I absolutely loathe iOS 26

[Brettka7]

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).

View attachment 2622594

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.

View attachment 2622599

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).

View attachment 2622600

Is nobody at Cupertino using an iPhone themselves?

The keyboard especially trips me out. I have an iPhone Air, which is also one of 2025’s newest releases. How does the keyboard still not fit the display after all this time?

If they can’t figure it out, just ****ing get rid of the curve. Theres no point of it. It does nothing but cause problems. A squared off lower keyboard in a squared off screenshot is fine.

 

[no0nefamous]

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

I know this is a temporary solution but I can't stress enough how much we should NOT be having to do this on a brand new $1100 phone just to make it look like it can actually smoothly run its own OS.

 

[carswell]

I know this is a temporary solution but I can't stress enough how much we should NOT be having to do this on a brand new $1100 phone just to make it look like it can actually smoothly run its own OS.

Exactly. I paid C$1600 for an iPhone 16 Pro last year and was pleased with the purchase till I was forced to "upgrade" to iOS 26 if I wanted to use my new Apple Watch. Since upgrading, I'm not nearly as happy with the phone, often view it as irritating and that's despite jumping through hoops to minimize Liquid Glass (reduced motion and transparency, increased contrast, no wallpaper). Thanks for nothing, Cupertino!

 

[turbineseaplane]

Exactly. I paid C$1600 for an iPhone 16 Pro last year and was pleased with the purchase till I was forced to "upgrade" to iOS 26 if I wanted to use my new Apple Watch. Since upgrading, I'm not nearly as happy with the phone, often view it as irritating and that's despite jumping through hoops to minimize Liquid Glass (reduced motion and transparency, increased contrast, no wallpaper). Thanks for nothing, Cupertino!

The forced tying of AW to iOS versions is specifically what continues to eliminate AW from any consideration of being in my life.

I've many times thought of getting one just for fitness usage only (for onboard music & cellular), but no way do I want to be forced onto a certain iOS version on my iPhone just to be able to do that.

No way. Never.

 

[I7guy]

I know this is a temporary solution but I can't stress enough how much we should NOT be having to do this on a brand new $1100 phone just to make it look like it can actually smoothly run its own OS.

iOS 26 does run smoothly. Whether one turns down LG is neither here nor there, but my 15PM does just fine.

 

[gregrose]

Got the 17e (on 13 with iOS 18) my god is iOS 26 just soooo awful. It’s a buggy ugly terrible disaster. Keeping the 17e as I really like the phone itself but will stick with iPhone 13 until future updates fix this terrible software. Was able to get a great deal on the 17e so it’ll stay cozy in my drawer until this trash software changes.

 

[I7guy]

Got the 17e (on 13 with iOS 18) my god is iOS 26 just soooo awful. It’s a buggy ugly terrible disaster. Keeping the 17e as I really like the phone itself but will stick with iPhone 13 until future updates fix this terrible software. Was able to get a great deal on the 17e so it’ll stay cozy in my drawer until this trash software changes.

We have iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 on 4 devices and it works very well. Maybe it’s the iPhone 17. But we do not find it ugly or a disaster.

Can you elaborate?

 

[no0nefamous]

iOS 26 does run smoothly. Whether one turns down LG is neither here nor there, but my 15PM does just fine.

Nearly every app that is not first party on the 17 Pro is choppy and stuttery. It's atrocious. Even a lot of built in OS animations stutter. There is nothing wrong with my phone either - I've restored it, set up as new, run benchmarks, and run diagnostics. It's just completely unoptimized. I dislike and actively avoid using my 17 Pro because of how choppy almost everything looks.

Apple has completely lost the plot - the whole point of buying an iPhone is supposed to be that it's smooth and pleasing to use. If I just want it to perform the functions of a smartphone and didn't care if it did it choppy, I'd have bought a $200 Android phone.

 

[Brettka7]

I’ve clean-installed 26.4 on my iPhone Air and I still have random problems. Siri gets stuck among many other issues, gifs in Messages get stuck while sending (have to force close), Airplay is the worst it’s ever been. I so badly wish I could roll back to iOS 18. I hope iOS 27 focuses on making glass more customizable and fixing issues.

I’m just trying to think about what a **** show iOS 7 was and remain hopeful they’ll fix iOS 26 even quicker.

 

[I7guy]

Nearly every app that is not first party on the 17 Pro is choppy and stuttery. It's atrocious. Even a lot of built in OS animations stutter. There is nothing wrong with my phone either - I've restored it, set up as new, run benchmarks, and run diagnostics. It's just completely unoptimized. I dislike and actively avoid using my 17 Pro because of how choppy almost everything looks.

Apple has completely lost the plot - the whole point of buying an iPhone is supposed to be that it's smooth and pleasing to use. If I just want it to perform the functions of a smartphone and didn't care if it did it choppy, I'd have bought a $200 Android phone.

Maybe there are some issues in the iPhone 17. But anecdotally my coworker who has an iPhone 17 isn’t experiencing any of the “issues’ being reported in this thread.

 

[HouseLannister]

Maybe there are some issues in the iPhone 17.

And 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16. 49 pages of problems and other complaints reported in this thread alone.

 

[throAU]

What I don’t get is how they managed to get an approval to prioritise a new GUI. They do have other parts and a bit of a backlog of things that I would have considered more important to fix.

It’s not like the old GUI was bad and looked dated

I suspect this is all a step in the unification of UI elements between macOS, iOS, ipadOS and VisionOS.

You can be sure that Apple are busy cooking something that runs VisionOS, and i’m not talking about another vision pro. Think something similar in form factor to the Meta Raybans. It won’t be the isolating cinema 360 screen experience, more something you’ll be able to wear during your daily activities whilst interacting with the real world.

For a headset device, transparency makes a lot of sense as otherwise you’re literally going to have your vision obscured by the UI when you’re out and about doing things.

 

[I7guy]

And 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16. 49 pages of problems and other complaints reported in this thread alone.

Right, but compared to the hundreds of millions out there it’s probably a statistical insignificance. Now anecdotally my iPhone 14 an 15 are very good on iOS 26. And further anecdotally no one I know is experiencing these random types of issues.

Not saying they don’t happen but there’s also a lot of UI complaining and not specifically some operational issue that stops one from using the phone as intended.

 

[Luftkopf]

And 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16. 49 pages of problems and other complaints reported in this thread alone.

I want to know why I don’t see these problems on my iPhones 11 and 14.

 

[HouseLannister]

I want to know why I don’t see these problems on my iPhones 11 and 14.

Same reason some people can't tell the difference between 60hz and 120hz? Same reason some women don't know they are pregnant for months? Same reason some people say cilantro tastes like soap? Is the dress black and blue or white and gold? You'd have to ask a neuroscientist for the answers.

It's not that your phone is unique, it's that you are unique. Your thresholds and tolerances are different than mine, so you don't notice what I notice. Doesn't make me better. But it doesn't make me wrong.

 

[Luftkopf]

Same reason some people can't tell the difference between 60hz and 120hz? Same reason some women don't know they are pregnant for months? Same reason some people say cilantro tastes like soap? Is the dress black and blue or white and gold? You'd have to ask a neuroscientist for the answers.

It's not that your phone is unique, it's that you are unique. Your thresholds and tolerances are different than mine, so you don't notice what I notice. Doesn't make me better. But it doesn't make me wrong.

Partially, sure. I also think that not all of these bugs are universal. That doesn’t make either of us right or wrong either.

 

[no0nefamous]

A lot of people don't care if their phone is choppy and stuttery as long as it does the things its supposed to do. Then there's more who literally don't pay enough attention to notice. And that is how Apple gets away with releasing completely unoptimized software that makes their powerful devices that are supposed to be premium luxury experiences into stuttery choppy trash that performs no better than a $200 Android.

 

[FeliApple]

Same reason some people can't tell the difference between 60hz and 120hz? Same reason some women don't know they are pregnant for months? Same reason some people say cilantro tastes like soap? Is the dress black and blue or white and gold? You'd have to ask a neuroscientist for the answers.

It's not that your phone is unique, it's that you are unique. Your thresholds and tolerances are different than mine, so you don't notice what I notice. Doesn't make me better. But it doesn't make me wrong.

This. An overwhelming amount of people just don’t care or don’t notice.

As an example, I track battery life. I KNOW that after Apple forced iOS 12 from iOS 9 on my 9.7-inch iPad Pro, I lost about 3.5 hours of SOT. (14 on iOS 9, 10.5 on iOS 12).

I’m pretty sure most users of the general public wouldn’t even notice that. A family member updated the iPhone 11 from iOS 14 to iOS 18. They say it’s perfectly fine. I tested it, it isn’t. It’s mostly okay, but it’s noticeably choppier in small, insignificant ways: slight lag whilst scrolling through Apple Music albums, for instance. I notice that because I’m used to listening to music on original iOS versions (in fact, I’m using my iPhone Xʀ on iOS 12, which is frankly the smoothest iOS device I’ve ever used, a LOT better than my 16 Plus on iOS 18 or my M1 iPad Air on iPadOS 15, for system cases like this one).

So I grab an iPhone with some choppy instances even if it’s mostly okay and I notice. Do I necessarily care too much? No, but I notice. Others may not. Is that wrong? No! But it doesn’t mean that it’s “just as good”. It’s worse but you don’t notice.

This is my long-standing argument against those who claim that iOS updates don’t affect battery life, for example. If you don’t track it, you’d need a rather significant decline to notice it (I would too!). But the fact that you don’t see it doesn’t mean it isn’t there. My 16 Plus gets about 9 hours of SOT and has 65% remaining. Would I notice 7 if I didn’t track it? No. And that’s almost a 25% decline!

I suspect that this is the case with most people who update: not only do they not care enough, but they’re also used to updated devices and their subsequent decline. I’m not, so I typically notice it.

 

[I7guy]

A lot of people don't care if their phone is choppy and stuttery as long as it does the things its supposed to do. Then there's more who literally don't pay enough attention to notice. And that is how Apple gets away with releasing completely unoptimized software that makes their powerful devices that are supposed to be premium luxury experiences into stuttery choppy trash that performs no better than a $200 Android.

You’re right. I might not care about stuttering but I notice. However on ios 26 there is very little stuttering. But apart from that software glitches happen and it doesn’t make my $1200 perform worse than a $200 android. However I still get the premium Apple experience.

 

[Dog Bone Malone]

Personally (dons tin hat), I like IOS 26. I'm currently running 26.5 B3 on my 16PM. Everything is smooth. Battery life is exceptional for me. As the song goes - things can only get better!

 

[Brettka7]

While I understand it’s not a solution to the waste of space, I highly recommend Liquid Glass haters to try an abundance of wallpapers until you find one that you think looks nice. I hated alllllll of the stock wallpapers, hated the way photos looked behind the refractive icons.

These new “Pride” 26.5 beta wallpapers gave iOS 26 new life for me. The frosted glassy-looking wallpaper makes the refractions & UI click a bit more for my mind than anything else could. My color inspiration clearly came from iPhone X.

I’m still looking forward to iOS 27, but don’t quite hate iOS 26 any more with new wallpapers.

 

[flybub]

View attachment 2628562

While I understand it’s not a solution to the waste of space, I highly recommend Liquid Glass haters to try an abundance of wallpapers until you find one that you think looks nice. I hated alllllll of the stock wallpapers, hated the way photos looked behind the refractive icons.

These new “Pride” 26.5 beta wallpapers gave iOS 26 new life for me. The frosted glassy-looking wallpaper makes the refractions & UI click a bit more for my mind than anything else could. My color inspiration clearly came from iPhone X.

I’m still looking forward to iOS 27, but don’t quite hate iOS 26 any more with new wallpapers.

LOL. Fella these issues go far deeper than wallpaper. What you're suggesting is putting lipstick on a pig, unfortunately, it's still a pig.

-Choppy animations pulling down Control Center.
-Copying text at the top of the screen and the dialog box to copy, cut, paste, etc is above and behind the dynamic island.
-Typing in a text box on some websites is slow and lags.
-iPad is not any better. 80% of the time, swiping up to go to the homescreen all my icons disappear. After 8-10 seconds they come back, sometimes I have to turn the screen off and back on.

These are not issues we should have paying premium for these devices. People are getting hosed and they don't even know it. They still blindly hand their wallet over to Apple and say take what you want.

 

[Brettka7]

LOL. Fella these issues go far deeper than wallpaper. What you're suggesting is putting lipstick on a pig, unfortunately, it's still a pig.

-Choppy animations pulling down Control Center.
-Copying text at the top of the screen and the dialog box to copy, cut, paste, etc is above and behind the dynamic island.
-Typing in a text box on some websites is slow and lags.
-iPad is not any better. 80% of the time, swiping up to go to the homescreen all my icons disappear. After 8-10 seconds they come back, sometimes I have to turn the screen off and back on.

These are not issues we should have paying premium for these devices. People are getting hosed and they don't even know it. They still blindly hand their wallet over to Apple and say take what you want.

Never said it wasn’t. You’ll see me criticizing all of this throughout this thread.

Just mentioning the thing that made me not hate my phone in the meantime.

 

[I7guy]

LOL. Fella these issues go far deeper than wallpaper. What you're suggesting is putting lipstick on a pig, unfortunately, it's still a pig.

It isn’t.

-Choppy animations pulling down Control Center.

Haven’t seen it in any iOS 26 or iPadOS 26 device we own.

-Copying text at the top of the screen and the dialog box to copy, cut, paste, etc is above and behind the dynamic island.

Could be the case or not for some devices. Haven’t noticed it.

-Typing in a text box on some websites is slow and lags.

Same applies. Haven’t had that happen.

-iPad is not any better. 80% of the time, swiping up to go to the homescreen all my icons disappear.

Never saw that happen.

After 8-10 seconds they come back, sometimes I have to turn the screen off and back on.

These are not issues we should have paying premium for these devices. People are getting hosed and they don't even know it. They still blindly hand their wallet over to Apple and say take what you want.

I agree buy a product it should perform. Issues are random. Maybe corrupted install. Our devices. IPP M1 and M5. 15PM and 14PM, neo, plus others.

 

[ProbablyDylan]

Clown company can't even align its own buttons.