How to Switch from Clear or Tinted Appearance in MacOS Tahoe
The latest versions of macOS Tahoe include a new toggle that allows you to switch between two slightly different appearance modes for the Liquid Glass interface; “Clear” and “Tinted”. This setting was introduced to the Mac with macOS Tahoe 26.1 (and iOS 26.1 / iPadOS 26.1 for iPhone and iPad), and offers another way to customize the look and feel of your Mac a bit.
The difference between “Clear” and “Tinted” is very subtle when in Light Mode, and just slightly more obvious when in Dark Mode, but if you’re hoping for a major rollback of Liquid Glass this is not it (and unfortunately Reduce Transparency doesn’t completely work in macOS Tahoe 26.1 now either).
How to Make Liquid Glass “Clear” or “Tinted” on MacOS
- From the  Apple menu go to “System settings”
- Choose “Appearance”
- Under “Liquid Glass” choose “Clear” (default) or “Tinted”
The change is immediate, but whether or not you notice any difference is another matter.
Whichever choice you pick, you won’t find a significant difference. In Light Mode it’s almost impossible to tell the two apart, but Dark Mode makes it a little easier to see the differences:
Clear is the default look of Liquid Glass:
Tinted is new, but barely different. You can see most of the changes in Dark Mode by looking at the titlebar buttons:
We’re using Dark Mode for the screenshot demonstrations here because with Light Mode the difference is so subtle it’s almost imperceptible in most situations, but feel free to try it out yourself and see if you can see a difference, and which one you like the best. Tinted sometimes has slightly more contrast, depending on the app and content.
The same toggle for Clear and Tinted exists on iPhone and iPad with the latest iOS/ipadOS versions, but we’ll cover that separately since the difference between the two is a bit more obvious there.
The Liquid Glass interface has been somewhat controversial for some Mac, iPhone, and iPad users, with some users feeling that the Liquid Glass interface has reduced legibility in favor of more visual effects. There are ways to reduce the Liquid Glass appearance on MacOS if you’re in that camp, and if so, another visual setting you might appreciate toggling is turning off Safari color tinting in MacOS if you find that to be distracting.
What do you think of the new Clear and Tinted toggles in macOS Tahoe, or iOS and iPadOS for that matter? Do you prefer one or the other? Can you notice a big difference between the options? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
