iOS 26 Ruined Contacts App! Here’s How to Fix It

There are quite a few things wrong with the new Liquid Glass Design, Apple! While I can go on with the rant and write an entire guide on that, but let’s keep it short for now and address the biggest culprit- readability! The Cupertino giant has completely messed up from the accessibility point of view, and it has become extremely difficult to read the text on screen on some of its apps. Contacts in iOS 26 is one such app. In this regard, a bunch of users have voiced their concern as follows:

I updated my iPhone 16 Pro Max to iOS 26. I noticed when I looked at my contacts, each contact background is like a purple color. I don’t like this as I can’t see the contact info; I need more light. I don’t even run my computers in dark mode as I can’t see that well. I would like all of my contacts to have the white background like it used to be before updating to iOS 26 so I can see the contact info. Any ideas how I can change the background color back to white? Thank you – Stressed [macRumours Member]

I have eye issues and the Contacts app is a problem. It’s definitely hard to read with the default background. I am still trying out various background choices to figure out which one would be the clearest. I will modify each contact whenever I find it hard to work with. I’m not going to proactively alter all my contacts. The problem is that they have a feature that presents a poster behind each contact. It’s a fun gimmick, but not being able to turn it off seems insane. I’ve yet to find a poster that makes things really easy to read. I’ll keep playing until I find one. – Svenmany [macRumours Member]

These are just two user reports; social media [Reddit, X, Quora] are flooded with such complaints. If you are also in the same boat, then this guide will make you aware of some handy workarounds that should mitigate this issue to some extent. So without any further ado, let’s get started.

  • iOS 26 Ruined Contacts App! Here’s How to Fix It FIX 1: Customize Contact’s Background Color FIX 2: Increase Contrast FIX 3: Disable Reduce Transparency [BEST]
  • Droidwin’s Take on this Matter: Apple Has Ruined the OS, Not Just the Contacts App!

iOS 26 Ruined Contacts App! Here’s How to Fix It

contacts app ios 26 - 1

It is recommended that you try out each of the below-mentioned workarounds below and then see which one spells out success. So with that in mind, let’s get started.

FIX 1: Customize Contact’s Background Color

First off, you can customise each contact poster to change their background. However, if you have 1000s of contacts saved, it is not a viable or feasible method to get this job done. At the very max, you can apply this fix to the most contacted individuals, like your close ones or family members.

contacts app ios 26 - 2

FIX 2: Increase Contrast

You can go to Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size and turn the Increase Contrast on. This is a system-wide setting, but you can enable it per-app if you like. While this wouldn’t fix the issue per se, but it might still act as a bandage for the time being.

contacts app ios 26 - 3 contacts app ios 26 - 4

FIX 3: Disable Reduce Transparency [BEST]

To minimize the impact of the Liquid Glass Theme, many users have enabled the Reduce Transparency feature. However, it has only made the Contacts app worse. Therefore, you can either turn off this feature for the entire system or atleast for the Contacts app and gift yourself a much better UI.

contacts app ios 26 - 5

Left: Transparency Enabled | Right: Transparency Disabled

Droidwin’s Take on this Matter: Apple Has Ruined the OS, Not Just the Contacts App!

While none of these tweaks are actually going to fix the issue, but they would atleast improve the readability and accessibility to an extent. What are your views on this? Has iOS 26 actually ruined the Contacts app, or has this situation been blown out of proportion by the critics? For me, it is the former.

I could have argued that this new UI is still in the testing phase and needs more time to be polished. However, now that it has been rolled out in its stable state, there’s no justification for the design being in its infancy stage. Moreover, Contacts is not the only app; there have been many other apps that suffer from the same fate.

While I have seen many users comparing this shift to the one from iOS 6 to 7, but there’s literally no comparison between the two. In the latter, the 3D effect was gone in favor of a streamlined UI, but there wasn’t any issue with regard to readability, which has now become a center stage in iOS 26.

With that said, we round off this guide for now and will keep on updating with new tweaks as and when we get hold of them. There’s also an option to file a feedback report and voice your concerns there, but trust me, Apple isn’t going to give a dime to your opinions in this regard. So save your time and try out these workarounds to improve the UI to some extent.

  • Spatial Scene/Effect Stuck at 0% or Not Working on iOS 26 [Fixed]
  • iPhone Stuck at’Charge Battery’ screen while installing iOS 26 [Fix]
  • How to Fix Dark App Icons in Light Mode on iOS 18 [& Vice Versa]
  • The Screen Time Share Across Devices Not Working on iOS 17 [Fix]
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