Hopefully they refined the aesthetics a bit, because some of their own marketing material / demonstrations made it look mega ugly IMO. This "blur whats underneath" garbage always ends up looking...
Exemplary
Hopefully they refined the aesthetics a bit, because some of their own marketing material / demonstrations made it look mega ugly IMO. This "blur whats underneath" garbage always ends up looking awful
More importantly, aesthetics aside, hopefully they fixed all the glaring readability problems with Liquid Glass since they first announced it. Mostly dealing with awful contrast (white text on a very bright background, blur/optical effects on UI elements that reflect what's underneath them in a way that makes text on those elements hard to read, etc). I haven't installed it yet. And yes, these concerns were a real issue and no I don't find that point debatable. One of Apple's own marketing images showed notifications on the lock screen that were nigh-unreadable (and even worse for those with bad vision, it was hard for me to read with good eyes)
Also this new design language better be efficient on the system. If they're using additional gpu cycles to render this liquid ass they can f off. Like, if they're spending dev hours building entire graphical systems to make light reflect in a certain way or whatever, please just stop, what a waste of time for a phone UI, go send those devs to build a game or something where that might be important
Lastly, what really gets me, is there's nothing functional in the new update that matters to me at all. Maybe updates being boring is a good thing these days? I don't know. That said, knowing Apple's software quality, I'm sure it's buggy as hell, and I'm absolutely NOT installing the macOS version for quite a while (especially since new OS updates seem to be notorious for impacting audio production stuff).
EDIT: regarding macOS, this screenshot is ugly as all hell too. seems like fisher-price toy nonsense to me (though to be snarky, as an Apple user, this properly represents the OS and makes sense given Apple's overprotective/overopinionated nature). Also, readability issues abound. Massively embarrassing for a company that boasts about its accessibility
There's still a couple images on the linked page that have subpar readability. For a company as accessibility conscious as Apple, this is very disappointing.
One of Apple's own marketing images showed notifications on the lock screen that were nigh-unreadable (and even worse for those with bad vision, it was hard for me to read with good eyes)
There's still a couple images on the linked page that have subpar readability. For a company as accessibility conscious as Apple, this is very disappointing.
All the transparency blur is really just a strain on the eyes too. The colours beneath it (in the image from their own page of the music player for example) drags the eyes away and made me need to...
All the transparency blur is really just a strain on the eyes too. The colours beneath it (in the image from their own page of the music player for example) drags the eyes away and made me need to search for the button I'd want (pause) instead of it being obvious like in the past where it'd be black on white, high contrast, super obvious. This example in particular reminds me of what Spotify did a couple of years ago: they removed all color from their drop down menus, forcing you to search through the list every single time when you want to find a button, because all of them are small and look way too similar - also akin to what google did with their buttons which has been memed about a lot.
I did a year of graphic design and while it wasn't at the highest level, at least I learned that this type of design is supposed to first and foremost be functional - but for some reason, these big tech companies all ignore that. I truly don't get it and to be honest I highly doubt that the iOS designers even like it themselves lol
Oh wow, that Finder window screenshot is egregious… I can almost sense the resentment coming through from whichever poor dev/design team was tasked with updating the Finder UI
Oh wow, that Finder window screenshot is egregious… I can almost sense the resentment coming through from whichever poor dev/design team was tasked with updating the Finder UI
There is zero reason to allow content to show behind the title bar / search bar. It isn't readable, and it looks bad. Truly bewildering that they would release this. What you linked looks fine...
There is zero reason to allow content to show behind the title bar / search bar. It isn't readable, and it looks bad. Truly bewildering that they would release this.
What you linked looks fine (until you scroll the content down)
I have seen other situations (edit: on iOS) where the translucent buttons are completely unreadable (they look as if there’s not even any text) because of the background they are on top of.
I have seen other situations (edit: on iOS) where the translucent buttons are completely unreadable (they look as if there’s not even any text) because of the background they are on top of.
I've had to set the (launchpad? I'm new to iOS, the "launcher") icon pages to dark mode, then turn on the contrast and transparency toggles in Settings in order to be able to actually see my icons...
I've had to set the (launchpad? I'm new to iOS, the "launcher") icon pages to dark mode, then turn on the contrast and transparency toggles in Settings in order to be able to actually see my icons on the phone again.
On macOS 26, these settings appear not to work the same way, the contrast one is much more like Windows high contrast mode, and is unusable for me. But overall the changes are less pronounced on macOS
I'm still mad that Macs now have such a teeny tiny button to click to dismiss notifications. Half the time I click the notification by mistake and have to deal with that instead of ignoring it.
I'm still mad that Macs now have such a teeny tiny button to click to dismiss notifications. Half the time I click the notification by mistake and have to deal with that instead of ignoring it.
Regarding accessibility: Wondering what happens if you activate the accessibility settings, like reducing transparency and motion. How does the UI look? Has anyone been brave enough to try it out...
Regarding accessibility: Wondering what happens if you activate the accessibility settings, like reducing transparency and motion. How does the UI look? Has anyone been brave enough to try it out yet? I'd love to see some screenshots.
The glass look....It's not really adding any benefit to my experience as a user at all. It's not even really all that pretty or interesting. It's just kind of there for the sake of being there....
The glass look....It's not really adding any benefit to my experience as a user at all. It's not even really all that pretty or interesting. It's just kind of there for the sake of being there. It's giving me vibes of a crappy Android (possibly Samsung?) UI from 5-10 years ago.
"We have nothing new to add to the design so here's a new theme: transparent stuff. Did we mention it's delightful? Please be delighted and shut the F up." This theme reminds me of Windows Vista.
"We have nothing new to add to the design so here's a new theme: transparent stuff. Did we mention it's delightful? Please be delighted and shut the F up." This theme reminds me of Windows Vista.
Vista. I assume that was autocorrect. 😂 I actually liked the aesthetic of Vista, back in its day. I haven’t touched it since Win7 came out, so I don’t know how it feels in 2025. It was definitely...
Vista. I assume that was autocorrect. 😂
I actually liked the aesthetic of Vista, back in its day. I haven’t touched it since Win7 came out, so I don’t know how it feels in 2025. It was definitely controversial when released though.
When Liquid Glass was announced, I wrote the following So... I wasn't wrong, per se... but this is the most under-cooked iOS update ever. There's all sorts of problems, but the best example is the...
I know the world has a massive hate-boner for Apple, and for the most part I agree, but for this one I may be going against the grain when I say: this looks nice!
It seems to be really focused on showing content, be it a wallpaper, an article, a video, etc. and having the UI 'melt' into the display. Also, I appreciate using our modern processing power to have live(?) distortions, it seems like the natural evolution of the noisy blur that we got used to over the last 5+ years. I disagree with concerns about readability, since a UI rarely has walls of dense text, and iOS is icon-forward anyway. People have to keep in mind that the average Apple user doesn't care at all about the form (or function!) of their products in any real sense, so I can't imagine there being any real reception to this beyond "ooh, glassy buttons". All in all, I'm down for a return to depth and what seems like a pretty novel UI concept.
So... I wasn't wrong, per se... but this is the most under-cooked iOS update ever. There's all sorts of problems, but the best example is the new keyboard. It looks good, they've switched to using SF compact which I quite like. However, if you're not using an app that's updated to use the Liquid Glass UI kit, then you just get the old keyboard... what even is the point? I've managed to break my homescreen icons twice, once requiring a reboot. iOS users, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this update. I'm super disappointed by how busted the update is despite it being such a promising concept.
I’m also largely on board with the design, but the lack of polish is real. My biggest visual annoyance is with swipe actions in Mail - the corners of the message will randomly be either rounded or...
I’m also largely on board with the design, but the lack of polish is real. My biggest visual annoyance is with swipe actions in Mail - the corners of the message will randomly be either rounded or squared. They will awkwardly snap back to being rounded after a second, but it looks really ugly.
macOS Tahoe is even worse in terms of visual inconsistency and lack of polish, but that’s probably a conversation for a different thread.
It’s weird - was having a small play around with it earlier. Strangest one is that the sound control in the menu bar vs control centre is completely visually different and has functional changes -...
It’s weird - was having a small play around with it earlier. Strangest one is that the sound control in the menu bar vs control centre is completely visually different and has functional changes - you can’t adjust the volume in the menu bar widget by swiping/scrolling like used to be possible, but you can if you go in control centre. Very weird and annoying.
I thought I would dislike the Liquid Glass design just based on the promos they put out, but I have been surprised that it isn't all that bad actually. Photos of the UI don't do it justice, I...
I thought I would dislike the Liquid Glass design just based on the promos they put out, but I have been surprised that it isn't all that bad actually. Photos of the UI don't do it justice, I think. Without the animations or "live distortions" as you call them, it looks like an early 2000s throwback or something. All in all, even if it might not be my first choice of style, it is not visually distracting to me (which I care about more than eye candy). The actual UI layout feels a little more intuitive and better suited for tapping a screen with fingertips. There are rough edges, as always, but I haven't encountered many. The main one is Reminders misbehaving on Mac, which is actually quite a bad and frustrating bug @_@
I've been on beta and yeah, also disappointed by how buggy it turned out in the release version. The worst one for me is how sometimes taking a screenshot hides the image off-screen, so you can't...
I've been on beta and yeah, also disappointed by how buggy it turned out in the release version. The worst one for me is how sometimes taking a screenshot hides the image off-screen, so you can't click it to edit it.
Other than that, visually, I'm hopeful that it will influence other OS's. Windows 7 to this day was the most visually pleasing OS thanks to its glass theme and it was a shame that we moved away from it. If there's one thing where I want other companies to "steal" from Apple, it's this one.
In the first 2 or 3 beta versions, definitely. In fact my iphone 12 pro max would get hot by just navigating in the home screen It got much better meanwhile, but I don't know how it compares to...
In the first 2 or 3 beta versions, definitely. In fact my iphone 12 pro max would get hot by just navigating in the home screen
It got much better meanwhile, but I don't know how it compares to the previous iOS version
I thought it left a lot to be desired from the start, never liked it at all - I have the criticism that I know others have expressed before that it looks like Windows Vista or even worse. I will...
iOS users, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this update.
I thought it left a lot to be desired from the start, never liked it at all - I have the criticism that I know others have expressed before that it looks like Windows Vista or even worse.
I will halt updates to my phone for as long as possible. Equal parts because I find it ugly, and also that it's a 13 so I'm afraid of battery and performance issues.
I’ve been burnt way too many times by apple. I never update a major iOS release until well into the point releases because apple is notorious for shipping tons of bugs and eventually fixing them,...
I’ve been burnt way too many times by apple. I never update a major iOS release until well into the point releases because apple is notorious for shipping tons of bugs and eventually fixing them, maybe, if they feel like it isnt a “feature”.
So this makes it 2 unstable and half-baked major updates in a row. Last year it was presumably Apple Intelligence at fault. Apple scrambled to put something together and must have pulled a lot of...
So this makes it 2 unstable and half-baked major updates in a row. Last year it was presumably Apple Intelligence at fault. Apple scrambled to put something together and must have pulled a lot of headcount out of pre-existing teams to make it happen. I wonder what's the excuse this year?
I get the need to periodically refresh any UI. Frankly it sucks but it is a response to real human psychology. I’m not going to complain about that. But I would hope that a company as massively...
I get the need to periodically refresh any UI. Frankly it sucks but it is a response to real human psychology. I’m not going to complain about that.
But I would hope that a company as massively resourced, and with as large a userbase, as Apple would invest in an industry-leading, research-backed design process. One that puts usability and accessibility on center stage, and allows form to follow function at every opportunity. Then applies that signature Apple attention to detail to refine what remains into something elegant and beautiful. These are the core principles of design as a school of thought, and Apple is possibly the best-positioned company in the world to demonstrate how to do it right.
I don’t know what to make of the fact that they just… didn’t? How did we get here? What are they doing with all that bank? If Apple’s not employing the most talented and rigorous UX researchers and designers in the world, ummmmm… why not?
I don’t invoke the name of Steve Jobs lightly, but I’m sure he would have some pointed words to say about this state of affairs.
It’s a microcosm of the larger state of the industry, in my opinion. Through the tech boom of the 2010s, much of the old guard of research-based, technically-minded UI designers retired right as...
It’s a microcosm of the larger state of the industry, in my opinion.
Through the tech boom of the 2010s, much of the old guard of research-based, technically-minded UI designers retired right as designers from other design disciplines and fresh grads flooded startups. The field became dominated by designs that were more geared for popping off on social media and chasing trends than being usable.
Apple is no exception. The iOS 7 “flatpocalypse” redesign was similarly disastrous and took many releases to incrementally be brought back to a usable state. Looking at screenshots of that version now is shocking and makes one wonder how they could’ve released something so obviously and seriously flawed. Jony Ive was at the helm at that point, and while he’s a very capable industrial designer with numerous great hardware designs under his belt, he wasn’t a UI designer and it showed. Liquid Glass feels like that all over again.
I am. There is no need at all to play into that human psychology, other than trying to sell more stuff. As a Linux user, I can afford myself the luxury to not change anything about my UI, and I...
I get the need to periodically refresh any UI. Frankly it sucks but it is a response to real human psychology. I’m not going to complain about that.
I am. There is no need at all to play into that human psychology, other than trying to sell more stuff. As a Linux user, I can afford myself the luxury to not change anything about my UI, and I have been enjoying that for more than a decade now.
This might sound boring to some, but it is not. It simply shifts the focus from the window borders to what is inside those windows, and that can be as new and exciting as you want it to me. But one never has to wonder how that device that you have been using for years now suddenly works different from what you expect.
i can’t wait for iOS 29 Butter Leather. i installed the first db of 26 on a 12 mini and… it’s just ugly. I have light and dark wallpapers that hide the dock and aim for a relatively minimalist...
i can’t wait for iOS 29 Butter Leather.
i installed the first db of 26 on a 12 mini and… it’s just ugly. I have light and dark wallpapers that hide the dock and aim for a relatively minimalist home screen. the outlines, dark mode, etc just aren’t there.
i’m hoping they tone it down or give an option to ditch the outlines on everything, but i doubt it.
i really expected the new numbering to be more of a milestone rls.
They murdered my "Increase Contrast" setting right as I needed it most :( I loved that it subtly added clarity and used some darker colors before, but now it also adds a horrendous outline to...
They murdered my "Increase Contrast" setting right as I needed it most :(
I loved that it subtly added clarity and used some darker colors before, but now it also adds a horrendous outline to every single bubble element (the whole OS now) and turns some of the dark grey's completely black as if it's an OLED mode setting.
Actual #000 OLED black? Maybe I need to give that a try, then. I really wish iOS and macOS had more true blacks, but at least they generally do a better job of it in dark mode than Google's awful...
Actual #000 OLED black? Maybe I need to give that a try, then. I really wish iOS and macOS had more true blacks, but at least they generally do a better job of it in dark mode than Google's awful dark-greyish-blue for so many things.
Most dark modes avoid true black because A) the high contrast of white text on true black can actually create more eye strain, and B) long-term use of true black can mess with the screens. Basic...
Most dark modes avoid true black because A) the high contrast of white text on true black can actually create more eye strain, and B) long-term use of true black can mess with the screens. Basic gist from my understanding is that "true black" doesn't age at the same rate as other colors (I think some screens just... Turn off the pixels that are true black?), which becomes more noticeable for ever-present UI elements.
I can affirm the aging part because my phone (an Android) has the top and bottom of the screen slightly discolored compared to the rest of the screen. I use an app to make the navbar dark green, and the status bar is always dark because of dark mode. I suspect that my settings on Twilight basically dim/darken them enough to be treated as true black.
Though it would still be nice if we could have more control over the colors used for dark mode for devices, if only for accessibility reasons.
I’m not planning to upgrade. Apple’s in a weird spot because their stuff… works? I’m pretty happy with my iPhone, iPad, and MacBook. I don’t need them to change. There are some things that would...
I’m not planning to upgrade. Apple’s in a weird spot because their stuff… works? I’m pretty happy with my iPhone, iPad, and MacBook. I don’t need them to change. There are some things that would be nice, like exposing some more settings programatically or making the OS a bit faster. Maybe some better organization options or third-party syncing for Messages.app?
However, there’s no glaring things that need upgrading. I don’t want change. Still, no company can rest on their laurels. Apple needs to show big, meaningful change. I’m just not sure that exists for them in the OS space anymore.
I've seen a lot of negative reactions to iOS 26 and macOS Tahoe. I was primed to dislike them, but they seem fine so far; a nice refresh. I have yet to encounter any problems or legibility issues....
I've seen a lot of negative reactions to iOS 26 and macOS Tahoe. I was primed to dislike them, but they seem fine so far; a nice refresh. I have yet to encounter any problems or legibility issues. I don't think that any of the visual changes were necessary, but they also don't bother me.
I’m still in the process of evaluating the design changes, but there’s one thing that bothers me a lot and I haven’t seen mentioned by anyone else: all the UI elements are.. bigger? As in, more...
I’m still in the process of evaluating the design changes, but there’s one thing that bothers me a lot and I haven’t seen mentioned by anyone else: all the UI elements are.. bigger? As in, more padding, height, width. Buttons are huge, sheets steal a ton of the screen, lists that occupied a single screen now require scrolling.
It makes my device feel smaller and kinda childish? Like those toy phones with huge icons that make animal noises when pressed.
Is it just me? Is it just an impression, since I have no way to verify it?
I remember heavily complaining about this on Tildes a few years ago when an Android update did the same thing to my Pixel 5a. (I distinctly remember using the phrase "Fisher-Price phone".) Not...
It makes my device feel smaller and kinda childish? Like those toy phones with huge icons that make animal noises when pressed.
I remember heavily complaining about this on Tildes a few years ago when an Android update did the same thing to my Pixel 5a. (I distinctly remember using the phrase "Fisher-Price phone".) Not glad to see another awful thing iPhone "stole" from Android.
As an Android user, I hope auto call screening on iOS truly takes off so that all these Android copycats clone that feature. It's stupid that it's so far restricted to Pixel and Galaxy phones....
As an Android user, I hope auto call screening on iOS truly takes off so that all these Android copycats clone that feature.
It's stupid that it's so far restricted to Pixel and Galaxy phones. It's a genuinely useful feature.
EDIT: I've got Tahoe on my Mac, and yeah I 100% get the complaints against the new UI. It's so ridiculously ugly, and having UI text elements over a list just to show "yes, we have elements on top of other elements" is such a stupid collossal step backwards, I do wonder what the team at Apple was smoking.
Is there a word that means "amused and disappointed at the same time"? Because that's how I feel, year after year, watching trillionaire companies chase design trends conceived and incubated in...
Is there a word that means "amused and disappointed at the same time"?
Because that's how I feel, year after year, watching billionaire trillionaire companies chase design trends conceived and incubated in the bowels of /r/unixporn and the desktop threads on /g/
I want to see this new Photos layout they talk about. I have not been enjoying the last update to the Photos app. While some stuff is kinda helpful (the automatic categories for screenshots and...
I want to see this new Photos layout they talk about. I have not been enjoying the last update to the Photos app. While some stuff is kinda helpful (the automatic categories for screenshots and saved items), overall it's frustrating because the way the main library works is different than the way search results work and it always throws me off. Not to mention the bizzare choice not to allow zooming into the search results pages; just a sea of little squares.
This is what worries me the most. Apple‘s decision to turn the camera roll into a social media app interface (a while ago) was their first big blunder on iOS for me. The iOS 26 redesign could make...
This is what worries me the most. Apple‘s decision to turn the camera roll into a social media app interface (a while ago) was their first big blunder on iOS for me. The iOS 26 redesign could make it even worse.
Concretely, it’s that they no longer allow to search by day. A nice list, broken up by date the photos are made, with a readable text line between each new day as you scroll. They ruined that with the stupid wall of squares.
I have an iPhone 12 mini (for device size). I was a bit surprised that iOS 26 supports it but I will hold off updating for as long as possible.
Just a dedicated app to handle pdfs. Scanning them, filling them out, signing them, deleting background etc. not sure if the files app did this stuff before or not. Useful for those places that...
Just a dedicated app to handle pdfs. Scanning them, filling them out, signing them, deleting background etc. not sure if the files app did this stuff before or not.
Useful for those places that still require paper applications or faxes.
Oh yeah the files app had this feature already if you clicked the three dots in the top right. I guess it was a somewhat hidden feature though since I haven’t met many others who knew about it.
Oh yeah the files app had this feature already if you clicked the three dots in the top right. I guess it was a somewhat hidden feature though since I haven’t met many others who knew about it.
I just discovered what the Preview app actually does. In old iOS versions, you could open your files directly in the Files app. Now, opening a file in the Files app launches the Preview app to...
I just discovered what the Preview app actually does. In old iOS versions, you could open your files directly in the Files app. Now, opening a file in the Files app launches the Preview app to view the contents.
I guess adding the Preview app creates app parity across iOS and macOS, but it hasn’t added any extra functionality. It just split the functionality of a single app across two apps.
I guess this makes sense to make sure the various platforms work in a similar fashion. Also as discussed before i had no idea the Files app had similar functions; the Preview app makes this...
I guess this makes sense to make sure the various platforms work in a similar fashion. Also as discussed before i had no idea the Files app had similar functions; the Preview app makes this functionality more discoverable.
I really like how it looks, I’ve been missing Frutiger Aero for a while already. Haven’t updated yet, heard mixed things about battery life/bugginess and I’m on a 13 mini, so any hit to battery or...
I really like how it looks, I’ve been missing Frutiger Aero for a while already.
Haven’t updated yet, heard mixed things about battery life/bugginess and I’m on a 13 mini, so any hit to battery or performance will be amplified.
It’s honestly insane how Apple releases a new iOS every year and it’s always “Wait until the first or second point update because bugs” happens all the time.
Ngl, going against the grain with this one and I kind of like the fresh look. It's a bit of whimsy I was missing in my tech and reminds me of the Wii U's interface of all things. I was toying with...
Ngl, going against the grain with this one and I kind of like the fresh look. It's a bit of whimsy I was missing in my tech and reminds me of the Wii U's interface of all things. I was toying with my iPad like a child again just to see some of the animations.
Speaking of actually, iPad now has full windowing even on non-M-series devices which is super cool! My Air 4 has barely any RAM and I can do a fair bit of multitasking.
I'm sure I'll get over it in a couple days (esp when '26 is on my Mac which I use for work) but for now, I don't hate it.
I just installed iOS 26 and MacOS 26. So far I'd rate them as "okay". I mostly worry that the liquid glass effect will become annoying after a while. Right now the novelty is worth something but...
I just installed iOS 26 and MacOS 26. So far I'd rate them as "okay". I mostly worry that the liquid glass effect will become annoying after a while. Right now the novelty is worth something but it's a very opinionated design choice that may age more quickly than what came before it.
Edit: I feel the Liquid Glass design looks quite good in certain serious. Things like the payments popup at the bottom of the screen. Or the control center. But they went a bit too far in taking that visual style to as much of the system as possible.
I've done the iOS one, the macOS one is still 'Preparing' with 5 minutes remaining for the last 9 minutes. Wondering if I should just go to bed and leave it, it's after 1.30am here right now, and...
I've done the iOS one, the macOS one is still 'Preparing' with 5 minutes remaining for the last 9 minutes. Wondering if I should just go to bed and leave it, it's after 1.30am here right now, and I have no idea how long this 5 minutes will be. It'll probably want to authenticate or something and just sit there waiting until later in the morning.
There seems to be a lot of negative opinions in this thread. I set my appearance to Dark, my icons to Default, and background to light (with no text labels on icons), and I'm satisfied with it....
There seems to be a lot of negative opinions in this thread. I set my appearance to Dark, my icons to Default, and background to light (with no text labels on icons), and I'm satisfied with it. There are some cases where the Liquid Glass UI makes it hard to see at a glance what UI elements are selected, but I haven't run into major legibility issues with text like people have been complaining about. Other than the UI updates, which I think most are upset about because change is upsetting (I remember the complaints after iOS 7 like it was yesterday), things I like in iOS 26:
There is a feature for the lock screen that lets you choose a collection of background images (such as from your photos) and rotate through them every time your device locks. You can also add a "depth effect" to lock screen photos that have a clear subject in the foreground and it does a nice effect where the lock screen clock will partially go behind the subject in the photo (if you pan/crop it appropriately). I put a collection of photos of my dog and it is really nice to have a variety of backgrounds for my lock screen (and home screen).
You can now enable call screening for unknown numbers. As someone who doesn't like to talk to strangers on the phone, I like this feature so I can only answer phone calls that I really need to take.
The new screenshot interface and visual search features are handy. (I know Android has had this for a while, but it's nice to have visual search for anything on your screen a few taps away.)
Being able to select text in Messages like normal text. (Previously Messages had a nonsensical limitation to only copying whole messages, instead of selecting text within a message.)
This has been a feature for 2 iOS versions prior, but the ability to select custom image collections is new. Previously you had the options of “city”, “nature”, and “animals”.
There is a feature for the lock screen that lets you choose a collection of background images
This has been a feature for 2 iOS versions prior, but the ability to select custom image collections is new. Previously you had the options of “city”, “nature”, and “animals”.
I hadn't noticed this as I always set a personal photo as my background, so setting some stock image (or collection thereof) was never an option that I considered.
I hadn't noticed this as I always set a personal photo as my background, so setting some stock image (or collection thereof) was never an option that I considered.
Maybe it's just because I've gotten used to using VisionOS over the past year, but I quite like iOS 26. Really dig the new keyboard and having the search bar always at the bottom across all the...
Maybe it's just because I've gotten used to using VisionOS over the past year, but I quite like iOS 26. Really dig the new keyboard and having the search bar always at the bottom across all the default apps. Music mixing works really well most of the time. Liquid Glass is pretty if you use it correctly. AI improvements are quite nice.
What I love most are Spatial Scenes. A little gimmicky, but extremely cool (and actual magic in VR)
Is there a place where I can view the changes that are being made between different iOS versions? I'm on a 13 Pro and currently have iOS 18.6.2 with the option to upgrade to 18.7 but I'm a bit...
Is there a place where I can view the changes that are being made between different iOS versions?
I'm on a 13 Pro and currently have iOS 18.6.2 with the option to upgrade to 18.7 but I'm a bit hesitant to do so without understanding what features might be changed. It was a while ago but I was genuinely heartbroken when Apple removed skeuomorphic page turning from their Book app (but later returned it, yay!) so I get pretty nervous when my phone tells me it wants to update things. Is there any benefit to functionality in updating to 18.7 or will my phone then just want to jump to 26? I did a very basic search along the lines of "see changes between iOS versions" but that brought up a slew of articles talking about design changes between iOS versions which isn't really what I want >_<
18.7 has no aesthetic changes, I've been using it since it came out and it works great. 26 is a much bigger deal and probably worth waiting on while they sort out bugs.
18.7 has no aesthetic changes, I've been using it since it came out and it works great. 26 is a much bigger deal and probably worth waiting on while they sort out bugs.
Looks fine. Some parts are uglier than others. Animation bugs abound. Will get refined back towards neutrality over time. Points toward a future of AR-first UI design. Typical Apple. Let's all...
Looks fine. Some parts are uglier than others. Animation bugs abound. Will get refined back towards neutrality over time. Points toward a future of AR-first UI design. Typical Apple. Let's all find something more important to complain about, shall we?
I am of the opinion that a large change to the design of one of the most popular objects in recent history is relatively important. It's no world ending threat, but it's certainly worth discussing.
Let's all find something more important to complain about, shall we?
I am of the opinion that a large change to the design of one of the most popular objects in recent history is relatively important. It's no world ending threat, but it's certainly worth discussing.
Sorry, that last comment was callous. Of course it's worth discussing. I'm just tired of the news cycles driven mainly by grievance to drive clicks. Are there problems with Liquid Glass? Of...
Sorry, that last comment was callous. Of course it's worth discussing. I'm just tired of the news cycles driven mainly by grievance to drive clicks. Are there problems with Liquid Glass? Of course. But there are nice things about it too. That's not my issue.
I feel like I've been reading the same article/complaints over and over for the past decade or so. Apple ships design changes and new features with obviously reproducible bugs and has consistently chosen to prioritize shipping even more new features instead of pumping the brakes for a year or two and really polishing what they've got. But hundreds, if not thousands, of online complains are clearly not going to change the way they operate.
That's what I meant by "important"; I didn't mean to compare the change to Liquid Glass to, like, the war in Ukraine. I agree that a company as large as Apple, with millions of customers, whose technology and products are virtually ubiquitous, should be held to a particularly high standard. But it's clear that our current economic system is ineffective in enforcing that standard. That is what I would like to think more about.
It's possible to complain/comment on fairly unimportant things and also important things, one does not have to take away from the other, they're not mutually exclusive. Certainly the importance is...
It's possible to complain/comment on fairly unimportant things and also important things, one does not have to take away from the other, they're not mutually exclusive. Certainly the importance is arguable too, given it's something many people interact with daily. But regardless, it's quite okay for people to be critical of "small/negligible" things and I don't understand the call to avoid it.
I get people can get annoyed with the "the whole internet is yelling at company for changing X or Y" but I also think plenty of valid criticism gets unnecessarily tossed under that umbrella
I think it's fine if people want to have an opinion on a new design language introduced in a mobile operating system.
That's fair. We certainly live in a society where it's all mined to death for clicks and such at this point and it's sad that ends up having its own effect on dampening or undermining sincere...
That's fair. We certainly live in a society where it's all mined to death for clicks and such at this point and it's sad that ends up having its own effect on dampening or undermining sincere discussion too. Everything is a mess. Add on top of that the pressure to find ways to make money / work / etc and it's probably easy for someone to get roped into that sphere too. Sigh.
I wish we could somehow get into Apple's head that we need another "Snow Leopard" but for all of their OS's- a focus on optimization / performance / fixes. They've done it before but they may be long past ever caring again
I feel like sometimes an overwhelming level of sentiment bending a certain way can have an effect on how a company approaches their next releases, but I don't know if it will ever work on Apple anymore. I suppose most people complaining aren't thinking their complaints will change anything either, to be fair, but it sure would be nice to be listened to as a user again someday.
I just downloaded and installed it on my iPhone 16 Pro. Right off the bat, I've noticed that some things feel snappier and smoother. Like right now, I'm going through my notifications settings,...
I just downloaded and installed it on my iPhone 16 Pro. Right off the bat, I've noticed that some things feel snappier and smoother. Like right now, I'm going through my notifications settings, and I have a lot of apps. Scrolling through the app list with a flick of my finger seems faster and smoother.
But then I've noticed some lag when moving between screens. Let's say I go into the app's notification settings. Turn things off/on, then go back to the list of apps. Well it hangs for like a split second, which is just enough for me to click to go back again. But instead of ignoring one of the back presses, it then sends me back to the main Settings app menu, since technically did press back twice. Super annoying because I keep doing this.
There's a lot of lag and heat generated immediately after updating as the phone re-configures everything, mine had frame drops for a few hours but it runs smooth now.
There's a lot of lag and heat generated immediately after updating as the phone re-configures everything, mine had frame drops for a few hours but it runs smooth now.
100% my experience as well. It was definitely getting warm as I was messing with notifications settings. Settings app even crashed altogether! But it seems to be fine—and cool—now! So far, don't...
100% my experience as well. It was definitely getting warm as I was messing with notifications settings. Settings app even crashed altogether!
But it seems to be fine—and cool—now!
So far, don't have any major complaints with anything else. But we'll see how it goes the rest of the week. Visually, I don't mind it. I don't love it, but I don't hate it.
Def a little scared to updated my MBP to Tahoe though, given the top comment here.
I'm on Tahoe, and the one thing I dislike is that launchpad has been removed and replaced with an "apps" feature that sucks. Apart from that, it's mostly the same.
I'm on Tahoe, and the one thing I dislike is that launchpad has been removed and replaced with an "apps" feature that sucks. Apart from that, it's mostly the same.
Gotcha. I don't use Launchpad that much. Never really liked it that much since it was too "iPad" for me and that's not what I want on an actual computer. I just Spotlight search whatever...
Gotcha. I don't use Launchpad that much. Never really liked it that much since it was too "iPad" for me and that's not what I want on an actual computer.
I just Spotlight search whatever application I'm looking and pretty much always have. Having seen what Launchpad has been replaced with, I wonder if this change will actually benefit me. Though to me, Spotlight is not as good as it used to be. And hasn't been in a loooong time. So we'll see.
But I get that for users of Launchpad, that is frustrating. Why not just let users have the option of using it?
Apple is allergic to that mentality lol. It's not been that hard to switch away from launchpad. The quick actions being directly integrated into spotlight is great, I've got two letter shortcuts...
Why not just let users have the option of using it?
Apple is allergic to that mentality lol. It's not been that hard to switch away from launchpad. The quick actions being directly integrated into spotlight is great, I've got two letter shortcuts to all my frequently used apps - I just liked launchpad because I had muscle memory from windows of launching things with the mouse.
I don't know how spotlight used to be, but it's better than it was in the immediate past. I've uninstalled Raycast because it's now more than close enough for my casual needs.
Hopefully they refined the aesthetics a bit, because some of their own marketing material / demonstrations made it look mega ugly IMO. This "blur whats underneath" garbage always ends up looking awful
More importantly, aesthetics aside, hopefully they fixed all the glaring readability problems with Liquid Glass since they first announced it. Mostly dealing with awful contrast (white text on a very bright background, blur/optical effects on UI elements that reflect what's underneath them in a way that makes text on those elements hard to read, etc). I haven't installed it yet. And yes, these concerns were a real issue and no I don't find that point debatable. One of Apple's own marketing images showed notifications on the lock screen that were nigh-unreadable (and even worse for those with bad vision, it was hard for me to read with good eyes)
Also this new design language better be efficient on the system. If they're using additional gpu cycles to render this liquid ass they can f off. Like, if they're spending dev hours building entire graphical systems to make light reflect in a certain way or whatever, please just stop, what a waste of time for a phone UI, go send those devs to build a game or something where that might be important
Lastly, what really gets me, is there's nothing functional in the new update that matters to me at all. Maybe updates being boring is a good thing these days? I don't know. That said, knowing Apple's software quality, I'm sure it's buggy as hell, and I'm absolutely NOT installing the macOS version for quite a while (especially since new OS updates seem to be notorious for impacting audio production stuff).
EDIT: regarding macOS, this screenshot is ugly as all hell too. seems like fisher-price toy nonsense to me (though to be snarky, as an Apple user, this properly represents the OS and makes sense given Apple's overprotective/overopinionated nature). Also, readability issues abound. Massively embarrassing for a company that boasts about its accessibility
EDIT 2: More really good breakdowns of this absolute dumpster fire from Oct 2025: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/liquid-glass/
There's still a couple images on the linked page that have subpar readability. For a company as accessibility conscious as Apple, this is very disappointing.
All the transparency blur is really just a strain on the eyes too. The colours beneath it (in the image from their own page of the music player for example) drags the eyes away and made me need to search for the button I'd want (pause) instead of it being obvious like in the past where it'd be black on white, high contrast, super obvious. This example in particular reminds me of what Spotify did a couple of years ago: they removed all color from their drop down menus, forcing you to search through the list every single time when you want to find a button, because all of them are small and look way too similar - also akin to what google did with their buttons which has been memed about a lot.
I did a year of graphic design and while it wasn't at the highest level, at least I learned that this type of design is supposed to first and foremost be functional - but for some reason, these big tech companies all ignore that. I truly don't get it and to be honest I highly doubt that the iOS designers even like it themselves lol
Oh wow, that Finder window screenshot is egregious… I can almost sense the resentment coming through from whichever poor dev/design team was tasked with updating the Finder UI
This is what it looked for me on first launch. A little rough around the edges but at least more compact.
There is zero reason to allow content to show behind the title bar / search bar. It isn't readable, and it looks bad. Truly bewildering that they would release this.
What you linked looks fine (until you scroll the content down)
I have seen other situations (edit: on iOS) where the translucent buttons are completely unreadable (they look as if there’s not even any text) because of the background they are on top of.
I checked again and it looks fine (at least as it was configured by default) when scrolled down.
In accessibility settings can minimise the effect by enabling increased contrast.
i will also be applying the "reduce transparency" option, and already do pre-iOS-26, to try and get rid of as much as possible
I've had to set the (launchpad? I'm new to iOS, the "launcher") icon pages to dark mode, then turn on the contrast and transparency toggles in Settings in order to be able to actually see my icons on the phone again.
On macOS 26, these settings appear not to work the same way, the contrast one is much more like Windows high contrast mode, and is unusable for me. But overall the changes are less pronounced on macOS
The iOS launcher is called springboard.
ah that's the badger. I had heard of that in terms of 'restarting' when I had a very old iPod Touch.
Yep. I learned about it when jailbreaking an old iPod touch. I don’t think Apple uses it in any external communication, but it’s used internally.
I'm still mad that Macs now have such a teeny tiny button to click to dismiss notifications. Half the time I click the notification by mistake and have to deal with that instead of ignoring it.
I believe you can also click and drag it off to the right edge of the screen to dismiss it, much like you can on iOS! A little mire reliant.
If you use the one true Mac pointer device, a trackpad, there’s a swipe gesture that’s more comfortable than the click+drag.
Ah yes, three fingers I believe?
Two fingers. Three is used for navigating between spaces and fullscreen apps.
Regarding accessibility: Wondering what happens if you activate the accessibility settings, like reducing transparency and motion. How does the UI look? Has anyone been brave enough to try it out yet? I'd love to see some screenshots.
The glass look....It's not really adding any benefit to my experience as a user at all. It's not even really all that pretty or interesting. It's just kind of there for the sake of being there. It's giving me vibes of a crappy Android (possibly Samsung?) UI from 5-10 years ago.
I really don't get the point of this.
"We have nothing new to add to the design so here's a new theme: transparent stuff. Did we mention it's delightful? Please be delighted and shut the F up." This theme reminds me of Windows Vista.
I really liked the glass look when I was into custom ROMs (mostly CyanogenMod) almost a decade ago. It’s pretty funny that Apple decided it’s now in.
A decade ago? Try Windows Aero in Windows Costa that was released two decades ago.
Vista. I assume that was autocorrect. 😂
I actually liked the aesthetic of Vista, back in its day. I haven’t touched it since Win7 came out, so I don’t know how it feels in 2025. It was definitely controversial when released though.
Reminds me of using Rainmeter!
You're not the target market to be fair. The vast majority of these kinds of redesigns are for trend/clout chasers. And sadly it makes a lot of money.
When Liquid Glass was announced, I wrote the following
So... I wasn't wrong, per se... but this is the most under-cooked iOS update ever. There's all sorts of problems, but the best example is the new keyboard. It looks good, they've switched to using SF compact which I quite like. However, if you're not using an app that's updated to use the Liquid Glass UI kit, then you just get the old keyboard... what even is the point? I've managed to break my homescreen icons twice, once requiring a reboot. iOS users, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this update. I'm super disappointed by how busted the update is despite it being such a promising concept.
I fear for my macbook!
I’m also largely on board with the design, but the lack of polish is real. My biggest visual annoyance is with swipe actions in Mail - the corners of the message will randomly be either rounded or squared. They will awkwardly snap back to being rounded after a second, but it looks really ugly.
macOS Tahoe is even worse in terms of visual inconsistency and lack of polish, but that’s probably a conversation for a different thread.
That doesn't bode well, I really like the state of modern macOS... fingers crossed it's not too bad.
It’s weird - was having a small play around with it earlier. Strangest one is that the sound control in the menu bar vs control centre is completely visually different and has functional changes - you can’t adjust the volume in the menu bar widget by swiping/scrolling like used to be possible, but you can if you go in control centre. Very weird and annoying.
I thought I would dislike the Liquid Glass design just based on the promos they put out, but I have been surprised that it isn't all that bad actually. Photos of the UI don't do it justice, I think. Without the animations or "live distortions" as you call them, it looks like an early 2000s throwback or something. All in all, even if it might not be my first choice of style, it is not visually distracting to me (which I care about more than eye candy). The actual UI layout feels a little more intuitive and better suited for tapping a screen with fingertips. There are rough edges, as always, but I haven't encountered many. The main one is Reminders misbehaving on Mac, which is actually quite a bad and frustrating bug @_@
I've been on beta and yeah, also disappointed by how buggy it turned out in the release version. The worst one for me is how sometimes taking a screenshot hides the image off-screen, so you can't click it to edit it.
Other than that, visually, I'm hopeful that it will influence other OS's. Windows 7 to this day was the most visually pleasing OS thanks to its glass theme and it was a shame that we moved away from it. If there's one thing where I want other companies to "steal" from Apple, it's this one.
If you’ve been using it for some time, I’m curious to hear whether the new design has had any battery implications for you?
In the first 2 or 3 beta versions, definitely. In fact my iphone 12 pro max would get hot by just navigating in the home screen
It got much better meanwhile, but I don't know how it compares to the previous iOS version
I thought it left a lot to be desired from the start, never liked it at all - I have the criticism that I know others have expressed before that it looks like Windows Vista or even worse.
I will halt updates to my phone for as long as possible. Equal parts because I find it ugly, and also that it's a 13 so I'm afraid of battery and performance issues.
I’ve been burnt way too many times by apple. I never update a major iOS release until well into the point releases because apple is notorious for shipping tons of bugs and eventually fixing them, maybe, if they feel like it isnt a “feature”.
So this makes it 2 unstable and half-baked major updates in a row. Last year it was presumably Apple Intelligence at fault. Apple scrambled to put something together and must have pulled a lot of headcount out of pre-existing teams to make it happen. I wonder what's the excuse this year?
My guess is a scramble to put something together to make people forget about Apple Intelligence...
It's the gift that keeps on giving.
I get the need to periodically refresh any UI. Frankly it sucks but it is a response to real human psychology. I’m not going to complain about that.
But I would hope that a company as massively resourced, and with as large a userbase, as Apple would invest in an industry-leading, research-backed design process. One that puts usability and accessibility on center stage, and allows form to follow function at every opportunity. Then applies that signature Apple attention to detail to refine what remains into something elegant and beautiful. These are the core principles of design as a school of thought, and Apple is possibly the best-positioned company in the world to demonstrate how to do it right.
I don’t know what to make of the fact that they just… didn’t? How did we get here? What are they doing with all that bank? If Apple’s not employing the most talented and rigorous UX researchers and designers in the world, ummmmm… why not?
I don’t invoke the name of Steve Jobs lightly, but I’m sure he would have some pointed words to say about this state of affairs.
It’s a microcosm of the larger state of the industry, in my opinion.
Through the tech boom of the 2010s, much of the old guard of research-based, technically-minded UI designers retired right as designers from other design disciplines and fresh grads flooded startups. The field became dominated by designs that were more geared for popping off on social media and chasing trends than being usable.
Apple is no exception. The iOS 7 “flatpocalypse” redesign was similarly disastrous and took many releases to incrementally be brought back to a usable state. Looking at screenshots of that version now is shocking and makes one wonder how they could’ve released something so obviously and seriously flawed. Jony Ive was at the helm at that point, and while he’s a very capable industrial designer with numerous great hardware designs under his belt, he wasn’t a UI designer and it showed. Liquid Glass feels like that all over again.
I am. There is no need at all to play into that human psychology, other than trying to sell more stuff. As a Linux user, I can afford myself the luxury to not change anything about my UI, and I have been enjoying that for more than a decade now.
This might sound boring to some, but it is not. It simply shifts the focus from the window borders to what is inside those windows, and that can be as new and exciting as you want it to me. But one never has to wonder how that device that you have been using for years now suddenly works different from what you expect.
i can’t wait for iOS 29 Butter Leather.
i installed the first db of 26 on a 12 mini and… it’s just ugly. I have light and dark wallpapers that hide the dock and aim for a relatively minimalist home screen. the outlines, dark mode, etc just aren’t there.
i’m hoping they tone it down or give an option to ditch the outlines on everything, but i doubt it.
i really expected the new numbering to be more of a milestone rls.
They murdered my "Increase Contrast" setting right as I needed it most :(
I loved that it subtly added clarity and used some darker colors before, but now it also adds a horrendous outline to every single bubble element (the whole OS now) and turns some of the dark grey's completely black as if it's an OLED mode setting.
Actual #000 OLED black? Maybe I need to give that a try, then. I really wish iOS and macOS had more true blacks, but at least they generally do a better job of it in dark mode than Google's awful dark-greyish-blue for so many things.
Most dark modes avoid true black because A) the high contrast of white text on true black can actually create more eye strain, and B) long-term use of true black can mess with the screens. Basic gist from my understanding is that "true black" doesn't age at the same rate as other colors (I think some screens just... Turn off the pixels that are true black?), which becomes more noticeable for ever-present UI elements.
I can affirm the aging part because my phone (an Android) has the top and bottom of the screen slightly discolored compared to the rest of the screen. I use an app to make the navbar dark green, and the status bar is always dark because of dark mode. I suspect that my settings on Twilight basically dim/darken them enough to be treated as true black.
Though it would still be nice if we could have more control over the colors used for dark mode for devices, if only for accessibility reasons.
I’m not planning to upgrade. Apple’s in a weird spot because their stuff… works? I’m pretty happy with my iPhone, iPad, and MacBook. I don’t need them to change. There are some things that would be nice, like exposing some more settings programatically or making the OS a bit faster. Maybe some better organization options or third-party syncing for Messages.app?
However, there’s no glaring things that need upgrading. I don’t want change. Still, no company can rest on their laurels. Apple needs to show big, meaningful change. I’m just not sure that exists for them in the OS space anymore.
I've seen a lot of negative reactions to iOS 26 and macOS Tahoe. I was primed to dislike them, but they seem fine so far; a nice refresh. I have yet to encounter any problems or legibility issues. I don't think that any of the visual changes were necessary, but they also don't bother me.
I’m still in the process of evaluating the design changes, but there’s one thing that bothers me a lot and I haven’t seen mentioned by anyone else: all the UI elements are.. bigger? As in, more padding, height, width. Buttons are huge, sheets steal a ton of the screen, lists that occupied a single screen now require scrolling.
It makes my device feel smaller and kinda childish? Like those toy phones with huge icons that make animal noises when pressed.
Is it just me? Is it just an impression, since I have no way to verify it?
I remember heavily complaining about this on Tildes a few years ago when an Android update did the same thing to my Pixel 5a. (I distinctly remember using the phrase "Fisher-Price phone".) Not glad to see another awful thing iPhone "stole" from Android.
Yes, they are. As a (disappointed) owner of a 13” MacBook Air and a 4,7” iPhone SE, things got really cramped…
As an Android user, I hope auto call screening on iOS truly takes off so that all these Android copycats clone that feature.
It's stupid that it's so far restricted to Pixel and Galaxy phones. It's a genuinely useful feature.
EDIT: I've got Tahoe on my Mac, and yeah I 100% get the complaints against the new UI. It's so ridiculously ugly, and having UI text elements over a list just to show "yes, we have elements on top of other elements" is such a stupid collossal step backwards, I do wonder what the team at Apple was smoking.
Is there a word that means "amused and disappointed at the same time"?
Because that's how I feel, year after year, watching
billionairetrillionaire companies chase design trends conceived and incubated in the bowels of /r/unixporn and the desktop threads on /g/I want to see this new Photos layout they talk about. I have not been enjoying the last update to the Photos app. While some stuff is kinda helpful (the automatic categories for screenshots and saved items), overall it's frustrating because the way the main library works is different than the way search results work and it always throws me off. Not to mention the bizzare choice not to allow zooming into the search results pages; just a sea of little squares.
This is what worries me the most. Apple‘s decision to turn the camera roll into a social media app interface (a while ago) was their first big blunder on iOS for me. The iOS 26 redesign could make it even worse.
Concretely, it’s that they no longer allow to search by day. A nice list, broken up by date the photos are made, with a readable text line between each new day as you scroll. They ruined that with the stupid wall of squares.
I have an iPhone 12 mini (for device size). I was a bit surprised that iOS 26 supports it but I will hold off updating for as long as possible.
Just updated to ios 26 last night. The only new thing i enjoy is the Preview app. The rest is just new UI window dressing that i dont care about.
What is special about the preview app? All of the functionality in there was in the files app already unless I’m missing something.
Just a dedicated app to handle pdfs. Scanning them, filling them out, signing them, deleting background etc. not sure if the files app did this stuff before or not.
Useful for those places that still require paper applications or faxes.
Oh yeah the files app had this feature already if you clicked the three dots in the top right. I guess it was a somewhat hidden feature though since I haven’t met many others who knew about it.
I just discovered what the Preview app actually does. In old iOS versions, you could open your files directly in the Files app. Now, opening a file in the Files app launches the Preview app to view the contents.
I guess adding the Preview app creates app parity across iOS and macOS, but it hasn’t added any extra functionality. It just split the functionality of a single app across two apps.
I guess this makes sense to make sure the various platforms work in a similar fashion. Also as discussed before i had no idea the Files app had similar functions; the Preview app makes this functionality more discoverable.
I really like how it looks, I’ve been missing Frutiger Aero for a while already.
Haven’t updated yet, heard mixed things about battery life/bugginess and I’m on a 13 mini, so any hit to battery or performance will be amplified.
It’s honestly insane how Apple releases a new iOS every year and it’s always “Wait until the first or second point update because bugs” happens all the time.
Ngl, going against the grain with this one and I kind of like the fresh look. It's a bit of whimsy I was missing in my tech and reminds me of the Wii U's interface of all things. I was toying with my iPad like a child again just to see some of the animations.
Speaking of actually, iPad now has full windowing even on non-M-series devices which is super cool! My Air 4 has barely any RAM and I can do a fair bit of multitasking.
I'm sure I'll get over it in a couple days (esp when '26 is on my Mac which I use for work) but for now, I don't hate it.
(admins, you might want to change the link to https://www.apple.com/au/os/ios/ instead, since it's the official page, but it will change overtime...)
I just installed iOS 26 and MacOS 26. So far I'd rate them as "okay". I mostly worry that the liquid glass effect will become annoying after a while. Right now the novelty is worth something but it's a very opinionated design choice that may age more quickly than what came before it.
Edit: I feel the Liquid Glass design looks quite good in certain serious. Things like the payments popup at the bottom of the screen. Or the control center. But they went a bit too far in taking that visual style to as much of the system as possible.
I've done the iOS one, the macOS one is still 'Preparing' with 5 minutes remaining for the last 9 minutes. Wondering if I should just go to bed and leave it, it's after 1.30am here right now, and I have no idea how long this 5 minutes will be. It'll probably want to authenticate or something and just sit there waiting until later in the morning.
There seems to be a lot of negative opinions in this thread. I set my appearance to Dark, my icons to Default, and background to light (with no text labels on icons), and I'm satisfied with it. There are some cases where the Liquid Glass UI makes it hard to see at a glance what UI elements are selected, but I haven't run into major legibility issues with text like people have been complaining about. Other than the UI updates, which I think most are upset about because change is upsetting (I remember the complaints after iOS 7 like it was yesterday), things I like in iOS 26:
This has been a feature for 2 iOS versions prior, but the ability to select custom image collections is new. Previously you had the options of “city”, “nature”, and “animals”.
I hadn't noticed this as I always set a personal photo as my background, so setting some stock image (or collection thereof) was never an option that I considered.
Maybe it's just because I've gotten used to using VisionOS over the past year, but I quite like iOS 26. Really dig the new keyboard and having the search bar always at the bottom across all the default apps. Music mixing works really well most of the time. Liquid Glass is pretty if you use it correctly. AI improvements are quite nice.
What I love most are Spatial Scenes. A little gimmicky, but extremely cool (and actual magic in VR)
The update made my phone number not activate for Facetime or iMessage. Fun!
Is there a place where I can view the changes that are being made between different iOS versions?
I'm on a 13 Pro and currently have iOS 18.6.2 with the option to upgrade to 18.7 but I'm a bit hesitant to do so without understanding what features might be changed. It was a while ago but I was genuinely heartbroken when Apple removed skeuomorphic page turning from their Book app (but later returned it, yay!) so I get pretty nervous when my phone tells me it wants to update things. Is there any benefit to functionality in updating to 18.7 or will my phone then just want to jump to 26? I did a very basic search along the lines of "see changes between iOS versions" but that brought up a slew of articles talking about design changes between iOS versions which isn't really what I want >_<
18.7 has no aesthetic changes, I've been using it since it came out and it works great. 26 is a much bigger deal and probably worth waiting on while they sort out bugs.
Looks fine. Some parts are uglier than others. Animation bugs abound. Will get refined back towards neutrality over time. Points toward a future of AR-first UI design. Typical Apple. Let's all find something more important to complain about, shall we?
I am of the opinion that a large change to the design of one of the most popular objects in recent history is relatively important. It's no world ending threat, but it's certainly worth discussing.
Sorry, that last comment was callous. Of course it's worth discussing. I'm just tired of the news cycles driven mainly by grievance to drive clicks. Are there problems with Liquid Glass? Of course. But there are nice things about it too. That's not my issue.
I feel like I've been reading the same article/complaints over and over for the past decade or so. Apple ships design changes and new features with obviously reproducible bugs and has consistently chosen to prioritize shipping even more new features instead of pumping the brakes for a year or two and really polishing what they've got. But hundreds, if not thousands, of online complains are clearly not going to change the way they operate.
That's what I meant by "important"; I didn't mean to compare the change to Liquid Glass to, like, the war in Ukraine. I agree that a company as large as Apple, with millions of customers, whose technology and products are virtually ubiquitous, should be held to a particularly high standard. But it's clear that our current economic system is ineffective in enforcing that standard. That is what I would like to think more about.
It's possible to complain/comment on fairly unimportant things and also important things, one does not have to take away from the other, they're not mutually exclusive. Certainly the importance is arguable too, given it's something many people interact with daily. But regardless, it's quite okay for people to be critical of "small/negligible" things and I don't understand the call to avoid it.
I get people can get annoyed with the "the whole internet is yelling at company for changing X or Y" but I also think plenty of valid criticism gets unnecessarily tossed under that umbrella
I think it's fine if people want to have an opinion on a new design language introduced in a mobile operating system.
I agree it's fine to have opinions on new design languages in mobile OSs, I have plenty of them myself! See my clarification here.
That's fair. We certainly live in a society where it's all mined to death for clicks and such at this point and it's sad that ends up having its own effect on dampening or undermining sincere discussion too. Everything is a mess. Add on top of that the pressure to find ways to make money / work / etc and it's probably easy for someone to get roped into that sphere too. Sigh.
I wish we could somehow get into Apple's head that we need another "Snow Leopard" but for all of their OS's- a focus on optimization / performance / fixes. They've done it before but they may be long past ever caring again
I feel like sometimes an overwhelming level of sentiment bending a certain way can have an effect on how a company approaches their next releases, but I don't know if it will ever work on Apple anymore. I suppose most people complaining aren't thinking their complaints will change anything either, to be fair, but it sure would be nice to be listened to as a user again someday.
I just downloaded and installed it on my iPhone 16 Pro. Right off the bat, I've noticed that some things feel snappier and smoother. Like right now, I'm going through my notifications settings, and I have a lot of apps. Scrolling through the app list with a flick of my finger seems faster and smoother.
But then I've noticed some lag when moving between screens. Let's say I go into the app's notification settings. Turn things off/on, then go back to the list of apps. Well it hangs for like a split second, which is just enough for me to click to go back again. But instead of ignoring one of the back presses, it then sends me back to the main Settings app menu, since technically did press back twice. Super annoying because I keep doing this.
There's a lot of lag and heat generated immediately after updating as the phone re-configures everything, mine had frame drops for a few hours but it runs smooth now.
100% my experience as well. It was definitely getting warm as I was messing with notifications settings. Settings app even crashed altogether!
But it seems to be fine—and cool—now!
So far, don't have any major complaints with anything else. But we'll see how it goes the rest of the week. Visually, I don't mind it. I don't love it, but I don't hate it.
Def a little scared to updated my MBP to Tahoe though, given the top comment here.
I'm on Tahoe, and the one thing I dislike is that launchpad has been removed and replaced with an "apps" feature that sucks. Apart from that, it's mostly the same.
Gotcha. I don't use Launchpad that much. Never really liked it that much since it was too "iPad" for me and that's not what I want on an actual computer.
I just Spotlight search whatever application I'm looking and pretty much always have. Having seen what Launchpad has been replaced with, I wonder if this change will actually benefit me. Though to me, Spotlight is not as good as it used to be. And hasn't been in a loooong time. So we'll see.
But I get that for users of Launchpad, that is frustrating. Why not just let users have the option of using it?
Apple is allergic to that mentality lol. It's not been that hard to switch away from launchpad. The quick actions being directly integrated into spotlight is great, I've got two letter shortcuts to all my frequently used apps - I just liked launchpad because I had muscle memory from windows of launching things with the mouse.
I don't know how spotlight used to be, but it's better than it was in the immediate past. I've uninstalled Raycast because it's now more than close enough for my casual needs.