I don’t know what to say. For me it’s the worst iOS design I’ve ever seen. In the keynote it looked nice but when I’m using it I get annoyed.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple need to tweak the Liquid Glass Design badly
- Thread starter Aoligei
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
i just installed the public beta and quite like the redesign. i havent really had any issues except maybe some of the floating controls looking weird in certain apps like weather. but i can read my notifications just fine.
I hate it.
To be clear, I like some of the features but hate the visual design. Unlike other Apple operating systems, it visually screams for attention, taking focus away from the content. It looks "trendy," like an Android skin. The rounded squares everywhere take up space needlessly and are less obviously connected to other aspects of the OS (example: pressing anything in the new menu bar on the iPad draws a little rounded square around the thing you pressed and a second rounded square around the commands that come up. Compare to classic Mac design, where the commands are visually connected to the thing you pressed). Contrast is greatly reduced, sometimes to the point that I can't read what's on a button. This is simply bad design.
Also, why are so many icons blurry?
To be clear, I like some of the features but hate the visual design. Unlike other Apple operating systems, it visually screams for attention, taking focus away from the content. It looks "trendy," like an Android skin. The rounded squares everywhere take up space needlessly and are less obviously connected to other aspects of the OS (example: pressing anything in the new menu bar on the iPad draws a little rounded square around the thing you pressed and a second rounded square around the commands that come up. Compare to classic Mac design, where the commands are visually connected to the thing you pressed). Contrast is greatly reduced, sometimes to the point that I can't read what's on a button. This is simply bad design.
Also, why are so many icons blurry?
Just roll it back and forget it existed… UX nightmare
I installed the PB on my iPad and expected the worst based on what I’d seen and read - but I’m surprised that its really way better than everyone seems to be making it out to be.
Sure there are instances where the buttons arent readable, but generally they all are, and the others will get fixed in the next beta or later.
People are making it out to be unusable, and I was ready to install and revert. Its really not that bad at all (in my opinion etc)
Its far from perfect, but I do think theres potential here, and if they can get to what they showed at the Keynote that would be great.
Sure there are instances where the buttons arent readable, but generally they all are, and the others will get fixed in the next beta or later.
People are making it out to be unusable, and I was ready to install and revert. Its really not that bad at all (in my opinion etc)
Its far from perfect, but I do think theres potential here, and if they can get to what they showed at the Keynote that would be great.
While I did like the WWDC Video and some of the animations and designs shown there and IN THEORY like the idea of really making the glass surface of a device come to life as a kind of living, breathing and responsive Interface, iOS/iPadOS26 seems to be far away from that.
The bevels are a touch too much, the glass-on-glass-on-glass-surfaces are not well done, the mix of frosted glass, blurs, shading etc seems confused and confusing. On top of multiple layers of «glasses» we have Icons, that again are constructed of various layers of glass. It‘s just too much. It is an overcooked, anancastic idea of what a design system should be. I also wonder how much resources this all actually needs. When stuff is well done, as the glass magnifier when you mark a text, it‘s fun – but mostly it just lacks direction and a sense of –=+.
Compare that to the easy, functional, fast and reactive look of the OS we had before and you see that this was more polished, just as smart – the redesign feels like a skinned WinOS back in the days of Vista.
The bevels are a touch too much, the glass-on-glass-on-glass-surfaces are not well done, the mix of frosted glass, blurs, shading etc seems confused and confusing. On top of multiple layers of «glasses» we have Icons, that again are constructed of various layers of glass. It‘s just too much. It is an overcooked, anancastic idea of what a design system should be. I also wonder how much resources this all actually needs. When stuff is well done, as the glass magnifier when you mark a text, it‘s fun – but mostly it just lacks direction and a sense of –=+.
Compare that to the easy, functional, fast and reactive look of the OS we had before and you see that this was more polished, just as smart – the redesign feels like a skinned WinOS back in the days of Vista.
something else I noticed. The button to compose a new email message has a different look than the rest of the buttons. Presumably this is a bug? I prefer the look of the other controls because at least they are legible.
I didn’t have any of the developer betas, but I’ve been on the public one since it came out. Love it. iOS was so damn stale. I’m really enjoying all of the changes
Liquid glass is awful. I’m on the first PB version. It’s just bad -change for change’s sake.
Jason Snell was on John Gruber’s latest podcast. They both complained quite a bit about Liquid Glass (or lack thereof) on the Mac. One thing they both said is Liquid Glass is way more complicated than people realize and no Apple can’t just stick a slider in settings where you can turn it up or down. Some of the bugs I see on my iPad Pro looks like the system being confused as to whether the background should be light or dark, whether text should be black or white, how translucent the background should be. I get the feeling what they’re trying to implement is too complex, needed another year in the oven and I won’t be surprised if it is dialed back for public release in September/October.
It’s better for Apple if the narrative is they dialed Liquid Glass back (considering most users probably haven’t even heard about it) than comments all over social media about how so and so just updated their phone and its awful, can’t read notifications, text etc. and how do they turn it off. It’s one thing to go to something like iOS 7 where some people don’t like ‘flat’ design. But to have glaring legibility issues? I don’t see how they can go live with that.
It’s better for Apple if the narrative is they dialed Liquid Glass back (considering most users probably haven’t even heard about it) than comments all over social media about how so and so just updated their phone and its awful, can’t read notifications, text etc. and how do they turn it off. It’s one thing to go to something like iOS 7 where some people don’t like ‘flat’ design. But to have glaring legibility issues? I don’t see how they can go live with that.
After using this over the weekend I think that in some apps where the glass and the transparency is toned down it’s absolutely fine. Mail is a good example, looks sensible enough in dark mode.
In some other areas however where the glass effect is stronger and the transparency higher it can be really jarring to use.
Safari is by far the worst offender currently, the way the address bar constantly flicks between light and dark modes as you scroll is very poor indeed. That’s unresolvable btw, they’ll need to give in and keep it set to the system preference, ensuring it remains visible across all backgrounds (i.e. is less transparent).
Likewise the lockscreen number pad needs toning way down. The glass effect is design to look cool with movement beneath. Opinions will vary about how cool it really is (it is not cool), but when it’s 12 completely static blobs over a static photo background it just looks tacky. Thought it might have looked a little better with a spatial photo set as the background, but when the number pad comes up the photo flips to static again lol
They can pull this out of the fire still for sure, but I can’t help thinking that there must be several folk in the design team who are pulling their hair out having to implement this stuff.
In some other areas however where the glass effect is stronger and the transparency higher it can be really jarring to use.
Safari is by far the worst offender currently, the way the address bar constantly flicks between light and dark modes as you scroll is very poor indeed. That’s unresolvable btw, they’ll need to give in and keep it set to the system preference, ensuring it remains visible across all backgrounds (i.e. is less transparent).
Likewise the lockscreen number pad needs toning way down. The glass effect is design to look cool with movement beneath. Opinions will vary about how cool it really is (it is not cool), but when it’s 12 completely static blobs over a static photo background it just looks tacky. Thought it might have looked a little better with a spatial photo set as the background, but when the number pad comes up the photo flips to static again lol
They can pull this out of the fire still for sure, but I can’t help thinking that there must be several folk in the design team who are pulling their hair out having to implement this stuff.
I don’t like the fact that everything in the settings app is wasting so much space.
Apple has given themselves a big design challenge using a material that completely changes based on the content underneath it.
I like it more than I thought I would as some have also stated. Yes, there is a lot of work still to do. Several people that have seen it that would never visit Macrumors forums think it looks amazing and can’t wait to try it.
I like the whimsy where it comes in. I’m only doing the beta on my iPhone. The Mac needs a lot more attention and it just won’t get it fast enough. The contradictions in design are apparent that not everyone at is on the same page. On one hand you have the tortoise and the hare in Podcasts coming back for speed controls (last seen on iOS 6), the updated Camera app icon from iOS 6, and then you have the Mickey Mouse glove robbed from macOS. Makes no sense.
Sure the iPhone is a tool of utilitarian function. However, having lively animations that are done right can give the device a playfulness that conjures an emotional response. I think that same ideology is what saved from fatality when the iMac was born. Why can’t it look cool and have a personality? To hell with the iOS 7 era stretch we have been stuck with. Hopefully this evolves into something great. Time will tell, and of course there are a lot of things to iron out that will happen well after general public release.
No way a design change is going to appeal to everyone. Never does in any industry. I’m on board with seeing how this plays out, and I don’t want to roll my device back now.
I like the whimsy where it comes in. I’m only doing the beta on my iPhone. The Mac needs a lot more attention and it just won’t get it fast enough. The contradictions in design are apparent that not everyone at is on the same page. On one hand you have the tortoise and the hare in Podcasts coming back for speed controls (last seen on iOS 6), the updated Camera app icon from iOS 6, and then you have the Mickey Mouse glove robbed from macOS. Makes no sense.
Sure the iPhone is a tool of utilitarian function. However, having lively animations that are done right can give the device a playfulness that conjures an emotional response. I think that same ideology is what saved from fatality when the iMac was born. Why can’t it look cool and have a personality? To hell with the iOS 7 era stretch we have been stuck with. Hopefully this evolves into something great. Time will tell, and of course there are a lot of things to iron out that will happen well after general public release.
No way a design change is going to appeal to everyone. Never does in any industry. I’m on board with seeing how this plays out, and I don’t want to roll my device back now.
I absolutely love Liquid Glass on my iPhone and iPad, and was sorely disappointed with the frosting applied in Beta 3. The way the elements react to touch and the various animations are gorgeous. Even my 69 year old mother really liked it and made no complaints about legibility; she even wanted me to install the beta on her iPhone 13, but I wisely told her to wait for the final release. I’ve seen some say that Liquid Glass is distracting from the content yet I feel the exact opposite - it subtly disappears and I find it less intrusive than the old UI elements in iOS 18. But as you say, like anything, some will love it and others will hate it.
To be fair, now in Beta 4 two months later it is a lot better. Still many inconsistencies, and it gets worse on the desktop and most definitely on watchOS. The phone is in my opinion at its best when in dark mode. But 100x better now then when it was just released. When it was just released it was nothing like the developer conference presented experience.
Personally I still don't think it is that good.
I would love to, but I have no idea how to do it.
I have an 9th gen iPad, which is a supported model. Backed it up. Installed the public beta of iPadOS 26, and I hate it - looks terrible and is sluggish as hell.
No problem, because I backed my iPad up.
Disabled beta updates, then connected the iPad to my MBA in recovery mode. Went to restore the iPad from the backup, and it said the iPad needs to be enrolled in the beta program to continue. I have no idea why, but if I decline, I just go back to the restore screen.
If I select continue, the MBA downloads the iPadOS 26 public beta again and reinstalls that on the iPad.
So I'm stuck with the terrible public beta, despite backing my iPad up.
Does anyone have any idea how I can roll back to iPadOS 18?
You might need to download the iOS 18 IPSW file and restore to a fresh install, then backup from there. After you’ve grabbed the IPSW file, hold down option when clicking the Restore button and it should let you navigate to and select the IPSW. There’s more detailed instructions around if you do a search on restore from IPSW. Good luck!
I find the the current LG implementation (DB4=PB1) to be pretty good. 👍
Gave up. Back to 18.6 for me. Still got one iPad running iPadOS 26 DB4, but this is just an eyesore on an iPhone and I can wait for 26.4 or so when they actually start rolling out some of that More Personal Siri I have been waiting to try.
