I absolutely loathe iOS 26

[coolfactor]

I've upgraded all three of my devices — MacBook Air M1, Apple TV 4K, and iPhone 13 Pro. It is a bit jarring to get used to, but humans are known to adapt. After a week, you'll have adjusted.

When my Mac first rebooted after the update, and I saw how the buttons appeared on the introductory screens, I said "uh oh, this can't be good", because they were totally lacking in contrast and nearly invisible against the background, but they didn't represent the entire Liquid Glass effect across the system.

On my iPhone, I also notice "visually taxing" interface elements that boggle the brain. The clock is now hidden behind my Lock Screen wall paper subject, so it can be hard to read the time.

But here's the good news — there are *plenty* of customization options to tweak the appearance to meet your needs. The out-of-box design is not going to be compatible with everyone.

Be patient, investigate the customization options, and use the Feedback Assistant app on your Mac (if you have one) to politely share your experience with Apple so that they can continue to refine the appearance.

Or stomp your feet and switch to Android. You have choices. 🤓

 

[coolfactor]

The lock screen notifications are almost unreadable

The "Increase Contrast" option in Accessibility *immediately* solves that. Try it. You can also try the "Reduce Transparency" option, but I found that to be too much when combined with Increase Contrast. One of both of those options may help you.

 

[jumbo81]

Have to agree, I don't like IOS 26 either. I get it some people will love it. Everybody likes different things, but to me Apple have lost their way.

Lots of users, People on Youtube etc, will defend Apple for whatever they do, that's fine as well.

Have been thinking about getting a Zfold 7 since the summer and with IOS 26 and the new Iphone 17 pro max release, Apple have made my choice easy.

If Steve was still here he would have sacked the lot of them.

Enjoy the new update and phone 17 everyone, Its certainly not for me.

 

[bluesteel]

Just “up”graded my iPhone to iOS 26 and I absolutely hate it. It’s visually the ugliest iOS Apple has ever produced. The icons all have a distracting (and non-sensical) edge to them. The blurred wallpapers look nothing like they used to.

It’s so ugly I’m thinking of cancelling my iPhone Air order and looking at Samsung options.

My sentiments exactly, although I'm not switching to an Android phone. I have used iPhone since the very first one, and I have never had an issue with iOS design. This is the first time that I truly dislike the design. It's just so ugly. The highlighted edges on the icons is the worst part imo.

 

[Rob.G]

I hate it too. I could roll it back but that's the same as starting over with a fresh phone.. I'd have to re-add all my Google accounts and everything else. If I do that I will go buy an Android phone.

The thing that has be pissed off right now is Recent Calls. What idiot thought it was a good idea to make you have to go into a Recent call record and then MARK READ to make it clear the notification??? This is insane.

I won't even go into how stupid "liquid glass" looks and "reduce transparency" doesn't stop the stupid animations.

I'm definitely NOT upgrading my Mac. I almost did and decided not to.

 

[jonnyb098]

I dislike it as well. And the experience on my 13 Pro is terrible - all the animations run slower than iOS 18, and there is a sluggish feeling in how things perform

Apple literally put out a document saying expect it to run rough for a while and battery to take a hit. Every year it’s the same thing over and over with the complaints. “mY pHoNe iS sLoW” and “mY baTtErY is bAd “.

 

[jonnyb098]

For me on iPhone 16 pro max the animations were choppy and not smooth like iOS 18 , the glass elements make things unreadable, the stock apps seem unusable because the obsessive need for apple to make everything transparent .
I could go on but it makes me wonder how any one at apple thought this was the right thing to do .
And you can’t compare this to the iOS 6 to iOS 7 redesign it’s completely different
iOS 6 did have its issues and iOS 7 while dramatic did resolve issues and eventually it was better , iOS 26 and beyond will never get better this is bad really bad and for the average person who upgraded to the 17s because of phone plans will have a massive shock .

In one breath you say iOS 7 got better over time and in the next say iOS 26 won’t? You make zero sense.

 

[ultratiem]

The icons all have a distracting (and non-sensical) edge to them.

This. This is the destroyer of worlds.

I don't know what the entire team has been smoking to convince themselves all this was a good move. But the uncanny valley effect of the faux shine border on every ****ing icon that doesn't actually work 70% of the time anyway (bewildered they did such a bad job coding but then parallax effects off the home screen have traditionally been ******* anyway, so, yay us), is just, insufferable. I don’t want to disable all of motion, I just want those gone. With prejudice!!

Subjectively it doesn't even look good to begin. Why even code it? Since when has light worked like that? If they couldn’t render the effect for whole of the screen like the glass sheet on Notification Panel, then full stop. It’s so tacky I would be embarrassed to ship, no lie.

Moreover, it doesn’t make semantic sense. If they react to motion, people aren’t going to be enjoying it as no one uses a device while actively moving the screen around. If the screen is moving, they likely aren’t looking, think about it. We actually do the exact opposite: try and stabilize the display so it has the least amount of motion when in use. It looks cool (again, I guess) for demos but has an insane zero sum increase to UX. A disparaging amount actually. At they spent millions to code it anyway. An insane road for a company with once such world class taste in design.

This reeks of people who aren’t designers having wayyyyyyyy too much control.

Apple has fallen off a cliff with all of OS 26. If every device runs the same exact UX-UI (macOS’ version of Music feels so needlessly claustrophobic), what are we even doing anymore? And if that’s the end game, why not optimize and do an SL pass?!? Doesn’t matter if it works, just so long as it looks cool (which it does not)? Is ChatGPT leading Apple? Is Cook using it to run the company? Because that would explain a lot.

 

[jumbo81]

Apple literally put out a document saying expect it to run rough for a while and battery to take a hit. Every year it’s the same thing over and over with the complaints. “mY pHoNe iS sLoW” and “mY baTtErY is bAd “.

And Jonny boy will be at the top of the hill defending Apple with his sword till the day he dies. 😊

 

[Stotka]

Well. I like ios26 visually. It’s fun. I got sick of the flat design all the way back with ios 8 or 9 probably. I love the animations that play out. I even smiled at some of the stuff. Which never happened with the flat design era. Sure some elements are still rough and there are bugs. But which update didn’t have bugs on launch?

 

[lfaa]

iOS 26 looks cheap to me. The way all the UI constantly changes colors and shape and shading is so distracting. To say nothing of the shimmering edges on everything.

Whoever pitched Liquid Glass needs to be moved to sales if they managed to convince the powers that be that it's a good idea.

Maybe it’s possible to freeze everything in the settings ? I ve an iPhone13 and I ´m concerned by the battery life. The only reason for upgrading for me is security and bugs correction . I don’t care about continuous design ´improvement’ 🙂

 

[Act3]

so after a day or so using iOS26 on my iPhone 15, it is a stuttering and laggy mess at times. My 17 pro is coming Friday so hopefully it will be a better experience. There really is no excuse though for it to be a laggy and stuttering mess on the iPhone 15.

 

[Rob.G]

It seems to run fine on my 15 Pro Max but I really, really hate it.

 

[lfaa]

Everyone hated iOS 7 too when it came out. Life will go on.

Yeah people just upgraded their phones !

 

[jonnyb098]

Shouldn't they have waited until it's further 'refined' before releasing this clearly unfinished product? We're not paying bottom-of-the-barrel prices here...

Everyone said the same thing when iOS 7 came out. By the time 7.1 came out they made TONS of changes, improvements and visual tweaks

 

[lfaa]

I hate it too. My advice, reduce transparency in settings and effectively return to the old iOS look. Improves speed as well

What about battery life?

 

[Cape Dave]

It is Windows Vista all over again. As humans, we learn nothing. Vista was the most hated Windows of all time. Because it made it harder to use. We want easier, not harder, Apple. Hire me and I GUARANTEE you that I will tell you what to do to fix this thing the the cat puked up that some call 26. It reeks of vestiges of Jony Ive. Good riddance.

 

[Act3]

It seems to run fine on my 15 Pro Max but I really, really hate it.

good. that phone has better processor and more ram than my 15 so Friday should fix these lag and stutter issues when i get my 17 pro

 

[Silverstring]

I attached b4 and after of my home screen. looks fine to me. I disabled the transparency per app for messages, having the top bottom transparent too much. Looks good on safari though.
View attachment 2549802View attachment 2549803

Why even have the message count badge on at this point? Genuine question.

 

[LordArchie]

I don’t understand why some app icons now look so blurry it’s like I need glasses.

Do't think that is the case when they are (not clear or tinted) colored.. right?

 

[Heat_Fan89]

One thing I noticed on my iPhone 13 is that if I use clear icons, and scroll across the home home page, the icons will take 1-2 seconds to appear, it's just a clear glassy box with no icon.

If I use the regular icons there's no such issue. I decided to go back to 18.6.2 as i'm beginning to think my phone may not have enough power for all the fancy glass stuff. I do like the look but I need to think this thru because once Apple decides to stop signing iOS 18, there's no way to go back from iOS 26.

 

[turbineseaplane]

One thing I noticed on my iPhone 13 is that if I use clear icons, and scroll across the home home page, the icons will take 1-2 seconds to appear, it's just a clear glassy box with no icon.

If I use the regular icons there's no such issue. I decided to go back to 18.6.2 as i'm beginning to think my phone may not have enough power for all the fancy glass stuff. I do like the look but I need to think this thru because once Apple decides to stop signing iOS 18, there's no way to go back from iOS 26.

As a fellow 13 generation user, I think it's smart to stay on iOS18 and let this play out and watch reports from folks on 13's that have moved to iOS26 and see what they are saying as updates go along.

To your point .. once the signing stops, one is screwed and stuck on 26.

 

[T140V]

Even though there were many naysayers, I went ahead and upgraded my 10 Gen pad and 15P phone.
I'm here to say that I don't loath it, I Love it!

 

[HouseLannister]

Ugh! Now my iOS 18 is starting to look glassy. Several app developers have sprinkled glassy icons in their recent updates and the mismatch looks awful.

 

[ZipZilla]

As a fellow 13 generation user, I think it's smart to stay on iOS18 and let this play out and watch reports from folks on 13's that have moved to iOS26 and see what they are saying as updates go along.

To your point .. once the signing stops, one is screwed and stuck on 26.

As a fellow 13 user, I am staying on 18 until 26 gets RCS 3.0 and the new Siri improvements. Likely 6+ months from now. Maybe around 26.4.