Inconsistent Swiping Direction on Toggle Menus

[jfeathe]

In Safari with tabs on top, the toggle to switch between the Start Page and Private Browsing makes sense - you swipe your finger to the right to get to the option on the left.

In Photos however, it's flipped. You swipe your finger to the right to get to the options on the right. It's very unintuitive and almost seems to be a mistake.

What does everyone think?

 

[chabig]

I don't understand which control you're talking about. Please post some screenshots. Everything on my iPad seems consistent. Also, I don't have any swipe controls for switching between the Safari start page and private browsing. I have a button.

 

[jfeathe]

These are the two toggle twitches I’m referencing above. I’m on iPhone 12 Pro and specifically using the “Top” tab view option in Safari.

To scroll between the options on these two toggles, you have to swipe your finger in opposite directions. It’s a small thing but I found it very puzzling why they’d act differently.

 

[chabig]

I thought you were talking about iPad. I haven’t installed any betas on my phone so I cannot comment.

 

[chabig]

In Photos however, it's flipped.

You mentioned Photos, but you posted a screenshot from the Camera. On iPad, the sidebar controls seem to be consistently on the upper left. Camera doesn't really have a sidebar, so I don't think it's inconsistent to have a different control.

 

[tim_apple]

Yes it is inconsistent. The camera app seems backwards, it doesn’t do what I expect. I suspect it will be reverted in the next beta to “normal” behavior.

 

[jfeathe]

You mentioned Photos, but you posted a screenshot from the Camera. On iPad, the sidebar controls seem to be consistently on the upper left. Camera doesn't really have a sidebar, so I don't think it's inconsistent to have a different control.

My apologies. I meant the Camera app and this is just on iPhone.

Now that I’ve studied iOS26 a little more, I’ve noticed more instances of toggles acting like the one in the Camera app as opposed to Safari. I think Apple intends for there to be a little glass bubble on top of the options that you tap and drag right or left to get to your intended option. So I think Safari is the app with the abnormal behavior.

 

[Pudlo]

My apologies. I meant the Camera app and this is just on iPhone.

Now that I’ve studied iOS26 a little more, I’ve noticed more instances of toggles acting like the one in the Camera app as opposed to Safari. I think Apple intends for there to be a little glass bubble on top of the options that you tap and drag right or left to get to your intended option. So I think Safari is the app with the abnormal behavior.

It's utterly huge stupidity, I moved from windows years ago and from android last year. It was apple who were pushing swiping in an oposite direction everywhere bc it was like so called "turning pages" and I got so used to it that like when switching windows on macos I swipe opposite, when swiping back/forth I do it in opposite direction I just got used to the idea that I'm flipping pages everywhere like swiping out with my finger imaginery page but now the new ios26 is a complete mess...like you can go to safari and just by swiping bottom address bar button in an opposite direction you again swipe pages as for years...but for some stupid reason when you are using camera you are not turning pages anymore and you must sipe in a direction you want to move...and that stupidity works wrong way even when you swipe not on a button but on a center of the screen (yeas you can do that bc REMEMBER it is all about swiping out pages) but ofc it works the wrong way here too. like wtf

TLDR 100% agree with you it is messed up

 

[Paddle1]

It's Liquid Glass. They want it to feel like you are physically interacting with and touching the glass itself, so it slides with your finger.

 

[BigBlur]

They "fixed" this in Beta 5 by adding a "Classic Mode Switching" setting for the Camera app. With that toggled on, swiping works the same as it does in Safari and the Camera app in previous versions of iOS.

It's still a mess, IMO...

There are two ways you can switch between modes in the camera app:

• Swipe on the bottom bar
  • Personally, I like it the new way where you are moving the glass bubble to the mode you want. This is essentially how it works in all other apps in iOS 26, except for Safari.
    • This may seem backwards to some people, especially if you're used to how it works in previous versions of iOS. Turning "Classic Mode Switching" on for the Camera app fixes this.
• Swipe on the image preview (e.g. in the middle of the screen)
  • With "Classic Mode Switching" off, this seems backwards to me here. For example, I need to swipe the screen to the left to get from Photo to Video. My mind sees 'Video' to the left of 'Photo' in the bar and wants to swipe the screen right to move it into the bubble...but I need to remember it's the bubble that's moving even though I'm not actually interacting with it, so I need to swipe the screen left.
    • I could turn "Classic Mode Switching" on to fix that, but then the bottom bar will be "backwards" or inconsistent with most of the other apps.

Also, why haven't they updated Safari to have the new switching behavior? It's the oddball out. Why make the switching behavior toggle specific to the Camera app rather than at the OS level, so that it can be consistent everywhere? I get that it's still beta and things can change, but Liquid Glass is the main feature of iOS 26. It seems like this is something that should have been implemented by now, considering that we are nearing the end of the betas, with probably 3 betas/weeks left.

 

[tomtad]

It's Liquid Glass. They want it to feel like you are physically interacting with and touching the glass itself, so it slides with your finger.

Except it doesn't in Safari even though the control looks identical to Photos. It goes the other direction.

 

[tomtad]

They "fixed" this in Beta 5 by adding a "Classic Mode Switching" setting for the Camera app. With that toggled on, swiping works the same as it does in Safari and the Camera app in previous versions of iOS.

It's still a mess, IMO...

There are two ways you can switch between modes in the camera app:

• Swipe on the bottom bar
  • Personally, I like it the new way where you are moving the glass bubble to the mode you want. This is essentially how it works in all other apps in iOS 26, except for Safari.
    • This may seem backwards to some people, especially if you're used to how it works in previous versions of iOS. Turning "Classic Mode Switching" on for the Camera app fixes this.
• Swipe on the image preview (e.g. in the middle of the screen)
  • With "Classic Mode Switching" off, this seems backwards to me here. For example, I need to swipe the screen to the left to get from Photo to Video. My mind sees 'Video' to the left of 'Photo' in the bar and wants to swipe the screen right to move it into the bubble...but I need to remember it's the bubble that's moving even though I'm not actually interacting with it, so I need to swipe the screen left.
    • I could turn "Classic Mode Switching" on to fix that, but then the bottom bar will be "backwards" or inconsistent with most of the other apps.

Also, why haven't they updated Safari to have the new switching behavior? It's the oddball out. Why make the switching behavior toggle specific to the Camera app rather than at the OS level, so that it can be consistent everywhere? I get that it's still beta and things can change, but Liquid Glass is the main feature of iOS 26. It seems like this is something that should have been implemented by now, considering that we are nearing the end of the betas, with probably 3 betas/weeks left.

Exactly this. The default behaviour for this style of toggle should run in the same direction, they look the same yet on one I'm pushing the glass blob around and the other I'm moving the labels behind around.

It's also strange that in one app, Camera, this can be reversed as it's a fundamental UI interaction. Anyone who does use this setting will find Safari works the other way around (well if they change it that is)

 

[Spectrum]

So at least I've now read and understood why the camera controls seem so messed up on ioS26: It's because they are backwards! The other issue I have is that the shutter button has moved up too high on the display (iPhone SE3). It used to be easy to reach, now it is too high up and obscures the framing of the camera view. Ugh.