The iOS 26 replace is without doubt one of the most important software program adjustments to land on the iPhone in years. Not solely does it carry with it the all-new Liquid Glass redesign, however there are additionally main changes to your iPhone’s performance throughout the board.
When you is perhaps glad to see a few of these adjustments, others would possibly depart you unimpressed and even pissed off. The excellent news is that you could revert many of those tweaks to the way in which they have been earlier than iOS 26, all whereas maintaining the most recent model of the working system in your gadget. Right here, we’ll present you the way it’s finished with 5 large new options which have arrived in iOS 26.
Tone down Liquid Glass
There’s no query that the Liquid Glass visible overhaul is the headline addition to iOS 26. However its clear, glassy look has proved to be divisive because the second it was unveiled at Apple’s Worldwide Builders Convention (WWDC) in June 2025. Many individuals have discovered it decreases the legibility of on-screen parts, whereas others have taken concern with its return to extra real-world, skeuomorphic results after years of flat design.
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Both method, there’s sadly no method to disable it solely if you happen to’ve obtained iOS 26 working in your gadget. Nevertheless, what you can do it considerably scale back the transparency impact. That ought to make it a bit of extra bearable if you happen to’re not a fan of Liquid Glass.
First, open the Settings app in your iPhone and head to Accessibility > Show & Textual content Measurement, then allow the toggle subsequent to Scale back Transparency. You’ll discover that this instantly cuts out a variety of the glass-like results in iOS 26, such because the translucent Dock and app folders. The Management Heart is far more opaque, too, as are many different elements of the working system. Some glass results stay, just like the slight edge shine on app icons, however this modification removes probably the most outstanding elements of Liquid Glass.
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Flip off massive screenshot previews
In previous variations of iOS, taking a screenshot would produce a small preview within the backside nook of your show – you would then swipe this away to save lots of the image, or faucet it to start out enhancing. In iOS 26, although, the enhancing window opens routinely in full-screen mode, taking up your show and requiring further faucets to get on with no matter you have been doing earlier than.
Should you’re not keen on this new conduct, you needn’t fear, because it’s quite simple to vary issues again to the previous method. Merely open the Settings app and navigate to Common > Display Seize and disable the toggle subsequent to Full-Display Previews. Any more, you’ll return to seeing the miniature preview within the nook of your iPhone everytime you take a screenshot.
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Disable backgrounds in Messages
The Messages app obtained a sprinkling of updates in iOS 26, and one in every of them was the introduction of customized backgrounds to your chats, which might add a little bit of character to your group conversations.
The problem is that if one particular person adjustments the background in a gaggle chat, each participant will see that wallpaper. However if you happen to don’t prefer it, you may all the time disable it and put issues again to how they was once.
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To take action, head to Apps > Messages within the Settings app, then discover the Dialog Backgrounds toggle and disable it. It will restore the plain white background from earlier than iOS 26 on all of your threads.
You may also swap off message backgrounds on a per-chat foundation moderately than through the use of a blanket toggle. For this, you’ll must open the thread in query within the Messages app and faucet its title, faucet the Backgrounds tab, then choose None. Observe that this may change the background for each member of the group, not only for you.
Spatial Scenes
When viewing a photograph or a wallpaper you’ve chosen, you would possibly discover that it appears to maneuver as you shift your iPhone. That’s an instance of Apple’s new Spatial Scenes characteristic, however if you happen to simply need to benefit from the picture with out the slick 3D impact, you may disable it with a couple of faucets.
Begin off by lengthy urgent your Lock Display, then tapping Customise. To the left of the … button ought to be a hexagonal icon that incorporates a panorama scene – faucet it to disable the impact. You are able to do this with different photos by tapping the background thumbnail within the bottom-left, choosing Select Pictures, then choosing a picture and tapping the identical hexagonal icon to disable the Spatial Scene.
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There’s additionally a method to disable Spatial Scenes within the Pictures app. There, you’ll need to faucet the small hexagonal icon beneath the … button within the top-right nook when viewing a picture. In case your picture is already spatial, the hexagonal icon shall be blue, whereas a grey icon signifies that it’s switched off.
And if you happen to’d like to forestall Pictures from turning your photos into Spatial Scenes within the first place, open the Settings app and go to Apps > Pictures, then scroll to the underside and disable the toggle subsequent to Management for Creating Spatial Pictures.
Name screening and name ready
Spam calls and lengthy maintain occasions are scourges of contemporary life, and Apple has taken steps to fight them in iOS 26. That takes the type of name screening—which forces unknown callers to determine themselves earlier than they get although to you, supplying you with the choice to say no the decision—and name ready, which sits on maintain in your behalf earlier than ringing again whenever you’re by way of to a human.
However you would possibly resolve that these options aren’t best for you. Should you don’t get a lot spam and would moderately not inconvenience folks calling you, you would possibly need to disable name screening, for instance. (Observe that it solely works on unknown callers, so your loved ones and buddies would in all probability by no means encounter it.) Fortunately, that’s straightforward to do in iOS 26.
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To modify off name screening, open the Settings app and head to Apps > Cellphone. Scroll all the way down to the Display Unknown Callers part and faucet By no means. Alternatively, you may select to silence calls from unknown numbers fully and ship them to voicemail, or simply stick to Ask Purpose for Calling.
As for name ready, you’ll discover choices for this in the identical Cellphone menu. Subsequent to Detect Name Ready, merely disable the toggle to deactivate the characteristic.
