Use “Show Borders” to Clarify Liquid Glass UI on iPadOS 26 & iOS 26
One of the big complaints about the Liquid Glass interface of iPadOS 26 and iOS 26 is that the user interface can be challenging to use, read, differentiate elements, and interact with. There are various toggles and settings that Apple has placed under the “Accessibility” category that can significantly improve the legibility and experience of interacting with the Liquid Glass interface on iPhone and iPad however, and one of those is something called “Show Borders”.
As you might have guessed by the name, “Show Borders” will draw a border around many interface elements that are otherwise low contrast and blended, making the Liquid Glass interface easier to use and quickly differentiate various visual elements and cues. This feature is available for both iPhone and iPad running the iOS/iPadOS 26 operating systems, but some users may find dit particularly advantageous on the iPad using the window-based multitasking system.
How to Show Borders on iPhone & iPad
- Open the “Settings” app on iPhone or iPad
- Go to “Accessibility” and then to “Display & Text”
- Toggle the switch for “Show Borders” to the ON position
You can compare the setting toggled on and off in the screenshots below, here’s the setting off while in iPadOS 26 windowed-app mode:
And here’s the “Show Borders” setting turned on with the same iPad windowed mode:
As you can see, the Show Borders option makes it much easier to see what certain elements within the user interface are.
Unfortunately this setting does not exist on the Mac in Tahoe, but a similar setting exists with “Increase Contrast” though on the Mac it typically looks quite garish and cartoony, unlike the Show Borders option on iOS/iPadOS. Another option for Mac users is to try a third party tool like Alan, which draws a border around the active foreground window on the Mac to make it more obvious which window is active and which is in the background.
What do you think of the Show Borders feature and Liquid Glass in general? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments.
all of these “fixes” for Liquid Glass render the UI even uglier and harder to look at than LG does. are they doing this on purpose to try and force those of us who value aesthetics as they a function of usability to just submit to the translucent future?
i’ll buy an iPhone which only supports up to iOS 18 before i surrender to using Dye’s Folly.
Tired of tinkering trying to make something bad look better. Liquid Glass best solution is just to abandon a bad design ideal and go back to focusing on legibility.
Liquid Glass is a disaster, especially with iPad windowing. You would have to be a total idiot to think that making the edges of windows be visually confusing and difficult to use. Why not fix Photos and Contacts, which is crude and still results in an hourglass, even on a new Apple Studio? How about improving the pathetic Mail app? Fix its search, maybe? Good grief Apple!
Apple has been tinkering with details for a while, instead of fixing real issues with (for example) Contacts and Photos, but now I feel they have really lost the plot. Liquid Glass does NOTHING to help the user, it is purely an image gimmick. This would never have happened with Steve Jobs in charge.
Iām so deflated with Liquid Glass, itās the first time EVER and Iāve been a user and supporter since the iPhone 3G; that Iāve been disappointed by an upgrade.
Iām totally hacked off with my new iPhone, it doesnāt do anything the previous one did and it feels like the GUI gone backwards.
Even when they moved away from the Skeuomorphic appearance and there was a lot of hoo har.
This time Apple have jumped the shark š¦