SwiftUI Liquid Glass Menu briefly turns black after dismissing before returning to transparent glass

Question

Created 3w

Replies 2

Boosts 1

Participants 4

Hi, I’m seeing a visual issue with a SwiftUI Menu styled with Liquid Glass on iOS 26.

I have a top bar control where a Menu is inside a GlassEffectContainer. The menu label uses .glassEffect(.regular.interactive()), glassEffectID, and glassEffectUnion. The control normally looks translucent, matching the background correctly. But when I open the menu and then dismiss it, the glass control briefly becomes solid black for a moment before returning to the expected transparent/glass appearance.

This is visible especially on a colorful/blurred background:

Before opening the menu: the control is transparent Liquid Glass. Open the SwiftUI Menu. Dismiss the menu. The menu label/control briefly renders as a black pill. After a short delay, it returns to the correct transparent glass style. Here is the simplified structure:

@Namespace private var namespace

GlassEffectContainer(spacing: 18) {
    VStack(spacing: 4) {
        Menu {
            Button {
                selectedMode = .automatic
            } label: {
                Label("Automatic", systemImage: "wand.and.sparkles")
            }

            Button {
                selectedMode = .instant
            } label: {
                Label("Instant", systemImage: "bolt.fill")
            }

            Button {
                selectedMode = .thinking
            } label: {
                Label("Thinking", systemImage: "brain.head.profile")
            }

            Divider()

            Button {
                showSettings = true
            } label: {
                Label("Configure", systemImage: "slider.horizontal.3")
            }
        } label: {
            HStack(spacing: 8) {
                Image(systemName: selectedMode.icon)
                Text(selectedMode.title)
                Image(systemName: "chevron.down")
            }
            .padding(.horizontal, 16)
            .frame(minWidth: 92, minHeight: 48)
            .contentShape(RoundedRectangle(cornerRadius: 24, style: .continuous))
        }
    }
    .glassEffect(.regular.interactive(), in: RoundedRectangle(cornerRadius: 24, style: .continuous))
    .glassEffectUnion(id: "smart-intelligence-connected-menu", namespace: namespace)
    .glassEffectID("smart-intelligence-menu-pill", in: namespace)
    .buttonStyle(.plain)
    .labelStyle(.iconOnly)
}

I also tried applying .buttonStyle(.glass) directly to the Menu, and tried moving the glass effect between the Menu label and the wrapper VStack. The issue still appears: after dismissing the menu, the glass label briefly falls back to a solid black appearance before the transparent glass effect recovers.

Is this expected behavior for SwiftUI.Menu with Liquid Glass, or is there a recommended way to avoid this black flash after menu dismissal? Should Menu labels avoid .glassEffect(.regular.interactive()) / GlassEffectContainer, or is there a different modifier order recommended for iOS 26? Thanks for reply.

Answer 1

CypressLink OP

1w

I’m seeing what looks like the same issue in my app as well.

In my case, I have a top control pill that uses Liquid Glass, and inside that pill there are two SwiftUI Menu buttons. The issue happens with both menu buttons: one uses the line.3.horizontal.decrease symbol and the other uses the number symbol.

The glass pill normally renders correctly, but after opening and dismissing one of the menus, the control briefly appears as a solid/dark pill before returning to the expected transparent Liquid Glass appearance.

Here is the relevant structure from my code:

private var displayOptionsPill: some View {
    HStack(spacing: 0) {
        filterMenuButtonInPill
        displayModeMenuButtonInPill
    }
    .padding(.horizontal, 6)
    .frame(height: 44)
    .glassEffect(.regular.interactive(), in: Capsule())
}

private var filterMenuButtonInPill: some View {
    Menu {
        filterMenuContent
    } label: {
        Image(systemName: "line.3.horizontal.decrease")
            .font(.title2)
            .fontWeight(.medium)
            .foregroundStyle(.primary)
            .frame(width: 38, height: 32)
            .contentShape(Rectangle())
    }
    .buttonStyle(.plain)
}

private var displayModeMenuButtonInPill: some View {
    Menu {
        displayModeMenuContent
    } label: {
        Image(systemName: "number")
            .font(.title2)
            .fontWeight(.medium)
            .foregroundStyle(.primary)
            .frame(width: 38, height: 32)
            .contentShape(Rectangle())
    }
    .buttonStyle(.plain)
}

Button normal.jpg Button black.jpg

So the setup is slightly different from the original example, because the glassEffect is applied to the outer pill container rather than directly to the Menu label. However, the visual result seems to be the same: dismissing the SwiftUI Menu briefly causes the Liquid Glass control to render incorrectly as a solid dark/black pill.

I would also be interested to know whether this is expected behavior, a SwiftUI rendering limitation, or a bug in the current iOS 26 Liquid Glass implementation.

Answer 2

J0hn OP

6d

Liquid Glass is full of bugs that OS26 users are probably going to be stuck with forever.

If you can file a bug with a minimal code sample project that reproduces the problem, then maybe Apple will fix it, but my guess is that users on OS26 are stuck with a buggy UI system.