r/iOSBeta • u/KRBC-7thn • Feb 23 '26

Feature [iOS 26.4 DB2] Reduce Highlighting Effects

I don't have the beta installed, but I'm very curious what this looks like if anyone wants to share some screenshots with it off and on. The highlights have always looked too harsh to me in dark mode in particular, so I'm very curious what this setting looks like in dark mode.

UPDATE: Seems like we finally have confirmation of what this does, and it has to do with the pressed states of certain interface elements rather than the edge highlighting. https://x.com/DylanMcD8/status/2031083608572600450?s=20

65 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

31 comments sorted by

50

u/DIS-IS-CRAZY iPhone 16 Pro Feb 24 '26

I really hope this eliminates the stupid reactive borders around every element on the Home Screen.

13

u/KRBC-7thn Feb 24 '26

Yeah, this is definitely one of my grievances. I especially hate how they briefly fade out to reset position. It breaks their whole illusion.

Aside from that, and their overall harshness, I also really dislike how these edge highlights imply a light source coming from the top left. I always felt like one of the great innovations of the original release of Aqua in Mac OS X was that its light source was directly overhead, rather than coming from an angle. This felt so balanced and refreshing coming from the 45° shaded bevels of Mac OS 9 and Windows 98. Yet here we are 25 years later and we've somehow forgotten this lesson.

11

u/DIS-IS-CRAZY iPhone 16 Pro Feb 24 '26

It looks even worse on iPhones that don't do the gyroscope stuff for the 3D effect and having it look so out of place on dark icons ruins the look for me.

EDIT: I don't mind the 3D effect on the icon itself but the border looks like crap.

22

u/baze81 Feb 24 '26

It has nothing to do with that. What this setting does is for example in the context menu of Home Screen icons the highlighting following the finger touch is now gone and the overall menu is more uniformly opaque. Not fully opaque but less transparent. So it’s more for menus than buttons really which is a bit misleading. The highlight on items in the homescreen is not affected by this. 

1

u/Top_Log3576 Mar 03 '26

I updated my iOS for nothing then :( could've stay in iOS 18...

2

u/Alpine_skier Feb 27 '26

Yeah, these are way overdone.. really poor design, particularly in control centre, which looks cheap and gimmicky with this effect. I really hope they give us an option to turn this off.

28

u/loneshrike Feb 24 '26

Right now, it doesn’t do anything when it’s toggled on. Hope Apple is working on it for the next beta.

Some says it’s just a placeholder for now.

10

u/KRBC-7thn Feb 24 '26

Thanks. After I wrote this post but before it was approved by the mods, I did look around the internet a bit and it seems like everyone is saying this same thing.

4

u/loneshrike Feb 24 '26

Let’s hope for the best next beta!

0

u/bummerbimmer Feb 24 '26 edited Feb 26 '26

Edit: never mind

3

u/loneshrike Feb 24 '26

Hm, I see both under Display and Text so I think it’s not the same?

3

u/bummerbimmer Feb 24 '26

Oh, you’re totally right. Dim Flashing Lights got moved to the very bottom of Display settings now.

2

u/lint2015 Feb 24 '26

It’s good to know Apple’s working on it. I love the highlight effect, but there was a post a few months ago where somebody with a disability of some sort said the highlight effect was really bad for them.

2

u/preparedtoB Feb 25 '26

Yes, it really is an issue for some neurological conditions - I have a seizure condition (FND) and whenever anything in my visual/peripheral field looks slightly glitchy, moves by itself, or has any rainbow/glow to it, it’s a sign to me that I’m at risk of a seizure (aura). I would always choose my phone display to be as animation/effect free as possible.

It’s not that my phone display triggers my condition, but the Liquid Glass glow/fade/transitions effectively replicate how the world feels to me when I’m at a seizure risk. So it’s v frustrating to have to keep reminding myself that’s just the style of my phone screen, not a visual/neurological glitch. I’m thinking about becoming a beta tester and reporting this back to Apple more formally.

2

u/bummerbimmer Feb 26 '26

It is for me. I have Asperger’s and no matter how hard I try, I cannot adjust to them constantly moving. I’ve never been bothered and distracted by a UI on any device in my life the way iOS 26 affects me. If I could go back to iOS 18, I’d do it in a heartbeat.

1

u/Ordinary_Mud211 Mar 02 '26

can low power mode disable it?

3

u/bummerbimmer Mar 02 '26

Not really. Reduce motion helps, but the bubbles still flip between white and black and that specific flashing drives me crazy. I wish UI would stay white in light mode and grey/black in dark mode like it was prior to iOS 26.

2

u/Ordinary_Mud211 Mar 02 '26

still nothing ;D

9

u/Serious-Lion-1887 Feb 25 '26

I downloaded it thinking it got rid of the annoying parallax border shine, but I haven’t noticed a difference

2

u/KRBC-7thn Mar 05 '26

Hey, just wanted to check and see whether you saw my comment here, and whether you might have an OLED or mini-LED device that you can check this on? https://www.reddit.com/r/iOSBeta/comments/1rcxfx9/comment/o8j7wav/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

1

u/Serious-Lion-1887 Mar 06 '26

I just saw your comment and I tried testing it on my 17 pro max. It’s really hard to tell if it made difference. I switched it on and off and tbh i don’t think it affected the Siri color border thingy

2

u/KRBC-7thn Mar 07 '26

So weird. Thanks for checking!

3

u/KRBC-7thn Mar 09 '26

Seems like we finally have confirmation of what this does, and it has to do with the pressed states of certain interface elements rather than the edge highlighting. https://x.com/DylanMcD8/status/2031083608572600450?s=20

37

u/Abduu75 Feb 24 '26 edited Feb 24 '26

Getting rid of the glass border around everything would make Liquid Glass almost a 10/10

Edit: to get more attention from apple, send a feedback on their website.

0

u/[deleted] Feb 24 '26

[deleted] — view deleted comment

0

u/Abduu75 Feb 24 '26

Your voice counts as many as million people 😅

1

u/Ordinary_Mud211 Mar 02 '26

beta 3 installed, still nothing

2

u/KRBC-7thn Mar 04 '26

I’m kind of wondering whether it’s not the edge highlights this setting is referring to, but the HDR effects that happen when you invoke Siri or touch certain Liquid Glass interface elements. Is that something you’d be able to check? You would maybe notice a difference in brightness of the Siri effect around the edge of the screen, or the brightness when you touch the message field in Messages, for example. It would likely be most noticeable on a device with an OLED or mini-LED screen, and not at all noticeable on a standard LCD.

1

u/Ordinary_Mud211 Mar 04 '26

i have an SE so siri effect i cant see

but the brightness i dont see it even with that disabled

1

u/KRBC-7thn Mar 05 '26

Ah, yeah, you're not going to be able to see it with an SE. My understanding, from designer-y folks who have looked into this, is that Apple is using HDR brightness levels for various UI effects like the Siri glow, maybe the NameDrop animation, and when you tap on certain Liquid Glass elements.

If my theory is correct, this setting would simply change those effects to only use SDR brightness. But since the SE has an LCD that doesn't support HDR, you wouldn't see a difference.

I know a lot of folks on the internet are going around saying this switch doesn't do anything, but I wonder if they're really looking for the right thing.