- Apple’s iOS 26.2 update brings useful optimization to Liquid Glass
- You can now change the transparency of the lock screen clock
- This is done with an easy-to-use slider.
Apple has released beta versions for iOS 26.2 and the latest Beta 1 and Beta 2 updates have added some interesting new features to the mix. Some of the most notable changes involve the design of the Liquid Glass interface, suggesting that Apple is finally taking steps to fix Liquid Glass once and for all.
Liquid Glass has proven controversial since its announcement at WWDC 2025 in June, and part of the problem is that Apple gives you very little control over the design aspect. Since the user interface uses glass-like elements that can overlap and obscure underlying elements, this is a problem, but iOS 26.2 helps to solve this problem, if only a little.
In iOS 26.2, there is now a slider that lets you control the transparency of the clock digits on the lock screen. Move the cursor all the way to the left and the numbers are almost completely erased. Move it to the right and they become increasingly opaque.
This is a small but important change, as previously it was difficult to tell at what point certain backgrounds overlapped. Due to the transparency effects of liquid glass, the images behind the watch may conflict with the numbers, making it very difficult to read the time.
Improvements are underway
This move follows a similar move by Apple in iOS 26.1, where the company added a step to change the operating system’s entire Liquid Glass implementation from completely transparent to something more opaque. While this was a positive step, it didn’t go far enough in my opinion: what Apple really needed to do was give users a slider to control Liquid Glass as they saw fit.
Now that there is a slider for the lock screen, I hope Apple finally sees the light and integrates this feature throughout the system. I don’t mind Liquid Glass per se, but it’s such a radical overhaul (and with so many potential pitfalls) that users should be able to tailor it to their needs to avoid the kind of readability issues we’ve seen so far.
The lock screen slider isn’t the only way Apple worked on Liquid Glass in iOS 26.2. The company has also changed some UI animations for a smoother, water-like look. An example is opening a menu, which is shown. Aaron Perris in Xand brings Liquid Glass a little closer to the animation style Apple first unveiled at WWDC 2025.
Clearly, Liquid Glass is still a work in progress and I hope Apple continues to refine it in the coming weeks and months. Let’s hope the company realizes that giving users some control isn’t necessarily a bad thing. If so, I hope a universal slider to change the transparency of liquid glass isn’t far off.