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iOS 26 Liquid Glass Design Drama: Beta 2 vs. Beta 3 Changes in Every App

At least I and other realists are used to all the hate.

It's always the same.
Just a few days ago, I was given a dozen red cards for citing the design as an example of Apple's detachment from reality. What hatred from the fans.
"Best design ever, everyone loves it, except you."

And now the fans are being hit over the head with reality – i.e., the majority.

It's always the same.
 
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DRAMA?

Really? We are on DEVELOPER BETA 3 - d e v e l o p e r - right now the "drama" should have a very small audience. Of course we dont as every man and his dog thinks they are entitled to developer accounts and developer access nowadays and therefore thinks that early betas are something they arent
 
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This is blasphemy!

They literally trashed the liquid glass idea. Legibility aside, I think there should be a silder for those who appreciate the actual glass design to choose more transparency.

Apple should just let users the accessibility option to control the “glassiness” of every aspect of the UI as a whole and for individual apps.

Most of the “changes” now make it look like the iOS before liquid glass. 🤨🧐

*** As a note, I didn’t find the legibility to be that if an issue. But I understand it is a horrible experience for many, hence I suggest further customization abilities. Not less, but more. ***
 
fullauto said:
Please just give us a slider for effect opacity. Disappointed with the reduction of the glass effect. Embarrassing on the revert, the saving grace is a slider.
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It needs to be usable for everybody once released to the public. You are a geek, but an average user won’t even know there is a slider to look for. Even people on these forums ask where to find the Reduce Transparency toggle.
 
con2apple said:
Innovative you can be as the no name underdog. Not as a listed company which has to sell its products.

A thing most people here don’t understand.
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Right, so mega corps will never innovate to play safe I guess.
But that doesn’t seem to be the case though?
 
Huge change compared to beta 2. Now it is more frosted than being transparent. Would like Apple to provide a customization option where the user gets to select the desired level of transparency.
 
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What a downgrade. They can name it iOS 19 now, no longer a redesign but a slight flat aesthetics touch up. Where is the liquid glass future we were promised, Apple?? Their UI designers need to touch some grass and glass to understand they are tasteless and talentless.

1752045819901.jpeg

Just look at this. Maybe if you change background elements for a third time in a row, then maybe the problem isn’t the element itself but the color of the element? Who is this noob who decided to use acidic blue for icon and text?

Liquid glass will never work with these colors. Or else you will have to roll back to Jony Ive-esque iOS 18 styling. To start with, these colors were never good, straight out of a fever dream of LSD “time traveler”.

If they release it like that in September I will be happy when someone brings them to the court for false advertisement again. This is NOT what they have unveiled at WWDC. Intelligent Siri flop again, but with the UI design
 
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one more said:
It needs to be usable for everybody once released to the public. You are a geek, but an average user won’t even know there is a slider to look for. Even people on these forums ask where to find the Reduce Transparency toggle.
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But here is the thing: no matter how the product is designed, it can never please everyone. So, the solution is either assuming literally everyone has IQ the same as someone’s age or design a product that can please normies and enthusiasts alike, to the maximum extent possible. Apple seems to be treading the fine line there.
 
diego.caraballo said:
Cowards. Playing it safe instead of doing something truly innovative.
Doesn't work well in some situations? Make it better.
Instead, they thrown the towel.
Rename it, because it's no longer glass.
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Turns out translucent (glass) layers on top of each other are illegible, big surprise. Nothing innovative about a completely wrong, inherently broken concept.
 
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The problem with this is even though the effect is more subtle it still consumes same resources for running. Is it worth it? Can the system ever be called "optimised" with such resource consuming but barely perceivable decisions behind it?
 
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MegaBlue said:
I love how its very clear a lot of these changes are visual bugs but the community has just collectively decided that not only are bugs in one of the earlier betas a deliberate design change but they’re representative of the final product and Apple as a whole.

Looking forward to when this article gets written about b4 fixing bug- I mean changing things back and everyone’s emotions switch sides, and then the b5 article where we pretend bugs are intentional again, and then the b6 article where….
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You really believe that the reduced transparency, which looks very deliberate in some places, is nothing but a handful of bugs in each and every app?
It’s really that difficult to picture Apple trying out a different approach to their most controversial design decision in a decade?
In what timeline do you live? Does Liquid Glass actually benefit anyone, solve any problem or introduce new and improved functionality over there?
 
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krspkbl said:
What an absolute mess. I know we’re still in beta but c’mon.

It’s so inconsistent and all over the place. Hopefully it’s much better by final release.

Honestly I wish they’d just scrap it but unfortunately it’s their big selling point of iOS 26 lmao.
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it is a major design change release, don’t expect this to be fully polished by final iOS 26 release, it will take 2 or 3 more major iOS release versions to find the perfect equilibrium so do not expect it to be perfect until iOS 29
 
Liquid glass is being touted by Apple as the main feature of OS26 (for iOS, iPadOS, MacOS & TvOS). It would not surprise me if Apple have made (or were planning to make) iPhone adverts highlighting (or at least heavily featuring) this feature.

Many people said when the first beta was released - it's a cool effect, but it means that users often have to fight against it to see the UI features, greatly reducing usability. Now Apple seems to realise that too (due to all the beta feedback?) and is dialling the effect back. If they are not careful, they are going to end up in a position where, by ensuring that the UI is always legible, they have scaled back the liquid glass effect so much that the average person can't really tell anything has changed from iOS18.

At that point, it will be the second year in a row where Apple's main tentpole OS feature will turn out to be a damp squib (and in the minds of the public, heavily oversold). Someone (quite senior) is could very well get fired for this...
 
I always assumed a redesign of huge parts of the UI would be huge redesign of the UI, guess not.
Almost everything about the default interface has been tampered with, I can’t think of a single default app that hasn’t been changed. Even if Liquid Glass is times down, the buttons and menus are still all different.
 
pratax2 said:
it is a major design change release, don’t expect this to be fully polished by final iOS 26 release, it will take 2 or 3 more major iOS release versions to find the perfect equilibrium so do not expect it to be perfect until iOS 29
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Yes that’s the point. Leaving behind everyone and every device that can’t update next year and the year after that. Knowing that these people will be left behind with a flawed design that didn’t have to be introduced. Next year it’s all iPhone 11‘s, then 12, then 13. Millions of new iPhone 5‘s running iOS 11.
No body asked for this and Apple should know better, frankly.
 
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Funny enough I gave my iPhone with beta 3 installed to my BF because I just have too many phones (lol) and so far he hasn't even noticed or said anything. It's funny how little attention some people give to those kind of things. Must remember that not everyone is reading pages like MR in their free time.

Anyway, if it stays like this, Apple needs to re-do its whole iOS 26 marketing: https://www.apple.com/os/
 
GrassShark said:
Probably because it would look awful. Drop shadows are generally a not a good solution. Not to mention having a shadow over translucent glass makes no sense from a design or material perspective.
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They had shadows in interfaces back in the days and it looked good. The main goal of user interfaces is not to look nice but to be easy on eyes and findable. After iOS 7 they abolished most drop shadows and that was a big mistake, it decreased legibility by a large margin
 
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