I absolutely loathe iOS 26

[RedGT]

From the point of view using on my 13 pro max it’s more floaty than liquid.

I liked the snappy feel at first, but sometimes it feels a little bit too forced.

And I wasn’t impressed with the look of the icons unless it in dark mode.

To be honest when I’ve updated the phone previously it has felt smoother, but not this time.

 

[Ifti]

I upgraded yesterday, and mine looks very much like it did before, with small GUI tweaks here and there of course. I don't mind it so far.

 

[Ifti]

The outlines move from side to side if you move the phone 360

Just noticed this lol
I'm a sucker for a bit of eye candy
lol

 

[Ctrlos]

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.

I felt the same way.... in July. Now its settled in Liquid Glass is really nice. Any change taked time to adjust to. Think of it like moving house. It doesn't really feel like home for the first few months.

 

[killhippie]

Loving iOS 26 on my 16 Pro, things seem faster than 18 for some reason, same on my iPad M4 and Mac Studio M4 Max. A few bugs but I like going with change, and the call screening feature in iOS is long over due, so far I'm enjoying the updates.

 

[SoYoung]

The thing I don’t like is that almost no apps have been updated for the new liquid glass design, so only Apple’s own apps look nice. Every other app feels off. The ChatGPT app, for example, looks broken on iPadOS. Also, the keyboard doesn’t look the same in apps that haven’t been updated. Right now, iOS 26 really feels inconsistent across the whole OS, and I’m still shocked that after three full months of beta testing, almost no apps have been updated to match the new design.

 

[royas]

The thing I don’t like is that almost no apps have been updated for the new liquid glass design, so only Apple’s own apps look nice. Every other app feels off. The ChatGPT app, for example, looks broken on iPadOS. Also, the keyboard doesn’t look the same in apps that haven’t been updated. Right now, iOS 26 really feels inconsistent across the whole OS, and I’m still shocked that after three full months of beta testing, almost no apps have been updated to match the new design.

That bothers me, too. Also the new liquid glas ui redesign requires lots of work. So it'll be inconsistent for a while. Also I question if even app developers will care enough about this. Is this effort even worth it for them?

 

[dindjarin]

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.

Good. Buy Android then. I don’t remember Apple coming to my door to force me to upgrade or buy anything. We all have freedom of choice.

 

[firewire9000]

iOS 7 again, I’m old enough to remember it.

 

[klky]

Sounds like a lot of folks aren't feeling iOS26. Typically, I wait a bit to see the reactions and for Apple to iron out some of the kinks before jumping in. I'm still happily running iOS17.7.

 

[indychris]

Got to say, I am not sure I'd use words as strong as yours but I don't like it at all. I want to turn the liquid glass off for sure. Tat little faint line around the outside just looks like it's a bad design finish. Certainly the worst iOS upgrade for a very long time. I am not sure what they hoped to achieve from it (aside of a glass look, obviously!) It feels like a case of change for the sake of change. I'm not sure this would have got through if Johnny Ive was there.

Maybe Apple held a design team retreat at Cracker Barrel.

 

[aries81]

iOS 7 again, I’m old enough to remember it.

Haha I remember all the hate when that one dropped. Eventually it all faded away though.

 

[Ubuntu]

That bothers me, too. Also the new liquid glas ui redesign requires lots of work. So it'll be inconsistent for a while. Also I question if even app developers will care enough about this. Is this effort even worth it for them?

As an app developer I do want my company's app to not look too old so we'll get around to it eventually. I think some of the bigger brands that tend to use more custom UI will take longer for the reason you mentioned - it's a lot of work, especially because it introduces weird cases that don't need to exist (e.g. a liquid glass button in Mail/Safari that's over partially black/white content results in the text being only partially legible).

What didn't help was that Apple kept changing their minds about liquid glass during the beta period, it almost felt like an alpha tbh.

 

[AlixSPQR]

I don't mind it, since I haven't installed it. I'll do it when it's not so rough around the edges.

 

[timeislove]

Within a week you will be used to it and then will be right here next year complaining about the next one. My gosh people, it is a phone operating system. You are not dying. You will adapt. If this is the worst thing that happens to you all week, then you will have a good week.

I am not complaining.

I was responding to someone who wondered why Apple spent great effort on revamping UI for every iterations while leaving a nos of apparent bugs untouched.

For me, I don’t think the new UI is too bad, just feel it not making sense for doing away a nos of tiny little things, e.g. useful controls and indications in the new IOS.

 

[timeislove]

I love iOS 26

In what ways?

I found some of them he UI tweaking make things less intuitive and omitting some of the controls, e.g. exposure adjustment for night shots, indications of number of pics in full or summary mode in trip albums, wiping off a tab in Safari requiring one more click, notification popup shown on the top hardly visible owing to the transparency nature of the new UI.

 

[Grayburn]

iOS 7 again, I’m old enough to remember it.

I prefer this to 7 all day long.

 

[namethisfile]

Ngl, the Liquid Glass is jarring. A few thoughts come to mind, it reminds me of the glass dock from the OS X days. So apple might be self referencing to that and to improve it somehow because of modern aesthetic know hows and tech. They went back to thefuture because they think it’s unique or different. It also made sense to them because their pro phone now is also made of unibody aluminum much like the old PowerBook and PowerMac G-era. Tbf, the iPhone 17 pro does have nostalgic look. And that talk of premium well the IP17P is no longer shiny but our OS is now. So they compensated the premiumness whatever that means lol Just my 2 cents

 

[TechRunner]

Will definitely try it out on my iPad Mini 7 before I drop it on my 16PM.

 

[teeshot44]

J

Ppl please can you already calm down hating on it?

It looks 90% identical to iOS 18. Hating on icons?? C’mon, they are less contrasty, easier on eyes.

Apple should have went all-in instead and made it fully skeuomorphic, I imagine how many people would have been whining “where is my minimalism???” “This is end of Apple!!”. Right now Liquid Glass is unfinished and full of useless compromises. I hope in iOS 27 they would double down on it instead of listening to user opinions.

Smh when iOS 7 was rolled out I was in the minority of people who said it looks ugly. And I always wondered, for more than 12 years “how can people even like this abomination??”.

Can’t say 26 is revolutionary but at least BETTER than before, better than stale, outdated iPhone software UI design.

FYI if you are going Samsung, they have constantly been changing icons and looks all over these years, to the point of developing their unique style that both caters to people who love minimalism and at the same time doesn’t give you eye strain because of tons of contrast

If you don't like Samsung's default, unlike Apple, there are 100's of optional launchers and icons available.

 

[Unami]

Minor visual differences (they were bragging about the biggest visual overhaul, which might be true, but I still expected much more change - at times it feels like a winamp-skin), new bugs, a little less visibility and usability (e.g., quite some actions that used to work with one tap now need two) while using an unproportionally amount of ressources for not much functionality gained. I understand that they had to do an overhaul to introduce a lot of elements that don't go edge to edge, for future use in AR, but I don't like how that downgrade was sold to us.

 

[OptimusGrime]

I completely agree. The people that approved this should be fired. Seriously, looks so unprofessional, looks like a sketch. As in typing this, the website banner is on top of what I’m writing lol. It’s so bad.

You have no taste. This is horrible

Or…maybe you have no taste.This is great.

 

[RumorConsumer]

horrendous design. Pendulum will swing back but painful for the time being.

 

[uacd]

J

If you don't like Samsung's default, unlike Apple, there are 100's of optional launchers and icons available.

That all works like 💩. Been here, tried it all. Even purchased few paid themes and icon packs (that turned to be disgusting low resolution do*****). And Samsung doesn’t even care to somehow clean up that mess.

What I love in Apple is that everything works good out of the box. I would love proper theming capability + icon replacement tho, so everyone would be happy, with 3 preinstalled styles: default, minimal and oldschool (that nice iOS 6 aesthetic)

 

[DanneP]

All of these complaints are normal. Apple made some changes. However, once the initial shock of change wears off, and you use the system for a while, everything that’s now new and scary will become normal. Give it some time.

This is not normal. This is a new low from Apple (talking modern Apple). There are UX and design bugs everywhere!