iOS 27 replaces the binary Clear and 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.
On an iPhone still running iOS 26.1 or later, the same control is a choice between Clear and Tinted under Settings > Display & Brightness > Liquid Glass. The steps below are for iOS 27.
The Liquid Glass Slider Sits Under Settings and Appearance in iOS 27
- Open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad. This is the standard gray 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, Text Size and Bold Text.
- Tap Liquid Glass. It 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 More Clear to More Tinted. At the clear end, the glass effect is at full strength, allowing the wallpaper and content behind interface elements to show through prominently. At the tinted end, the glass is frosted for much more opacity and contrast, although a degree of glassiness remains.
Most users will find a comfortable midpoint where some depth and translucency is visible but text remains easy to read at a glance. 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.
The Slider Needs Reduce Transparency and Increase Contrast Turned Off
The Liquid Glass effect adapts to Reduce Transparency and Increase Contrast, both of which are found under Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size. If either option is turned on, you need to turn it off before the slider will change how Liquid Glass looks. For a flatter result than the tinted end of the slider gives, Reduce Transparency strips out the remaining translucency, and the other settings that make Liquid Glass less transparent cover the rest. The iOS 27 accessibility features picture is broader than just the slider, and users with visual sensitivity may find that combining a mid-range slider position with Increase Contrast gives the most readable result.
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. 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.
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, and because the slider is continuous rather than a toggle, small refinements are straightforward to make. The slider also appears as a screen near the end of the iOS 27 installation, so you can pick a position before you reach the Home Screen.
iOS 27 Also Reworks How Liquid Glass Catches Light and Scrolls Under Bars
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, was removed in the iOS 27 betas.
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 pick up many of these improvements automatically on iOS 27, without requiring an update from developers.
The Lock Screen clock has its own Liquid Glass slider in the clock editor, separate from the system-wide slider, and the compact Lock Screen clock loses that slider while it stays in compact mode. Apple Watch is not getting the Liquid Glass slider, though watchOS 27 does bring its own design refinements.
