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I absolutely loathe iOS 26

NonAppleHater said:
My only real complaint is that app icons look out of focus. Not sure what the deal is or whether apps just need to update icons. But it doesn’t bother me much.
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I had cataract surgery the day before it dropped. Until I get new glasses next month, I have no idea what those icons really look like.

It will be interesting to find out.
 
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Heat_Fan89 said:
If you thought about upgrading and your little inner voiced whispered "Don't Do It" but you did anyway and now want to go back? Oh oh.

9to5mac.com

Apple stops signing iOS 18.6.2, blocking downgrades from iOS 26 - 9to5Mac

If you’ve been unhappy with iOS 26, and had been thinking about downgrading, you missed your chance. Here’s why.
9to5mac.com 9to5mac.com
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For those who know – because I don't – is this action usually performed this number of days after release of a new version, or more slowly or quickly?
 
I don't know if it was already said, but you can always go to Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size > Reduce Transparency. It gets rid of the glass effect, doesn't look great but it's less distracting.
 
I really like the design, but I've found it is buggier than a usual iOS release. Hopefully that quickly improves with coming 26.x updates.
 
NapoleonIV said:
It reminds me of interfaces from the 90’s. It is something about the boxy outlines around everything. Also the changes to safari are bad. I’m sticking to iOS 18.
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Safari is horrific. We lost the extra screen space with the minimized tabs - most sites now have a weird checkbox and up/down arrows that stay on the screen as I scroll. Not sure what's going on with Safari ... but it's bad.
 
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I've had bugs in iOS releases before but this is the worst. An urgent and quite wide ranging .1 release is needed and clearly the OS needs to be refined over the coming months to address the broader visual issues.
 
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My eyes cannot focus on elements in iOS 26 — even app icons as shown in the App Store are blurry and difficult to look at

Luckily I didn't upgrade my main device and will stay on 18 there as long as I can, but I don't think I'll be able to use iOS 26... I want to remove the pane of glass covering everything and it makes it difficult to look at it for very long
 
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freezelighter said:
After 20+ Years with endless Macbooks Pro, Airs, iPhones every year since 2007, iPads Pro, iPads Mini, iMacs, Homepods, TVs, iPods etc. I now switched to Samsung Galaxy Fold 7 and the Android 16 with UI 8 looks as clean and beautiful as iOS used to be before 7 and especially before 26 which is an insult to every iPhone user.

Waiting for the next year and watching the situation.

Android is the OS to use currently.

iOS is dead, just like Siri and Steve.
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iOS 26 feels like…the manufacturer of your favourite candy just doubled the amount of sugar because they didn’t know what else to do. More sugar = more better, right?
 
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Huff, actually just watched
super chimp said:
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JUST watched this and…..OMFG. That’s awful. I usually hold out on big updates because of bugs (which there doesn’t seem to be a lot of complaints about on 26) but man is that fuglydudley.

Not only is it ugly, but there are some design decisions that’s actually laughable poor in terms of UX.

More like Liquid glASS.

Yeah
 
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rforno said:
I'm neck-deep with Apple products (not services thankfully) but this is the first IOS that's ever really, viscerally, made me seriously consider going back to a Pixel to the point I'm already mapping out equivalent apps. Icon lines are fugly on a dark desktop (I use basic black wallpaper) and the Fisher Price rounded icons/bars are visually distracting in things like IOS Mail no matter what Accessibility settings I try.
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That’s exactly right. iOS 26 is FisherPrice aesthetics…
 
SebCohen said:
Huff, actually just watched

JUST watched this and…..OMFG. That’s awful. I usually hold out on big updates because of bugs (which there doesn’t seem to be a lot of complaints about on 26) but man is that fuglydudley.

Not only is it ugly, but there are some design decisions that’s actually laughable poor in terms of UX.

More like Liquid glASS.

Yeah
Click to expand...

It interested me as it felt like they were already moving away from a central plank of iOS 26 that of liquid glass.
 
Oohara said:
Finally got to test it in a store today. I was instantly put off by the look. Feels like a very unnecessary return to skeumorphism. I was really loving the radically flat icons and design elements that put all the focus on the content and functionality. But here comes fake physical materials and light refractions to get in the way all over again.

That's my subjective opinion though, based on my sense for aesthetics and a tendency to judge things based on principle. Glad for you folks who are enjoying iOS 26. But for me it's so off-putting that I'll probably hold off on getting any of the new phones until the design has been tweaked, a more radical non-skeuomorphic setting included, or until I absolutely need to get a new iPhone.
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I feel the exact same. And one also knows FOR SURE... that in 5 years they will bring a revolutionary new look and feel involving... yeah, you guessed it... FLAT ICONS again! Pathetic. One would think they have much much better things to accomplish.
 
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