I’ve been doing a deep dive into Liquid Glass behavior across iOS 26 releases and noticed what appears to be a significant behavior change between ~26.2 and 26.3/26.4.
In earlier iOS 26 builds, toolbar/navigation bar glass appeared to adapt to the content behind it. In tinted mode, the glass would become frostier/lighter/darker depending on the backdrop.
As of 26.3/26.4, toolbar glass behavior now appears tied to overall device appearance (light/dark) rather than the underlying content. This now closely matches the behavior of sheets (which have always ignored the background, and have been tinted light/dark based on the device appearance).
However, the bigger issue:
- There does not appear to be any public API to make custom Liquid Glass controls participate in the same rendering/compositing behavior as true toolbar/navigation items.
For example:
- .glassEffect()
- custom floating ornaments
- vertical stacks of controls over a map
Do not visually behave the same way as:
- navigation bar buttons / toolbar items
- the sheet
Even when using the same materials/effects.
So currently there seems to be no way to create floating controls that visually harmonize with system toolbar glass behavior.
Example use case:
- map-heavy UI
- vertical floating tool stack on the trailing edge
- wanting the controls to match toolbar.
Questions:
- Was the toolbar adaptation behavior intentionally changed in 26.3/26.4?
- Is there any public API planned for custom Liquid Glass controls to participate in the same adaptation/compositing pipeline as toolbar/nav items?
- Is the expectation that developers should treat:
- toolbar/nav glass
- custom glass overlays
as intentionally different visual systems?
Would love clarification here because there's now a gap between system-owned glass and developer-created glass.