The white home screen icon borders of iOS 26
iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 were released in late 2025. If you're wondering what happened to iOS 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 and 25, well don't worry, your iPhone or iPad is not 7 years out of date, Apple just changed the operating system nomenclature to match the upcoming year.
It's a whole new, modern way of naming software! We haven't had anything like it since... Windows 95?
Ha, ha. Just kidding around. It actually makes quite a bit of sense, especially for software that gets updated each year.
In fact, I think it would have made sense to update iPhone and iPad names accordingly too. You could have been buying an iPhone 25 in 2025 running iOS 25, but instead it's kind of funny that you buy an iPhone 17 in 2025 that's running iOS 26.
And if Apple had kept the naming the same as it has been in the past, you would have bought an iPhone 17 in 2025 running iOS 19. Unless the phone model names are changed too, it can't all match. But since iPad models often aren't updated as quickly as iPhone models, year-based naming could cause problems. I'm guessing that's one of the reasons why Apple didn't go all the way with its new naming system.
Anyway, down to business. The biggest feature of iOS/iPadOS 26 is the new ‘Liquid Glass’ design.
Liquid Glass
It's not a revelation, but this new interface design has some nice elements.
And for icon aficionados like us, the important things are the new options for home screen icons, most notably a new ‘Clear’ icon style.
Practicality aside, it is an intriguing new design option, and I think we can all agree that more options are almost always a good thing.
However, the biggest problem I have with the new Liquid Glass interface is that it has removed the option to have home screen icons that seamlessly blend in with your home screen wallpaper.
There was never a specific option as such to do this, of course. It was simply a matter of taking the initiative to use wallpapers and icons with the same colour backgrounds.
My Mister Icon app is specifically built with this effect in mind, offering easy to install home screen icons and matching wallpapers, in various different designs.
If you installed icons with a green background, for example, then matched them with an identically-coloured green wallpaper, the icons and wallpapers could blend together seamlessly, creating a pretty cool look.
Sometimes, depending on the colours in use, iOS/iPadOS would automatically make some colour/shadow adjustments that would make the icons not blend in perfectly, but usually things worked out pretty nicely.
However, that all ends now.
As part of the new ‘Liquid Glass’ design, Apple has implemented white partial outlines around every home screen icon and home screen widget. These outlines can move around slightly as you tilt your device. It's designed to make your screen seem alive!
At least I think that's the kind of look Apple is going for.
Whether or not you think Apple's designers have achieved something positive with this new design is up for question.
But all I know for sure is that the new outlines around each icon really disrupt the ability to have perfectly matching home screen icons and wallpapers. Seamlessness is now almost impossible.
And that upsets me.
Future solutions
The most immediate solution is also the easiest. If you haven't already updated your iPhone/iPad to iOS/iPadOS 26, you could just choose not to update at all, and just continue using iOS/iPadOS 18 instead. Then your devices would continue to operate exactly as they have done in the past. And perfectly seamless home screen designs would continue to be a possibility.
However, this is far from a long term solution, as it means missing out on the new features in the new operating system, and most importantly, missing out on important security updates too. Hence, staying on iOS/iPadOS 18 is probably not going to be a suitable solution for most people.
And every new iPhone or iPad purchased today will already have iOS/iPadOS 26 pre-installed with no real option to downgrade, so that won't work either. If seamlessness is really important to you and you hurry fast, you might be able to find a reseller with older iPhone/iPad stock on hand that hasn't been updated to version 26 yet, but from the box it is difficult if not impossible to tell what software version is installed. Apple Stores even have the ability to update the operating system through the boxes themselves, without breaking any seals, to try and ensure iOS/iPadOS is always as up-to-date as possible. Very cool technology, but not if you desire old software for whatever reason.
The ultimate solution, of course, would be for Apple to implement an option to remove the outlines around each home screen icon. Some sort of icon by icon ‘toggle outline’ option would be incredible, perhaps via a long-press on an icon, but I can't see that happening.
A system-wide ‘Hide Home Screen Icon/Widget Outlines’ accessibility option would however, be a perfectly acceptable solution.
I was hoping that Apple would have added such an option by now, but alas, as each new iOS 26 developer beta has arrived, I have been disappointed.
Perhaps now that iOS/iPadOS 26 has been released to the general public, and is steadily being installed on Apple devices worldwide, more people may begin to submit feedback to Apple about this problem and potential solutions.
If the lack of seamlessness disappoints you too, I suggest politely sending Apple some feedback via the link above. Who knows, Apple might consider adding an option to remove the home screen icon outlines in the future.
Apple probably wants to keep the outlines there for the time being, in order to show off the regimented conformity of the new liquid glass design. Each icon, each widget, all with matching outlines. All potentially ‘clear’, colourless and distinguishable only by shape. Aesthetic purity, within clearly defined boundaries. Design freedom! (with limitations 😀 )
But who knows, once the hubbub settles down, perhaps Apple will let us get back to the good old days of seamlessness.
It harms no one.
One solution that works today
My investigations have, however, found one solution that enables ‘seamless’ home screen designs, even in this new ‘Liquid Glass’ paradigm.
And it's very simple. But also very limited.
Every home screen icon border in iOS 26 or iPadOS 26 is white.
So logically, if you match it with a white wallpaper, the white border effectively becomes invisible.
With Mister Icon, if you make icon labels with white backgrounds, then pair them with a Mister Icon wallpaper that contains white where you intend to put the white icons, you can continue to have a seamless home screen look.
Using only white icons and wallpapers is a big limitation, but for now it appears like the only option we have.
A final fun fact
If you hold your iPhone or iPad running iOS 26 in your hands, then set it down on a flat surface, you will see the home screen icon borders disappear for a split second, before reappearing once again.
I'm guessing this is a side effect of the accelerometer-based icon outline motion that is a part of the Liquid Glass look, but it acts as a clear demonstration of how the icon borders are a purely artificial software choice that Apple has made.
This graphical eccentricity might be adjusted by Apple in future OS releases, but it is there as of the time of publishing this article, and it acts as a tantalising reminiscence of seamless home screen designs as they have existed for many, many years. Until now.
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