Transparent icon look in iOS 26: Apple adds "Clear" to light and dark
Apple's new, glassy look can also be extended to iPhone icons. Fortunately, this is purely optional, because the overview suffers.
iOS 26 with transparent icons (center): Interesting demo, but not very practical.
(Image: Screenshot Apple.com)
Apple was once known for giving its users only a few options to change the design of the user interface of their computer, phone, or tablet. Depending on the platform, special apps stepped in where technically possible. Apple has become more accessible here since iOS 18 and iPadOS 18: Since last year, for example, it has been possible to color all icons (almost) as desired. With iOS 26, iPadOS 26 and macOS 26, Apple has taken user interface configurability to the next level: thanks to “Liquid Glass” design, things are now possible that you would never have expected. The icons are an extreme example: In addition to the standard light and dark mode (plus additional coloring on request), you can now make them completely transparent.
Everything so beautifully transparent
On the iPhone, this gives you a home screen that looks very unusual: You can see more of the background image than of your apps. The optional widgets are also transparent, and the control center is already transparent by default. However, after initial experiments with the new “Clear” mode for the icons, the question arises as to why it should be activated at all. Older eyes in particular can then see almost nothing without reading glasses.
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App icons can only be recognized by their labels or symbols that stand out only slightly from the background. All of this looks like a UI demonstration from a university design course, even if the glass effects, including the dynamics, are impressive. At least nobody is forced to use the clear look. This is a “completely new way of configuring” the design, says Apple. IT comedian Sam Tucker on YouTube cheerfully asks what “transparent glass” is called. “Ah, that's right! Windows!”
Not just on the iPhone
Transparent icons are not only available on iOS. They can also be activated on the iPad and Mac in iPadOS 26 and macOS 26 Tahoe, respectively, if you want to. For the first time, you can also color folders directly from the system and add emojis to them, which previously required separate tools.
Both functions are not the only controversial recent design decisions from Cupertino. The famous Finder icon has also been inverted for no apparent reason. The light side is now dark and vice versa, after decades of consistency.
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