Just over a month after the official release of iOS 26 to the public, Apple is now rolling out iOS 26.1, the first major update to Apple’s new iPhone OS. While the 26.1 update isn’t a huge one, it does bring some important new settings and interface tweaks.

From an option to adjust the intensity of Liquid Glass to new gestures on the Lock Screen and the Music app, read on as we dig into everything new in iOS 26.1 and why you should rush to update your iPhone or iPad right now.

Make Liquid Glass more frosted

One of the main highlights of iOS 26 is the new Liquid Glass interface. However, Apple’s attempt to make its operating system look fresher and more modern has resulted in as many complaints as compliments.

After many attempts to fine-tune Liquid Glass, Apple decided to give users control over the interface. That’s because iOS 26.1 adds a new toggle to radically adjust the appearance of Liquid Glass. Now you can choose between “Clear” mode to stick with Liquid Glass’s transparency or “Tinted” mode for higher opacity and better contrast.

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You can now opt out of Liquid Glass.

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To do this, go to Settings > Display & Brightness > Liquid Glass and choose the best option for you.

If you’re part of the group of users who were unhappy with Liquid Glass in iOS 26.1, you’ll certainly appreciate the new “Tinted” mode. Of course, if you like Liquid Glass, you don’t need to do anything about it – and you can rest easy without worrying about Apple backtracking on Liquid Glass now that there’s an option.

Don’t sleep through alarms anymore

iOS 26 brought another small but impactful change to the lives of iPhone users: the alarm interface. Some users didn’t like how Apple made the stop alarm button much larger in iOS 26 and placed it just below the Snooze button, which is the same size but a different color.

As a result, a number of users have claimed that they’re oversleeping because they turned off the alarm instead of hitting the snooze right after waking up.

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Alarms are much harder to turn off in iOS 26.1.

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To fix this, iOS 26.1 once again tweaks the alarm interface. Now, Apple has added a “Slide to Stop” feature, which requires users to slide their finger from left to right to turn off alarms completely. But if you think that’s too complicated and want the old Stop button back, here’s what you can do.

Once you install iOS 26, go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch and enable the “Prefer Single-Touch Actions” toggle. This will bring back the button to stop the alarm instead of the new swipe gesture.

Stop accidentally launching the camera

While iOS already offers an option for users to remove the Camera button from the Lock Screen, the app is also accessible by swiping from right to left. If, for some reason, you want to completely remove access to the Camera app from the Lock Screen, you can now do so.

By going to Settings > Camera and turning off the “Lock Screen Swipe to Open Camera” toggle, the Camera app will no longer be accessible by swiping your finger on the Lock Screen. Of course, you can still access the app in other ways, such as by pressing the Camera Control on iPhone 16 or later. But that can also be turned off.

Although swiping to open the Camera app is meant to be a useful shortcut, some users complain about accidental launches when the iPhone is in their pocket, resulting in excessive battery drain. If that’s the case, iOS 26.1 is the update for you.

Swipe to change tracks

iOS 26.1 also makes it easier to skip songs in the Apple Music app. Instead of having to open the full-screen player or press any buttons, all you need to do now is swipe your finger on the mini player to skip to the next song or go back to the previous one.

Give it a try after you update: play an album or playlist, then minimize the player and test the swipe gestures. Although it’s not a life-changing feature, it’s certainly slicker than tapping the skip button.

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Apple Music has a new skip gesture in iOS 26.1.

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Use Apple Intelligence in more languages

Introduced last year, Apple Intelligence is what Apple calls its set of AI-based features. This includes things like Writing Tools for reviewing text, Genmoji for creating your own emojis, and Visual Intelligence for searching for things with your iPhone camera.

Apple Intelligence has been available in the following languages: English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish, Chinese (Simplified), Japanese, and Korean. With iOS 26.1, Apple is expanding support for Apple Intelligence to more languages. These include: Chinese (Traditional), Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, Portuguese (Portugal), Vietnamese, and Turkish.

If you speak one of these languages and have a compatible device (iPhone 15 Pro or later), go to Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri after updating to iOS 26.1 and make sure to enable the Apple Intelligence toggle.

Quickly patch security holes

As we previously reported here at Macworld, iOS 26.1 revamped a feature formerly known as “Rapid Security Responses.” Now called “Security Improvements,” the feature can automatically and silently install security pa