.glassProminent leading toolbar item animation issue on push navigation

Hi, I have an issue with applying the .glassProminent modifier to a button placed in the leading section the nav bar that triggers a push navigation to another screen in iOS 26.

I have made a simple sample project to verify it happens there too, and I'm getting the same behaviour where the prominent button "flashes" with a darker background and disappears.

The HIG does mention not tinting or adding custom backgrounds to tool bar items in iOS 26, so I'm unsure if this is a bug in iOS 26 or the unexpected behaviour they refer to when adding custom tint/backgrounds.

Below is the simplified sample app code:

    var body: some View {
        NavigationStack {
            VStack {
                Text("Main Screen")
                    .font(.largeTitle)
            }
            .navigationTitle("Home")
            .navigationBarTitleDisplayMode(.inline)
            .toolbar {
                ToolbarItem(placement: .navigationBarLeading) {
                    NavigationLink(destination: SecondScreen()) {
                        Text("Push Nav")
                    }
                    .buttonStyle(.glassProminent)
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

struct SecondScreen: View {
    var body: some View {
        VStack {
            Text("Second Screen")
                .font(.largeTitle)
        }
        .navigationTitle("Settings")
        .navigationBarTitleDisplayMode(.inline)
    }
}

Thanks for the post and great customization. This is a complete post, with code and the great screenshot showing the results.I hope other engineers jump in this thread as well to provide their opinion.

Based on your description and the provided code, it does seem like this could either be an unintended side effect of recent changes in iOS 26? You said you have a project showing this? Have you tried it in Xcode 26.2 and 26.3 beta?

As you've mentioned is no advised against tinting or customizing toolbar items extensively. Double-check to ensure that your use case aligns with their guidance, as deviations might lead to inconsistent behaviors or future compatibility risks. Make sure that your testing device or simulator is running the latest version of iOS 26.2. What version of iOS are you running? I always recommend to use a plain with custom styling that mimics the glass effect. I don’t think yet this is a bug, but let’s invite other engineers and good deeper on what versions are you using. Please detailed steps to reproduce the issue, and any device/OS specifics as well as provide the focused sample.

Looking forward to get as much information and test the sample on my devices.

If you're not familiar with preparing a test project, take a look at Creating a test project.

Albert Pascual
  Worldwide Developer Relations.

Hi Albert, Thank you very much for your response.

I've tried the above on both iOS 26.1 and 26.2 as well as building through Xcode 26.1 and 26.2 with the same result. I haven't tried the 26.3 beta however, so I will give that a try.

In the meantime, here's a link to the sample project Sample Project

.glassProminent leading toolbar item animation issue on push navigation
 
 
Q