Why I Love Clear Icons on iPhone: Muting Visual Distractions & Garish Colors
Why I Love Clear Icons on iPhone: Muting Visual Distractions & Garish Colors
Publish Date: 2026-06-26 18:55:00
Source Domain: osxdaily.com
Ever since Liquid Glass debuted, there has been some debate about using Clear Icons on the Home Screen of iPhone and iPad, with some users really liking the feature and the look, and many other users questioning the usefulness and utility.
Some seem to dislike the Clear icons look because of Liquid Glass in general, but I find it’s actually one of my favorite features of Liquid Glass on the newer OS 26/27 interface style. I’d go so far as to say I’m a huge fan of Clear Icons on iPhone and iPad. I think they look really nice and offer a much more subtle appearance to the iPhone and iPad Home Screen. But appearance alone is not the reason I like the Clear Icons on iOS/iPadOS, and there’s a distraction specific reason that Clear Icons are by far my favorite look for my iPhone and iPad.
So, what’s the best part of using Clear Icons? In my opinion, it’s that the Clear look removes all of the obnoxious bright neon colors that are intentionally designed to capture our attention, over and over again, until we click and engage with the apps. Enable clear icons, and every single one of the garish bright Home Screen colors that are visually distracting and attention-hungry, are now muted. Ahhh, the relief!
Clear Icons = Minimal Distraction Home Screen & No More Obnoxious Red Alert Badges
Not only does using Clear Icons strip away the garish neon color from app icons, but perhaps best of all, is that that the Clear look also strips away the obnoxious attention-demanding bright red badge icons that sit atop many icons when there’s a notification or alert related to that app.
The red notification badges drive me up the wall, and there’s no way to disable them universally across every app, aside from clearing out whatever is causing the alert/notifications to begin with. But the red is so bright and attention hungry, and they force your eyes to notice them whether you are concerned about whatever they’re alerting you to or not.
Yes, bright red badge on…
