iOS 26 UIGlassEffect on custom UIButton

Question

Created 4h

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I have three custom UIButton instances inside a custom UIView subclass (not inside a UINavigationBar, UIToolbar, or UITabBar). I want to apply UIGlassEffect with interactive = YES to each button so they get the native liquid glass press animation. The problem is that the UIVisualEffectView containing the effect either:

Has userInteractionEnabled = YES — glass animation works but the button's IBAction never fires
Has userInteractionEnabled = NO — IBAction fires but no glass animation

How can I have both the native interactive glass animation and the button action firing on the same button? Is this possible with the public API, or is the interactive glass animation on custom buttons simply not supported outside of standard UIKit controls?

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Answer 1

DTS Engineer OP

Apple

1h

Thanks for the post, this is very interesting as those controls without anything should be able to produce the glass effect if you are using Xcode 26.2+ and iOS 26.0+ macOS 26.0+. I am wondering about your complete set up and where you are testing at? Can you please provide me details of you set up information as well as the simple sample of how you are using UIKit?

Your comment about userInteractionEnabled is something that got me interested about how are you using the API. When UIVisualEffectView.isUserInteractionEnabled = YES: The UIVisualEffectView captures the touch events to perform its interactive effect. I think this prevents the touch from reaching the UIButton subview, so the button's action never fires. When UIVisualEffectView.isUserInteractionEnabled = NO: The UIVisualEffectView allows touches to pass through to its subviews. The UIButton receives the touch and fires its action. However, it seems like you are hosting it somehow? This is the part where I ask for a focus simple project to see how you are using UIKIt/

I believe you see on native controls (like buttons in UINavigationBar, UIToolbar, UITabBar, or certain system buttons) their behavior of those controls, often tied to UIKit rendering and animation mechanisms and how Liquid Glass use them in 26.0+

I would also like to see about how you using this visualEffectView.isUserInteractionEnabled = false. This is crucial so that the UIButton itself receives the touch events I think, but also reading your post, I believe you are trying to apply Liquid Glass without letting the system do it for you?

I’m looking forward to see you focused simple project.

If you're not familiar with preparing a test project, take a look at Creating a test project.

Albert Pascual   Worldwide Developer Relations.

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