Learn how to use the new transparent style app icons in iOS 26 that perfectly complement the new Liquid Glass design and add a unique look to your iPhone or iPad Home Screen.
With last year’s iOS 18 update, Apple added the ability to use dark or tinted app icons. The latest iOS 26 introduces a new ‘Clear’ style that strips away the usual colors from all app icons and widgets, leaving them with a sleek, translucent background.
The ‘Clear’ style has two versions:
- Light: This makes the app icons semi-transparent, allowing ample light to pass through and subtly reveal the colors of the wallpaper beneath them. It appears as if your widgets and app icons are individual glass slabs with text and images superimposed on them.
- Dark: It uses a shade of black as the app icon background, which isn’t entirely opaque and still has some level of transparency, but the app icons become sufficiently dark, increasing visibility.
You can choose either Clear Light or Clear Dark styles, or set it to Auto, allowing your iPhone to use both light and dark styles depending on your device’s Dark Mode settings.
Use clear app icons on iPhone and iPad
1) Go to your iOS 26 or iPadOS 26 Home Screen and touch and hold an empty spot until all apps start jiggling. Then, tap the Edit button in the upper-left corner and select “Customize.”
2) Choose the Clear style of app icons. Then, select Light, Dark, or Auto modes. You can also tap the sun icon to dim or brighten the wallpaper background, and tap the dual-square icon to hide app labels and increase icon size.
3) Once you’re happy with the results, tap anywhere outside the customization pane to save your changes.
Selecting Clear, Dark, or Tinted styles affects not only the app icons on the Home Screen but also the App Library, Share Sheet, Settings app, Siri Suggestions widget, and other areas throughout iOS 26.
If you change the wallpaper
If you go to the Photos app and use a different image as your wallpaper, then the clear app icon style will stay in place. However, if you touch and hold your Lock Screen and pick one of your other added Lock and Home Screen pairs, then the clear app icons will be replaced with that pair’s own icon style, which is usually the default app icons.
Display accessibility settings affect the clear app icon style
If you go to iOS 26 Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size and enable Reduce Transparency or Increase Contrast, the clear app icons and widgets on your iPhone Home Screen will adjust accordingly and lose their see-through appearance for the most part.
What do you think of these?
While this kind of clear app icons and widgets may not be for everyone, I can certainly see it being a hit with minimalists or those who want to eliminate colors for a focused and uniform look. Will you be using clear app icons on your iPhone or iPad, or will you stick with the default vibrant ones?
iOS 26 also brings other small yet effective improvements, like changing the size of your Lock Screen clock and using 3D moving wallpapers there. Make sure you check out those tutorials.