when running on iOS 27, without requiring an update from developers. Apple Watch is not getting the Liquid Glass slider, though watchOS 27 does bring its own design refinements. The iOS 27 public beta arrives in July 2026, giving a much wider audience a chance to try all of this before the full release expected in September.
