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Everything New in iOS 26.4 Beta 2

MacRumors said:
The "Edit" menu on the Home Screen uses more transparent Liquid Glass.
Click to expand...

Not only is Apple ignoring fundamental principles of user interface design, they're doubling down on it. Interfaces should make the user experience clearer and easier, not force users to waste time having to focus their entire attention on figuring out what a button does or deciphering menu options.

In iOS 26.3, even with Liquid Glass effects minimized and my lock screen and wall paper set, against my druthers, to black, this happens to me regularly. Infuriating in a device I paid so much for and liked when I bought it.
 
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neuropsychguy said:
Sorry if this is too personal (feel free to not answer), but do you have some form of visual impairment that makes that home screen transparency hard to read? I'm asking because I find it perfectly legible but I also have near perfect vision.
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Just normal senior citizen with bifocals.

iOS 26 has just made everything so difficult to deal with. Absolutely no reason for me to go any deeper since there are so many blogs that have thoroughly discussed it.

This picture was a great example. Move this to a standard reading distance and it's really hard to tell what you are looking at. Clarity of the GUI used to be Apple. It's truly a pity what happened in the past few years.
Post in thread 'Everything New in iOS 26.4 Beta 2'
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/everything-new-in-ios-26-4-beta-2.2478133/post-34444643
 
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I am looking forward to Blood ox re-appering in the Vitals section of the Health app.
And then security updates and bug fixes.
The rest - meh
 
diego.caraballo said:
Is not about the vision "power" of the user.
Is about the WHY. Why the now-fired Apple designer thinks that the transparency adds value to the UI.

View attachment 2607457

A user-friendly UI is not in the way of the user. Is not hard to read, with 20/20 vision or with thick glasses.
You get your business done quickly. No need to waste time interpreting what's on the display.

Glass is nice to contemplate, to play with it. But not in the day-to-day usage.
In a LOT of parts it fits nicely and I like it, but (and a lot of people were quickly to point in the early betas last year) has serious issues otherwise.
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I appreciate your reply, I just don't find any of that hard to read or use. I'm not suggesting my opinions are the only valid ones, I'm just sharing my experiences of having no difficulties at all with Liquid Glass. I like the transparency. I like the look and function overall. Compared to my Android phone (Google Pixel 10), Liquid Glass looks better. My work computer is running the previous version of macOS and is starting to look and feel 'dated'. I know that's subjective, which is why I don't judge anyone for not liking Liquid Glass, I'm simply trying to understand what about it makes it difficult for people to use.
 
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DocMultimedia said:
Just normal senior citizen with bifocals.

iOS 26 has just made everything so difficult to deal with. Absolutely no reason for me to go any deeper since there are so many blogs that have thoroughly discussed it.

This picture was a great example. Move this to a standard reading distance and it's really hard to tell what you are looking at. Clarity of the GUI used to be Apple. It's truly a pity what happened in the past few years.
Post in thread 'Everything New in iOS 26.4 Beta 2'
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/everything-new-in-ios-26-4-beta-2.2478133/post-34444643
Click to expand...
Thank you for replying. I've read through some of those blogs but don't experience what some people are writing about, which is why I'm trying to understand the experiences of others.

Also, the issue with that picture is it's not a screenshot and so is reduced quality. Everything about iOS 26 is crisp on my screens -- at least everything that's supposed to be sharp is so in my experience.
 
neuropsychguy said:
Thank you for replying. I've read through some of those blogs but don't experience what some people are writing about, which is why I'm trying to understand the experiences of others.

Also, the issue with that picture is it's not a screenshot and so is reduced quality. Everything about iOS 26 is crisp on my screens -- at least everything that's supposed to be sharp is so in my
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It’s not that hard to understand: it’s the difference between translucency and transparency. When the content behind a surface is visible, distorted, and competing with the foreground text, it creates unnecessary visual noise and hurts readability. Good UX depends on stable contrast and legibility, and glass-like materials often fail to provide the minimum contrast needed for comfortable reading.

Because you can’t predict what will appear behind the glass, you also can’t guarantee a consistent experience. The interface may look fine in one context and become distracting in another. That’s why, for example, elements like the Safari address bar can keep switching between light and dark appearances depending on the background, which feels unstable and frustrating for users.
 
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neuropsychguy said:
I appreciate your reply, I just don't find any of that hard to read or use.
Click to expand...
liquidbutt.png
 
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fede777 said:
"Reduce Highlighting Effects" What does it do?

Remove the white shine on icons? Reduce the glow on menus when you hover?
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forums.macrumors.com

iOS 26.4 Beta 2 ― Bug Fixes, Changes, and Improvements

No, I think it reduces the (in my opinion ugly and Android-esque) highlight effect when you hold finger on/slide across various buttons across the UI; I don’t believe it has anything to do with the icon edge highlights. Also the bug from beta 1 wherein the redesigned App Store account page...
forums.macrumors.com forums.macrumors.com
 
Hopefully they fixed the Carplay messages bug where it keeps reading the same message over and over every 10 seconds with no controls on the screen to dismiss it or reply.
 
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Anybody else have an issue where CarPlay repeats notifications with reckless abandon, one right after another with hardly any pause?

ETA: I see @scottct1 also just mentioned this
 
So does anyone else notice that some of the existing Siri Intelligence features are not popping up. I noticed that I’m no longer getting suggestions from. Do you think it has to re-download
 
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midkay said:
It’s utterly insane to me that they’re moving random search bars (not all, just some) back to the top of the screen, after FINALLY getting them all consistently at the bottom in iOS 26. Now we’re back to inconsistency, and just after people were getting used to “search at the bottom”. Ugh, huge regression.
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would you rather do it while everyone have the OS installed, This is A Beta Release, This is when they test everything and make all the crazy changes, it doesn't means it will be implemented on the final version.
 
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midkay said:
It’s utterly insane to me that they’re moving random search bars (not all, just some) back to the top of the screen, after FINALLY getting them all consistently at the bottom in iOS 26. Now we’re back to inconsistency, and just after people were getting used to “search at the bottom”. Ugh, huge regression.
Click to expand...

Does this represent an inconsistency across development teams? Different app teams doing different things?

My expectation is that when I tap the Search button, that I can begin typing a search term. But no... in the Games app, it enters "search mode" without the Search field having focus. You need to tap a second time to enter textual search mode. Seems that this is still the case, but that the Search field is more prominently displayed at the top.

Must be a challenge for them to find just the right balance given that the on-screen keyboard takes up much of the screen real estate, so they've decided that it only gets shown if the user *really* wants it, hence requiring the second tap.

BUT — Easter Egg Alert 🥚 — I just discovered, if you double-tap the Search button, it does give the search field focus, and turns on dictation automatically, so you can double-tap and then start speaking to do a search.
 
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