Don’t like Liquid Glass? Here are some ways to make it less… different
Apple’s designers and UI engineers have obviously put a lot of effort into Liquid Glass. As we’ve mentioned before, it’s the first major interface update since iOS 7, which was released in 2013. The developer touts the new system’s fluid transparency, dynamic depth effects, and organic animations, all of which aim to improve the user experience on every level.
However, the reception of Liquid Glass has been polarizing among both professionals and regular users.
The interface is praised by designers and the tech crowd for its technical sophistication: the way the light plays and changes in real time, the tactile feedback tricks in iOS, the flowing rhythm inherent in Liquid Glass are great examples of how to properly use the foundational principles and lean on the latest hardware. At the same time, users complain that the accentuated visuals often make text less legible and, ultimately, distract, slowing down journeys through otherwise habitual routines. Some users call the new UI elements cartoonish or childish.
Making Liquid Glass less innovative: the workarounds
First things first: there is no official way to revert to the old interface and retain the latest iOS or macOS under the hood. Apple doesn’t do reverse compatibility in this regard. The users, however, did find some ways to make Liquid Glass more acceptable for those who thoroughly dislike Apple’s new design ideas.
Reduce Transparency. This can be done in both iOS and macOS. The paths are:
- Settings → Accessibility → Display & Text Size (iOS);
- System Settings → Accessibility → Display (macOS).
There is a transparency reduction toggle there; flip it to ON to make the icons and everything else more solid-looking.
Increase Contrast. The settings are in the same menu as Reduce Transparency; the toggle or checkbox acts as promised, making everything on the screen higher in contrast and thus somewhat mitigating the fluid lines of the Liquid Glass interface elements.
Reduce Motion. In iOS, the toggle is in Settings → Accessibility → Motion, and in macOS it is in System Settings (or System Preferences) → Accessibility → Display (yes, same as the options above). The toggle makes the animation extravaganza less extravagant.
SolidGlass for macOS
This one’s exclusive to macOS. SolidGlass is a community-made tool that lets you disable most Liquid Glass layers in a single click. Essentially, it’s a GUI-wrapped equivalent of this terminal command:
defaults write -g com.apple.SwiftUI.DisableSolarium -bool YES
It reverts much of the UI to the classic look, but may entail interface glitches (icons losing backgrounds, appearing floating, overlays rendering incorrectly).
