Don't Want to Upgrade to iOS 26? Here's How to Stay on iOS 18 [Update: Now Unavailable]

[Dark_Omen]

When is Gemini replacing Siri? That’s the only useful update for iOS 26.

 

[Reeneman]

Nooo I accidentally updated to iOS 26 and I absolutely don't like it. Stupid fake glass icons (how dare they do that to other people's well designed logo's!?), horrendous control center, unbelievably dumb decision to not have any toolbars anywhere so everything blurs and fades (but flickers from black to white to remain barely legible), which SEEMS to allow for more space but practically there is less usable space. It's atrocious and I don't want to look at it. The worst thing is that 3rd party developers are adapting and also incorporating those poor choices. This is going to take years to correct. What a mess.

Meanwhile: is there a way I can get back to iOS 18? It seems there isn't, right?

(Luckily I didn't update my Mac yet, and will definitely not.)

You can’t hide from it 👺
Liquid Glass will get you

 

[Reeneman]

RIP to my wife’s iPhone 13 mini which she accidentally updated and is now in Liquid Glass hell with me. She hates it so much and it’s killing the performance and battery life of her little iPhone, which she refuses to upgrade because she wants a phone that can fit in a smaller jeans pocket and she can use with her small hands. Still so pissed that Apple killed the mini and yet trots out **** that nobody wants to buy like the iPhone Air.

Most likely a new battery will fix it

 

[super chimp]

Apple has been trying the transparency thing since at least Aqua 1.0 in 2001, and iOS 7 was the largest indicator of that. Alan wasn’t the head of user interface design when iOS 7 released.
Plus, it’s been reported by several developers that a lot of the new rules of 26, most specifically the floating tab bars at the bottom, were almost single-handedly added for future use by a curved screen iPhone in 2027.
They’re absolutely will be changes as time goes on, much like what happened between iOS 7 and 18.
But the fundamentals of the Liquid Glass UI like the floating tab bars, dynamically changing borders on icons and pop-out menus are likely here to stay well into the 2030s.
As easy as it is to blame one guy, let’s not forget that thousands of people were involved with this redesign, it was the first ever redesign they launched across all of their platforms at once, and even the new head of UI who’s been there since the late 90s was likely still very involved with Liquid Glass.
I think it’s pretty safe to say it will be here a while, although it will be improved upon, of course.
But anyone expecting OS’s ‘27 to revert back to the way things looked before, or to go back to iOS 6, or look like something completely new we have never seen before… It will not. Keep your expectations in check.
Alan Dye became head of design in 2015, there wasn’t an operating system redesign completely under his leadership until Big Sur… five years later.

In that case I won’t be on iOS then. I only stuck with it because I preferred it to Android that’s no longer the case. I already have a presence on Android so I can easily make the move.

 

[BGrifter]

RIP to my wife’s iPhone 13 mini which she accidentally updated and is now in Liquid Glass hell with me. She hates it so much and it’s killing the performance and battery life of her little iPhone, which she refuses to upgrade because she wants a phone that can fit in a smaller jeans pocket and she can use with her small hands. Still so pissed that Apple killed the mini and yet trots out **** that nobody wants to buy like the iPhone Air.

Pressing F to pay respect to another fallen soldier. o7

It’s maddening Apple abandoned making phones that fit in a jeans pocket because it looks less impressive in a BestBuy showroom.

 

[Omega Mac]

The buck stops at Tim Cook.
Liquid Glass was a massive, comprehensive, system wide, and platform wide UI change that (according to every report I could find) was in development since at least 2021, likely longer.
It was absolutely a massive collaboration across the entire company, between the UI design team lead by Alan Dye, the software teams led by Craig Federighi, the services team led by Eddie, the hardware team led by John Ternus, the marketing team, so on and so on.
And as far as I can tell, despite these forums being in a constant state of “sky is falling”, it’s been a relative success. A success in need of improvement, but a success.

I think you just nailed why it's been received so badly with you summary and might just be the root of the problem.

It's sounds and look like a UI designed by essentially committee - unless there was one visionary leading it (Dye or someone else?) because either there was a singular UI/UX architect with a driving vision, or if it was designed by committee as you have outlined, and if it is the later, then there is the answer, and that the buck really does stop with Cook except he's already essentially gone, so it will be the next CEO problem down the line.

Oh dear. It's much worse than I thought.

 

[Omega Mac]

RIP to my wife’s iPhone 13 mini which she accidentally updated and is now in Liquid Glass hell with me. She hates it so much and it’s killing the performance and battery life of her little iPhone, which she refuses to upgrade because she wants a phone that can fit in a smaller jeans pocket and she can use with her small hands. Still so pissed that Apple killed the mini and yet trots out **** that nobody wants to buy like the iPhone Air.

It's like waking up one day in your home and someone has moved the door handles a couple of inches lower. The light switches a few inches higher. The steps on the stairs an inch lower. You fumble, you stumble you might even fall, you manage to open doors and turn on/off lights but it was not a smooth muscle memory sequence of operations, and you stubbed your toe on the stairs!

There really seems to be no empathy for the muscle memory offset caused to hundreds of millions of users.

The familiar is suddenly a bit unfamiliar or worse, strange.

It could also be classed as a form of gaslighting.

It is a normal expectation that the product you purchase and enjoy can not be so radically altered post-purchase as to diminish your use. There is no reason for this other than ego-vanity project, because otherwise this then has the look of a case of the emperors new clothes, where no one was brave enough to state the obvious and shout stop!

Oh dear.

 

[Omega Mac]

Neither of these UI's look good for totally different reasons.

Android 16's Material 3 Expressive shows just how bad iOS 26's redesign really is

Comparing Android 16's Material 3 Expressive with iOS 26's Liquid Glass UI, Google delivers clarity while Apple stumbles on flashy form.

www.androidauthority.com

 

[bw44]

I’m sure you can get by on 18.7.3 on the SE2 for another year. Wait and see what iOS 27 offers.

Thanks for the hopeful note! But even if 27 irons out all the problems with 26, and gives better control over the liquid glass feature, it's still not likely to run comfortably on an SE2. But you're right, there should be better options in a year, making the upgrade to a new phone less painful.

 

[Omega Mac]

Thanks for the hopeful note! But even if 27 irons out all the problems with 26, and gives better control over the liquid glass feature, it's still not likely to run comfortably on an SE2. But you're right, there should be better options in a year, making the upgrade to a new phone less painful.

As previously stated supporting anothers SE 2020 on iOS 26

On asking if there are any issues, the main complaint so far has been about the iOS keyboard, it's not as responsive which makes using messages difficult. 😬

 

[Reason077]

Also, the check box is wrong. Ought to be a radio button.
Hipster designers at Apple nowadays. Don't even know what a radio is it seems.

You can't really mix radio buttons and check boxes in the same list, though. That would be odd and confusing, and wouldn't allow for the third "I don't want to install either of these updates" scenario.

 

[bw44]

As previously stated supporting anothers SE 2020 on iOS 26

On asking if there are any issues, the main complaint so far has been about the iOS keyboard, it's not as responsive which makes using messages difficult. 😬

Good to hear, thanks. I guess it may depend on how one uses their phone, but enough people have experienced serious problems with 26 on an SE2, I think I will hang on, at least until 27 is released.

 

[Reason077]

Don't be so sure.

In the past few weeks Apples head of UI has left for meta.

The question is: did he leave because he was against Liquid Glass and he got overruled and frustrated by management not listening to him? Or did he leave because he was the guy behind Liquid Glass and everyone now realises that it's a bit crap?

 

[bw44]

The question is: did he leave because he was against Liquid Glass and he got overruled and frustrated by management not listening to him? Or did he leave because he was the guy behind Liquid Glass and everyone now realises that it's a bit crap?

Have a look at the video posted by Imperial926 (post #248 in this thread) which discusses, among many other things, how Tim is doing his job as Apple's CEO, and toward the end of the video who the guy is who may be newly in charge of UI at Apple and why.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

You weren't wrong to hold off of 18 up until 18.3 or 18.4. But they did fix it eventually.

Which means using an insecure version of iOS 17 for some time. Now that OP is on 18 for a bit, they're going to be stuck on an insecure version until 26.6 or so comes out. It's a never-ending upgrade cycle where you're forced to choose between function and security.

Luckily you can buy new hardware and that generally masks any bug$.

Unlikely. They haven’t ever force-updated in the past. Just turn off automatic updates and pay attention to not tap the wrong thing when new versions get notified.

Fortunately for Apple they use dark patterns to get you to click the wrong button :\

 

[wahlderqual]

But the ones stuck on anything lower than 26 will be the minority shortly. ….

Looks like that minority will not happen shortly in the case of OS 26 😊

People either need to move with the times and adapt, or they'll just get left behind. That goes for any technology.

Looks like there are many long time i/Mac OS users who do not deserve to be forced to move and to adapt. As a gesture of customer appreciation, Apple could let them downgrade until the next major release, i.e. OS 27.

 

[I7guy]

The question is: did he leave because he was against Liquid Glass and he got overruled and frustrated by management not listening to him? Or did he leave because he was the guy behind Liquid Glass and everyone now realises that it's a bit crap?

Or he left because he did his job and everyone now realizes he was a genius and then he got an offer he couldn’t refuse.

 

[lifeinhd]

Apple have only ever had 3 CEO’s in 50 years, don’t think I know of any other company with so few.

Er, what? First off, 50 years ago was 1975, and Apple wasn't started until 1976 and didn't get its first CEO until 1977, but that's neither here nor there. Since then, they've had:

• Michael Scott
• Mike Markkula
• John Sculley
• Michael Spindler
• Gil Amelio
• Steve Jobs
• Tim Cook

 

[nickpro]

I'm intent on avoiding iOS 26 completely and hoping that 27 will be more refined.

Good luck with that lol

 

[conmee]

Er, what? First off, 50 years ago was 1975, and Apple wasn't started until 1976 and didn't get its first CEO until 1977, but that's neither here nor there. Since then, they've had:

• Michael Scott
• Mike Markkula
• John Sculley
• Michael Spindler
• Gil Amelio
• Steve Jobs
• Tim Cook

Can’t believe I miss Gil now… ;-)

 

[springer7217]

This is exactly why you don't report bugs!

 

[kironin]

Apple crap move not to allow security fix for everyone.

“Apple strongly recommends all users update to the latest iOS version, such as iOS 18.3.2 or later, as the updates contain vital bug fixes and security patches to protect against known exploits.”

 

[DENZIE]

18.7.3 was released December 12, 2025. That's 4 days ago and for half of the world we aren't on Sunday yet.

4 days ago was 17 December

 

[eXoenDo]

26.2 was the first release that I truly felt bugs were finally getting better on. I miss the days of old Day 1 software reliability at Apple (with some rare exceptions).

 

[B4U]

Apple just don't f-ing get this.
There are a number of users that do not like iOS 26's 💩 show.
If the vulnerability is so grave, leave that iOS 18.7.3 available.

iOS 26 is such a crap show with minor bugs never seen in previous iOS AND ads running all over the place.
For example, Apple News endless suggests channels that is totally irrelevant. Why suggest Boston news and Chattanooga news when I am nowhere close to either one.
Have to remove every damn suggestion every time I open the Apple News app.