Following up on a related discussion here: https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/797298 "Using the new Liquid Glass effect in iOS 26 for widget backgrounds" I’ve also been looking at the widgetRenderingMode documentation and the “Optimizing your widget for accented rendering mode and Liquid Glass” documentation you mentioned.
I understand that the widget should adapt its content based on the rendering mode, and that Liquid Glass is provided by the system when the widget is rendered in the appropriate context.
What I’m still trying to understand is the behavior of the widget’s background/container itself.
I tested a minimal widget on an iPhone running iOS 27, including:
.containerBackground(for: .widget) { Color.clear }
I also tried EmptyView(), .clear, containerBackgroundRemovable(true), and several material/glass combinations.
What I found is:
In Clear/Tinted Home Screen appearance, the widget becomes .accented and the system provides the expected transparent/Liquid Glass presentation. In the normal Home Screen appearance, the widget remains .fullColor (confirmed by logging @Environment(.widgetRenderingMode) directly in the widget view), but the actual Home Screen wallpaper does not show through the widget container.
So I’m wondering whether this is simply expected behavior for .fullColor.
Is it possible for a Home Screen widget to remain in .fullColor while its system widget container is genuinely transparent, allowing the actual Home Screen wallpaper to remain visible behind the widget?
Or is transparency of the system widget container intentionally limited to the system’s Clear/Tinted (.accented) presentation?
I’m asking because I’ve seen some third-party widgets that appear to provide a transparent or Liquid Glass-style widget even when the Home Screen is using its normal appearance, so I’m trying to understand whether there is a public WidgetKit/SwiftUI API or configuration that I’m missing.
Thanks for any clarification.