Use “Reduce Bright Effects” to Eliminate Shiny Flashing in iOS 26 Liquid Glass
The newest versions of iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 have another Accessibility toggle that can help to further reduce the intensity of the Liquid Glass interface appearance for iPhone and iPad, called “Reduce Bright Effects”. As you might have guessed by the name alone, toggling the switch on will eliminate the brighter and flashier effects when interacting with elements in the user interface, like the little flashes of highlights that appear on embossed glossy buttons, search bars, icons, and more.
Because it’s a relatively new setting, I missed including this one when covering the various tips for disabling Liquid Glass on iOS 26 to the extent at which it can be disabled, anyway, but it’s worth mentioning for users who are not enthusiastic about the Liquid Glass look.
How to Enable “Reduce Bright Effects” on iOS 26 to Tone Down Liquid Glass Interactive Effects
You will need iOS 26.4 or later to have this feature on your device, earlier versions of iOS 26 do not have this particular setting toggle:
- Open the “Settings” app on iPhone or iPad
- Go to “Accessibility”
- Go to “Display & Text Size”
- Scroll down and look for “Reduce Bright Effects” and toggle that ON
Apple’s Settings description for this toggle is that the setting will “Minimize highlighting and flashing when interacting with onscreen elements, such as buttons or the keyboard.”
The change is immediate, but like many Accessibility tweaks, it’s also pretty subtle.
Basically, the bright lighting highlights, like the flashes of light refraction when touching, tapping, and interacting with many Liquid Glass interface elements, will be reduced when this setting is enabled. It’s kind of like how putting a pair of sunglasses on reduces the bright reflections of glass and shiny objects in real life, except of course this setting is for on-screen device interactions, but it’s that kind of glare, highlight, and flash reduction.
Note this setting is only available on iPhone and iPad with iOS 26, it’s not available on any version of MacOS Tahoe if you’re trying to tone down Liquid Glass on the Mac side of things too.
As of this writing, the iPhone and iPad have iOS 26.4.2 available to them, so be sure you keep your devices up to date to have access to features like this.
