I absolutely loathe iOS 26

[Luftkopf]

I know we all have our opinions but to me the yearly release is working fine. When iOS 26 was release we updated every updatable device to iOS 26. Two iPhones and one iPad and it was just fine.

Nobody I know , except on MR has made any comments regarding, sloppiness or whatever. We Know there are bugs, they get fixed. There just weren’t a whole Lot of glitches in my sphere that anybody talked about. And I asked. My OH who everything bothers her has not said word 1 about iOS 26. And since then we bought an Apple TV, iPad Pro m5 and Mac Neo.

I've had a glitch in iOS 26, and mostly during the betas. Sometimes Reminders would freeze after adding an item to my shopping list. A simple swipe up to shut down the app, and reopen it kept it going, no data lost.

There. That's my complete list of bugs encountered with iOS 26.

 

[jjrtiger]

Worst thing:
The Phone App and Contact Card.
The Contact Card template looks like it was created for a Windows Vista/Longhorn Beta version in the early 2000s. I would never have fathomed Apple shipping something so…tacky

Returning calls left on voicemail in the Phone App is very odd, with an inconsistently designed circular Phone App icon in the top left corner rather than with the rest of the voicemail message controls. Yikes.

 

[super chimp]

The thing that’s baffled me is the examples people have put up on here of misaligned icons in iOS 26. I mean surely that must be one of the most basic things to get right.

 

[I7guy]

I've had a glitch in iOS 26, and mostly during the betas. Sometimes Reminders would freeze after adding an item to my shopping list. A simple swipe up to shut down the app, and reopen it kept it going, no data lost.

There. That's my complete list of bugs encountered with iOS 26.

I think the “frozen app” thing happens from time to time and is not particular unique to iOS 26.

I’m surprised at the number of phantom misalignments posters report I cannot seem to reproduce, the “bad color tinting” people complain about and the like.

iOS 26 and ipados 26 works great for me. Performance, battery life, functionality. You know the things that count. I often wonder is more of a magnifying glass being turned to iOS 26 than other iOS versions?

 

[Luftkopf]

I think the “frozen app” thing happens from time to time and is not particular unique to iOS 26.

I’m surprised at the number of phantom misalignments posters report I cannot seem to reproduce, the “bad color tinting” people complain about and the like.

iOS 26 and ipados 26 works great for me. Performance, battery life, functionality. You know the things that count. I often wonder is more of a magnifying glass being turned to iOS 26 than other iOS versions?

Yeah, the narrative has been decided, xyzOS 26 is bad, so reasons why will be found, no matter what.

 

[Barbareren]

I’m so glad I never bought an Intel Mac. The horror. But Tahoe works great on newer Macs with the M-processor. Also, iOS 26.4 is not that bad. It’s constantly improving/evolving.

 

[ab2c4]

I didn't think ios 26 could get worse, then I upgraded to 26.4. The keyboard and typing in general has been bad for years and I thought I read it would be improved with 26.4 but it sure looks to me like its actually even worse now than it ever has been.

I wish I needed a new phone right now or could justify in my mind the cost of getting a new phone but I can't after getting this phone last year (call me cheap lol). I have been planning to switch back to Android for my next phone anyways, I just wish that day was today. Good grief.

 

[SalisburySam]

…iOS 26.4 is not that bad. It’s constantly improving/evolving.

Ringing endorsement, there.

 

[Lionel_Hutz]

26.4 feels like a good update on my 17 Pro. I used the new accessibility settings for reduced flashing and motion and like the change without the extra effects. Typing also feels better.

 

[Luftkopf]

I didn't think ios 26 could get worse, then I upgraded to 26.4. The keyboard and typing in general has been bad for years and I thought I read it would be improved with 26.4 but it sure looks to me like its actually even worse now than it ever has been.

I wish I needed a new phone right now or could justify in my mind the cost of getting a new phone but I can't after getting this phone last year (call me cheap lol). I have been planning to switch back to Android for my next phone anyways, I just wish that day was today. Good grief.

I always wondered what people were on about with how bad the keyboard was, as I never had any trouble with it. However, I’ve had predictive text turned off ever since it was introduced. I always disliked it. It seems that the poor performance of the keyboard is linked to that, as others have seen improvement with the keyboard with it turned off.

Hopefully that helps you have a slightly better time with your phone until you can jump the fence to the greener grass.

 

[smorrissey]

Battery life and performance on iphone 17 feels a little diminished after last update.

 

[ab2c4]

I always wondered what people were on about with how bad the keyboard was, as I never had any trouble with it. However, I’ve had predictive text turned off ever since it was introduced. I always disliked it. It seems that the poor performance of the keyboard is linked to that, as others have seen improvement with the keyboard with it turned off.

Hopefully that helps you have a slightly better time with your phone until you can jump the fence to the greener grass.

That's worth a shot, thank you.

 

[flybub]

I didn't think ios 26 could get worse, then I upgraded to 26.4. The keyboard and typing in general has been bad for years and I thought I read it would be improved with 26.4 but it sure looks to me like its actually even worse now than it ever has been.

I wish I needed a new phone right now or could justify in my mind the cost of getting a new phone but I can't after getting this phone last year (call me cheap lol). I have been planning to switch back to Android for my next phone anyways, I just wish that day was today. Good grief.

Agreed. Keyboard fix was in the changelog for 26.4, and I think they made it worse. My battery seems to die much quicker with the screen on than it did prior to 26.4. I bought a Pixel 10 Pro off Swappa yesterday. I still have 13 months on my contract with this 16 but I can’t do another year of iOS.

My wife is due for an upgrade (she’s been Samsung for years) and I gave her my iPhone to use for a week. She did make it 10 days then politely handed it back to me and said don’t ever put a piece of sh*t iPhone in my hands again. LOL, I was dying inside. At least she tried.

 

[Brettka7]

I pray to the apple gods that we get to remove specular highlights from icons and widgets between now and WWDC26. And I’d love to see a fully-baked tinted glass by WWDC26 because the current dark mode tinted glass is 🗑️

 

[super chimp]

Finally updated for security reasons and yeah it’s really horrible visually. Plus it gives me eye strain in my weak eye. Whoever at Apple thought this was a good idea should be giving their marching orders. It doesn’t help that it looks like babies first OS in its design. Worst update to iOS in years. I think it’s made worse by being quite sluggish on my phone

Also before the update my newish battery on my 13 Pro was 99%, suddenly afterwards it’s 98%.

I doubt I’ll get used to it so it’s just a case of finding a decent small Android phone I think.

Is there anyway to reduce the size of the address bar in safari as the darn thing takes up way too much screen estate on my iPhone?

 

[decafjava]

The keyboard still sucks after the update 😡 🤬

 

[I7guy]

Finally updated for security reasons and yeah it’s really horrible visually. Plus it gives me eye strain in my weak eye. Whoever at Apple thought this was a good idea should be giving their marching orders. It doesn’t help that it looks like babies first OS in its design. Worst update to iOS in years. I think it’s made worse by being quite sluggish on my phone

Also before the update my newish battery on my 13 Pro was 99%, suddenly afterwards it’s 98%.

I doubt I’ll get used to it so it’s just a case of finding a decent small Android phone I think.

Is there anyway to reduce the size of the address bar in safari as the darn thing takes up way too much screen estate on my iPhone?

Safari address bar can go on the bottom.

 

[no0nefamous]

Normally a new iOS version seems to get better throughout the year after it's released, but 26 seems to be getting worse. Noticing more choppiness/jitters/stutters/lag than I did when I first got the phone. I've run diagnostics and recently did a restore, so it's not anything on my end.

I blame Liquid Glass.

 

[Brettka7]

Normally a new iOS version seems to get better throughout the year after it's released, but 26 seems to be getting worse. Noticing more choppiness/jitters/stutters/lag than I did when I first got the phone. I've run diagnostics and recently did a restore, so it's not anything on my end.

I blame Liquid Glass.

I was thinking yesterday that every update feels like another beta. Printing on my work Mac on 26.4.1 is completely broken as well. I hope the ethos of all OS 27 releases are a huge departure from OS 26s, even if they’re visually similar.

 

[D1STORT1ON]

Go to Accessibility and turn on Reduce Motion to minimize the lag and chops. Makes it far less annoying

 

[HouseLannister]

But where's the setting to make everything less washed out? Some of the worst icons I have ever seen.

 

[droplink]

Is this not a screenshot of the System settings icon from the Mac OS 26?
Yeah, sadly you can't. Even the Apple icons look dreadful in the new OS.

 

[HouseLannister]

Is this not a screenshot of the System settings icon from the Mac OS 26?

Yeah, probably. I was trying to find an iOS 18 vs 26 icon comparison, but just kept finding iOS 15 and 16 icons, which were mostly the same IIRC. I have no more devices on iOS 18 to screenshot. I miss that darker steel gray. The calculator, settings, and camera icons are just bad. Even all the black dark mode icons are not black enough. We went to OLED displays so we could finally have that perfect pitch black and all my icons and widgets look washed out at even low brightness levels.

 

[joris538]

Just came from the 12 Pro (which I hadn't updated) to the 17 Pro. Sorry for my rant, but my god, besides the glass shenanigans, this iOS is even worse than I imagined. And it's already at 26.4! Bugs when adding new cards to wallet, bugs when adding eSIMs. Even downloading Apple 'Intelligence' was stuck for two days until I reset my network settings. It just works™, lol.

But what is getting to me most is that they can't even properly align the keyboard (I repeat: in 26.4)—and to make it worse—it's not even consistently misaligned (see the borders below: the left is in Spotlight, the right is in Messages).

The accessibility feature Reachability is barely usable anymore (never had problems with it before), for which they also somehow thought it was a good idea to change the system background color when it's activated, further reducing the already abysmal contrast.

And what is the following supposed to be? If you’re only looking at the hideous first two pills, don’t miss the weirdly aligned 'disabled' dropdown menu under "Phone Calls" (which turned out not to be disabled at all).

Is nobody at Cupertino using an iPhone themselves?

 

[01cowherd]

Is nobody at Cupertino using an iPhone themselves?

I’ve questioned this about the iPad for a couple years now. This is the first year I’ve questioned it for the iPhone and Mac. There are some astonishing oversights low standards to “just ship it”.