Liquid Glass on iOS 26 — 4 settings to change on your iPhone

iOS 26 is coming on September 15, and it brings with it a huge number of upgrades and features. The big change to the new operating system is its all-new design language, which Apple dubs Liquid Glass, unifying many design aspects of all of Apple’s major operating systems. 

A big part of the Liquid Glass redesign, however, is customization. Plenty of settings are worth experimenting with, and many of them will help you make your iPhone feel more specific to you.

Curious about what you should change when you get the iOS 26 update? Here’s a look. 

Customize your lock screen

Liquid Glass design elements can be found throughout iOS 26, but few of them look as great as they do on the lock screen. Widgets, the clock, and more can all show up with Liquid Glass transparency. Even things like notifications have transparency.

There are a few things you can do to customize your lock screen. To do so, unlock your phone and hold down on the lock screen, then tap the “Customize” button. From there, you can tap on one of the aspects of your lock screen, like the clock — and you’ll be able to change font, color, and transparency, with a new “Glass” and “Solid” toggle on the bottom of the screen. Notably, you can have Liquid Glass designs that still have color, which is a nice touch.

Try out the new Home Screen icons

It’s not just the lock screen you can customize — it’s the Home Screen icons too. Like previous versions of iOS, you can unify the color scheme of your Home Screen. Unlike previous versions, however, the color scheme can now be Liquid Glass-based.

To use new Home Screen icons, hold down on the Home Screen and tap on the Edit button on the top left of the screen. Then, tap on “Customize.” From there, you’ll be able to select what style of icon you want, including a new Clear option. The Clear option can be used in Light or Dark mode, or set to Auto, where it will switch based on the status of your system. 

Add a background to your iMessage chats

Part of the appeal of Liquid Glass isn’t just the Liquid Glass design elements themselves — it’s how you can see content behind them. A perfect example of this is in the Messages app, which now lets you set backgrounds for your chats. Keep in mind that backgrounds are set not just for you, but for anyone else in the chat, too.

To set backgrounds in chats, open the Messages app and then select the chat you want to set a background for. Then, tap on the name of the contact or group chat at the top of the screen, and select the “Backgrounds” tab. From there, you’ll be able to choose from a number of pre-set options, or choose from a photo in your library. It’s a great way to give your chats a little more character.

Turn on call screening

Ok, maybe Call Screening isn’t quite a Liquid Glass feature, but it is a new iOS 26 feature that could seriously come in handy. 

To turn on Call Screening, open the Settings app, then scroll down to Apps, then select the Phone app. Scroll down to the section labelled “Screen Unknown Callers,” which has three different options. When it’s set to “Never,” your phone will ring any time you get a call, no matter who it’s from. The second option is “Ask Reason For Calling,” and when it’s set, your phone will use AI to ask the caller why they’re calling, and let you decide based on that transcribed answer whether you want to answer or not. Last is “Silence,” which simply sends unknown numbers straight to voicemail.

For more Live Apple Event coverage, follow Mashable's live blog and get real-time updates on the iPhone 17, Apple Watch Series 11, and AirPods Pro 3 launch.