I absolutely loathe iOS 26

[FeliApple]

I too have noticed that the upgrade notifications are more frequent than before, both IOS and MacOS. The latter is particularly annoying as an accidental upgrade would require me to reconfigure the NAS that I use for TimeMachine backups.

Sure, but that doesn’t make it harder to avoid. Just more annoying.

Avoiding updates by themselves is easy, the issue is when you’re five, six versions behind. Compatibility suffers too much because devs are pathetic and love to drop support.

 

[super chimp]

Sure, but that doesn’t make it harder to avoid. Just more annoying.

Avoiding updates by themselves is easy, the issue is when you’re five, six versions behind. Compatibility suffers too much because devs are pathetic and love to drop support.

One of the apps I use has already dropped support for iOS 16.

 

[AdamInKent]

Sure, but that doesn’t make it harder to avoid. Just more annoying.

In my mind it makes it harder to avoid because there are more opportunities to accidentally trigger an update by dismissing the requester with the wrong button. YMMV.

 

[FeliApple]

One of the apps I use has already dropped support for iOS 16.

That is exactly my point. Devs are pathetic. Even if you attempt to preserve older iOS versions it is tough.

You can loathe Liquid Glass and iOS 26 all you like. Eventually, if Apple maintains this design language, we will all be forced to it. It may take a while or not too much, but we will be forced.

The only temporary solution is to have sacrificial lambs. Have two iPhones and two iPads, and they should be fairly close in terms of release date, use one on its original version and sacrifice the other. It’s tough with iPhones because we carry them all day, I have an iPhone Xʀ on iOS 12 (and luckily a 16 Plus on iOS 18 and not 26), and even if I had an iPhone (say, a 17) on iOS 26, I wouldn’t be able to use the Xʀ anymore because it is too incompatible to carry with me.

Even if you say “I’ll use the older device for as much as possible”, if the iOS version is old enough you just won’t be able to do anything. But iOS 15 still works relatively well. So you could use that app on a newer phone and use an older one for the rest. Then again when iOS 15 (just to give an example) inevitably loses support you’ll have to drop this regardless.


iPads, if used for content consumption like many people do, have a longer lifespan, but it isn’t unlimited.

To illustrate this, I’m typing from an iPad Air 5 on iPadOS 15.

In my mind it makes it harder to avoid because there are more opportunities to accidentally trigger an update by dismissing the requester with the wrong button. YMMV.

Yes, but IMO you can be caught once. Once you know what Apple does it’s easy to detect and avoid. A better solution? Disable automatic downloads. You won’t get that sneaky passcode to update at night. All you’ll get are occasional push notifications. Those will eventually stop too.

I haven’t seen them on my Air 5 running iPadOS 15. I have on my 16 Plus on iOS 18, but they are easy to dismiss (far easier than that passcode, and there’s no risk of automatic updates).

 

[HouseLannister]

It may take a while or not too much, but we will be forced.

 

[FeliApple]

View attachment 2599711

I like iOS 6. Even if I had a full suite of iOS 6 devices (I only have an iPod Touch 5G), I wouldn’t be able to use them for practically anything.

That’s why I am so harsh with my criticism of devs.

By artificially limiting compatibility, they literally make devices obsolete by force, when they shouldn’t be.

This issue has always been there, and after the backlash that iOS 26 is getting, hopefully adoption plummets. Then they might give a solution.

This yearly updates thing is garbage, as it inevitably makes devices obsolete far faster. An iPhone 6s/7 is at the limit of compatibility.

I reckon a fully updated (and therefore poor) iPhone 8 is the oldest iPhone we can use comfortably. Maybe a 6s/7 if our requirements help, but nothing older.

And that is by updating and therefore worsening the device. Because maybe it wouldn’t be too bad if we can’t use the iPhone 6, but with a stable, quality, original version, we need an iPhone 13.

Five models of iPhones (from a total of 14 yearly releases, 2007-2025) are usable on original iOS versions, and that’s horrible. I think that at least iOS 9 should practically be fully compatible. Not too many people main an iPhone 6, but the 6s is still used sometimes. Useless on iOS 9 or 10.

If people update anyway to iOS 26 in spite of the backlash, well, I guess we get what we deserve. There are some rumours of lower adoption, but Apple hasn’t released numbers yet.

 

[scrane]

It's just a phone. I find (unfortunately) that I have more important things to worry about. Have you read the news?

 

[SalisburySam]

What is different about your devices?

None of my iDevices updated or tried to force me to update in the last week. If you see the timing of previous pushes to release,  has been slower this time with the notification campaign... but if you have updates turned off, it isn't like they haven't gone in and changed that.

Despite having notifications off and updates not automatic, I still get notifications to update my iPhone and iPadPro every time I open the Home screen. At least on macOS I only have to see the badge on the Settings icon, easily disregarded.

 

[HouseLannister]

and after the backlash that iOS 26 is getting, hopefully adoption plummets.

I kind of doubt that. Adoption estimates are all over the place and Apple won't comment. Hard to tell if we are in a vocal minority or not. I think adoption is higher than we expected but lower than Apple was expecting. Either way, I don't think Apple makes design decisions based on user sentiment. It could be a 20% adoption, but as long as it doesn't affect the stock price, it's acceptable. They pave their own path and expect us to follow along.

Oddly, most of the Apple podcasts have pivoted away from Liquid Glass bashing to Tahoe hate with a splash of Tim Cook's dealing with Trump. The amount of doom and gloom is growing every month, but the Liquid Glass reaction seems to have been dulled. Listening to The Rebound yesterday was amusing me when one of them wanted to try a Linux phone solely due to Tim Cook being photographed with Brett Ratner.

 

[macaddiict]

I still get notifications to update my iPhone and iPadPro every time I open the Home screen

This is not typical behavior, and if you're seeing this on more than one device the only thing that comes to mind is ... maybe you're using these very rarely? Apple does push alerts at least every two weeks or so based on my experience. If you don't manually clear the alert from notification center, maybe you're seeing the same alert multiple times?

You can move Settings app to a different screen if you just mean the red dot.

 

[tomtattoo]

The challenge for the ugliest icon in iOS26 has a new winner: updated Numbers and wow...
After the mix of iOS18 and iOS26 icons on 26, garnished with some shortcuts because some companies still do not offer a dark icon, there is now a fourth different style on my homescreen.
Seriously..what is wrong with them?

 

[SalisburySam]

This is not typical behavior, and if you're seeing this on more than one device the only thing that comes to mind is ... maybe you're using these very rarely? Apple does push alerts at least every two weeks or so based on my experience. If you don't manually clear the alert from notification center, maybe you're seeing the same alert multiple times?

You can move Settings app to a different screen if you just mean the red dot.

I use my iPadPro daily for several hours. My iPhone is used also daily for (shockingly) phone calls, messaging, and automotive controls.

Thanks for the tip to move the Settings app…hadn’t thought of it.

 

[super chimp]

Do people think app developers drop support quicker for older versions of iOS than developers on Android. Looking at my ancient Android device on Android 11.1 all the apps installed on it are still getting updates including all the Google ones.

 

[dadders6]

Wait until you've tried the swipe-to-get-back gesture on an Android phone 😉

Android has a setting where you can change swiping to the good old fashioned 'back' arrow.

 

[Davieis]

View attachment 2594723

I’ve been wracking my brain on how I can reduce the glass distortion effects system-wide, but still have animations when swapping between apps. I am still testing it out, but I think I just figured it out and it is so simple.

First, enable Reduce Motion system-wide. Then, go to Per-App Settings and disable Reduce Motion for Home Screen & App Library.

You get a beautiful, readable “frosted glass” (or old-school iOS 7 blur, I suppose) with zero distortion in all your apps this way, but you still keep your full-glass notifications, dock, and app folders.


The only “issues” I noticed right away are:

1. Step two needs to be enabled, then disabled again after every reboot
2. Safari tab switcher motion is reduced, as expected. Just isn’t as pretty as stock.
3. Pop-up menus have a 0.5 second lag I need to adjust to, because the animation is changed to a simple fade.

Thank you for posting this. I had no idea you could have per app accessibility settings.

I turned on ‘Increase Contrast’ system wide so that the keyboard remains opaque in apps, but left it off for the Home Screen and App Library so that the icons don’t get darkened. Made a significant improvement!

 

[Brettka7]

Thank you for posting this. I had no idea you could have per app accessibility settings.

I turned on ‘Increase Contrast’ system wide so that the keyboard remains opaque in apps, but left it off for the Home Screen and App Library so that the icons don’t get darkened. Made a significant improvement!

I’m glad it helped! I checked out Increase Contrast and it seems to remove 100% opacity, so the frosted glass goes away entirely for me. Not even any Gaussian blur, everything is just a solid color.

Does it do the same for you?

 

[Davieis]

I’m glad it helped! I checked out Increase Contrast and it seems to remove 100% opacity, so the frosted glass goes away entirely for me. Not even any Gaussian blur, everything is just a solid color.

Does it do the same for you?

Yes, exactly. This doesn’t bother me, as I dislike the glass on virtually everything. However, the non-glass Home Screen looks a bit dull, so I set it to keep glass on this area only.

 

[thatJohann]

I hate iOS 26. Never have I hated a keyboard more than I do now. Typos 24/7. Makes me want to throw the iPhone against a wall.

 

[no0nefamous]

There are three things that are bugging me a lot about iOS 26:

1. Seems like the RAM management is extremely over-aggressive. Apps will refresh their content after seemingly only a few seconds in the background.

2. Lots of stuff "pops in" after an app or page has launched and loaded. Like a weird delay. Maybe related to the aggressive RAM management.

3. Auto-correct is atrocious and typing anything is a total chore now.

 

[scrane]

I just wanted to bump this because this is my favorite thread. I hate to think the malcontents are running out of steam.

 

[super chimp]

I just wanted to bump this because this is my favorite thread. I hate to think the malcontents are running out of steam.

Malcontents because people want a workable UI?

 

[kamikazeeMC]

Went to go help my uncle with some PC issues and also needed to reauthenticate an email account on his 16PM, haven't missed iOS26 at all. I've always prefered completely disabling navigation animations on Android and Windows, but was never really bothered by the iOS ones as they were nice. But going back to 26 it just feels slow, I wish there was an option to disable completely, as selecting the reduced option still has the same time delay.

 

[I7guy]

Ios

I just wanted to bump this because this is my favorite thread. I hate to think the malcontents are running out of steam.

iOS 26.3 to me is a solid release. Good performance and good battery life on my iPhone. Now all Apple needs to do is get 26.4 out the door with what they promised.

 

[southerndoc]

Ios

iOS 26.3 to me is a solid release. Good performance and good battery life on my iPhone. Now all Apple needs to do is get 26.4 out the door with what they promised.

I thought personalized Apple Intelligence was coming out with 26.4. Guess not. At this rate, we'll get it with iOS 28.

 

[super chimp]

Ios

iOS 26.3 to me is a solid release. Good performance and good battery life on my iPhone. Now all Apple needs to do is get 26.4 out the door with what they promised.

Have they fixed the keyboard issues? That’s one of the key issues stopping me upgrading?