Unfortunately macOS 26 will have to wait until late August, I have to many urgent deadlines to risk running a beta OS on my Mac.
I look forward to hearing how it goes on your iPad.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
I miss the iOS 18 design
- Thread starter MakaniKai
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I look forward to hearing how it goes on your iPad.
See I don't remember this at all.
Windows Phone 7 was smooth as butter on its initial release. 8 was a brilliant follow-up. It made everything else look hideously dated.
Android Lollipop was a huge effort by Google to codify and homogenise design in Android which up to that point was frankly a mess. It came with cool new devices like the Moto 360.
iOS7 was the redesign iOS needed to not only keep up with the pack but also move away from some of the skeuomorphosm that had started to become a little silly. Finally the software inside the iPhone 4 matched the hardware on the outside.
The general reaction to flat design across the board was pretty damn positive.
I’ve done just that, today! Glad I made backups. I feel “right at home” again. It’s a much simpler and easy to read UI compared to the glass.
The glass to me currently feels like Apple is shoving it everywhere they possibly can, even if it leads to things being less readable as a consequence. I’ll definitely consider installing it again once the final version is out and I can see how they’ve tweaked it.
I wish in iOS 26 they ditched the carousel app switcher. it's a massive waste of space and too slow. They should do it the way the iPad does it, just show me a bunch of apps.
On the 16 PM, they can easily fit eight app windows on the screen. Would be a hell of a lot more efficient.
On the 16 PM, they can easily fit eight app windows on the screen. Would be a hell of a lot more efficient.
My hot take is that I preferred the iOS 4-6 App Switcher over any of the recent ones. It was so fast to tap what you wanted, and nothing moved in a way you didn't expect.
I've just installed beta 3 over 18.5 on my iPhone 11.
I guess I missed all the excitement as it's all been toned down in this beta it seems, and it's not too different to iOS 18.
I quite like it, although I'm not fussed either way so it seems (to me) like change for the sake of change. What a waste of developer time
Exactly this. It was a UI designed for a 4 inch screen yet we still have it
I am back on iOS 26; the latest beta is looking a lot nicer to me than when I made this thread. My main negative feedback was that iOS 26 made it hard to read a lot of things, and it was giving me a headache for that reason. Lately though it is looking much more polished and I'm happy with it. Part of me will probably always have a little longing for the simpler, flat UI, but y'all are probably right — when they move away from liquid glass I will probably feel the same way as when they moved away from the flat UI. Change is hard!
They are busy brainstorming for what goofy video they will release at next year's WDC. Those don't happen by accident - a lot of hard work and brain power is spent on them!
It's the only beta iOS I've ever downgraded from. Looks horrendous - change for the sake of it. A step back from clean, functional design.
It's really interesting seeing people's reactions to new things over time. Back when iOS 7 was released, a lot of people HATED that design. Now, people are begging them to bring it back.
This is before my time, but I wonder how people reacted to the Aqua design of OS X in 2000?
This is before my time, but I wonder how people reacted to the Aqua design of OS X in 2000?
They're free updates, so I don't care whether they're yearly incremental changes or major changes every few years. The only benefit would be that the updates are perceived to be bigger, but the end result would be the same. In fact, that would mean Apple would be withholding new features because they're saving them for 2028.
I would prefer the quarterly update method that Google does with its Pixel drops. Announce some features, test them for a couple months, then release them and start again. Zero reason to wait until June every year and less reason that a new phone has to ship with the most-broken version of the OS every single year.
Aqua was HATED when it was new. I remember threads full of people whinging that the interface looked like it was a kids toy, not a professional device.
Well, I gave iOS 26 a full month of beta updates to adjust to.
There is a ton of potential for a gorgeous OS. However, making things totally clear or totally opaque (with zero middle ground) isn't it. I still can't easily read every notification. I still HATE the way control center looks.
If there was a setting halfway between full liquid glass and Reduce Transparency, I think that would be it for me. For example, the glass effect for setting Home Screen appearance would be PERFECT if I could apply it to all the clear glass system-wide. I'm going to let it mature through the betas and stay on iOS 18 for a bit longer.
There is a ton of potential for a gorgeous OS. However, making things totally clear or totally opaque (with zero middle ground) isn't it. I still can't easily read every notification. I still HATE the way control center looks.
If there was a setting halfway between full liquid glass and Reduce Transparency, I think that would be it for me. For example, the glass effect for setting Home Screen appearance would be PERFECT if I could apply it to all the clear glass system-wide. I'm going to let it mature through the betas and stay on iOS 18 for a bit longer.
Totally agree. It seems like they’d satisfy the vast majority of people if they had a way to control how “liquid” vs “frosted” the glass is in various places. For me, I think I’d have it frosted everywhere.
I expect this to become a problem for me. I assume Liquid Glass will be optional?
It distracted from the AI problems, so: mission accomplished!
If you’re talking about the app icons, yes you can still make them colored:
They do have a new sort of …almost a “glow” to them, though. I believe it’s the new way that icons are made, instead of being one picture, it’s a layered icon file almost like a 3D object. So instead of the app developer providing different icon images for each variation (colored, dark, clear, tinted), they just make one icon file and then Apple renders it in the chosen style.
Something interesting is that if you move your phone around, the glow/shimmer around the layers moves around like light is bouncing off of it the way sunlight would bounce off your glass display.
I just hope I can stay on iOS 18.xx as long as possible as I absolutely hate the new design, for me the glass effect is horrible, I know you can reduce transparency which helps a bit but does not solve the horrible glow around each icon, which are even worse in dark mode which I prefer to use. To me it just makes the devices look like toys now compared to iOS 18.xx and reminds me of that rubbish Windows Vista that was released many years ago. Usually I would be on the beta by now enjoying it, I did put it on my iPad recently but within an hour I went back to iOS 18.xx ☹️
Last edited: