iOS 26's Liquid Glass Design Draws Criticism From Users

[maxoakland]

I agree it lacks polish. If the only complaint are the visual bugs and lack of polish, that irks me too.

But as a design concept and metaphor, iOS 26 is far superior to iOS 18.

I read the bulk of the complaints to be on the latter point, not the "this just lacks polish right now" point you're making.

No, the legibility is also a huge problem

 

[arc of the universe]

I immediately downgraded back to iOS 18. I was embarrassed for how silly, cartoonish, and fruity my phone suddenly looked. And it ran super slow. Surprised they don’t even let you switch it off. Avoid the upgrade especially if on an older iPhone.

i agree it makes it look a little silly and/or cartoonish. your words.

that precisely why i like it ! i call it a fresh look. light. fluid. but i do understand that some people prefer an iOS to just look, well, old...and less challenging to them. i can appreciate that, too.

also, im running iOS 26 on my iPhone SE (2)*. and its not running super slow - and that's even though my SE2 has only 81% battery health indicated.

*until my iPhone Air comes. and then iOS 26 is going to look even better.

 

[Dmoney77]

LOL, people are still crying over Liquid Glass? Just how people were crying over iOS 7 back then. Man, this too will pass with future updates and refinements. Personally, I’m loving this new update as the flat design that we had in previous updates was getting stale. iOS 26 makes my phone feel futuristic.

 

[richinaus]

I honestly dont care anymore. I think the phone is dead anyway, and this redesign confirms it. Meanwhile Meta releases AI glasses with a HUD.

 

[neutrino17]

It’s not terrible. The glass effect is a little disappointing. To me it looks a little like parchment or wax paper. I would like it to really look like glass. That would be cool.

I’m still wrapping my head around it. Mostly OK, I’ll get used to it. It does look a little cartoonish. I wish the feeling was more of fineness and precision.

 

[Pandyone]

I like it more than I thought I would. The visual design is nice, mostly. There are som glitches and bugs here and there. Especially with the keyboard I have noticed. The keyboard needs to "render" if a page is in dark mode or not.
Some of the UX design is just worse, more clicks is needed to do the same thing as just one or a few taps was needed before.

 

[Pedersenko]

Hate it. It almost bricks my iphone 13 mini. A capable machine but not with these animations.

Previous design was good. Resizing buttons would help and also some new features. But those are not too many. Just freaking glass

I will be returning my preordered iphone 17 once it arrives tomorrow.

Android is soo much leaner these days

 

[Taipan]

I guess the fact that some say the effects are too distracting, while others call them too subtle, means that it’s not really that dramatic.
Personally, I have fallen in love with the glass bubble at the bottom of the phone app.

 

[Fortimir]

I generally like the new direction but it needs plenty of refinement and fixes.

 

[Ralfi]

I hate that I can’t turn off the opening/closing animations. They’re really distracting. What’s the purpose of reducing motion if the option doesn’t work correctly?

I removes the animations for me.

 

[akbarali.ch]

I love it 👍 love the animation and all that little plays here n there. all good.

 

[Happiehappie]

To me design is subjective and I'm sure the UI will be polished and even be more elaborated down the line
my biggest gripe towards iOS 26 is mostly these 2 (16 pro max 512GB if it matters)
1) not sure if it is just me but since updating to iOS 26 I feel that every time I take a screenshot there's a small delay in execution
2) it bugs me more than it should but scrolling down Notification Center slowly, the Notification Center slides down along with your finger (liquid glass here is BEAUTIFUL imo), but if you swipe down slowly from control center, 1) it doesn't follow your finger 2) it's a straight up fade animation, for some reason this inconsistency bugs me a lot more than it really should lol

 

[Ctrlos]

Nobody likes change. By Christmas nobody will care.

 

[Pedersenko]

Why not liquid metal? Would have been soo much better with no transparency

 

[Not@Apple]

I hate it. Worst macOS that I can recall, even ignoring the bugs. In the two days since I installed it, it feels like I've spent half my time googling how to turn off annoying aspects of the redesign, like the Safari menu bar turning bright red to match a website, which is the last thing I want, and having to guess whether this is something I fix in the Settings > Appearance, or Settings > Accessibility, or the Safari Settings??? (It was the latter, under the Tabs option of all inexplicable things.)... And if I have a lock screen image image specified, why on earth would I want it blurred to be unrecognizable by default??? It's hideous.

 

[Jorggs]

You can. Reduce transparency in Accessibility

I turned on reduced transparency as i really dont like liquid glass, however, when you do various other elements seem clunky and unfinished. Also when reduced the dates of photos wen scrolling though photo library is no longer visible at all 😡

 

[livetofail]

Staying on 18 for a while. I’ve learned many times to NEVER update for a week or so, because problems and issues.

Yeah one week will make a major difference in the software ui.

 

[MDTyKe]

I guess the fact that some say the effects are too distracting, while others call them too subtle, means that it’s not really that dramatic.
Personally, I have fallen in love with the glass bubble at the bottom of the phone app.

This one?

 

[Donkey Man]

That’s Tim’s accounting-driven Apple - as a longtime Apple user, I still remember their mammoth Human Interface manual, which was a masterclass in how to translate basic interface concepts for the screen and input devices.
Nowadays? That book is probably in the trash and UI is being done by interns at Apple.

 

[whelmedjedi]

The last beta version of ios 26 i’ve been using was running way smoother than this weird os. And its draining battery 2x than my beta version. Apple??

 

[Avenged110]

To some people iOS 6 was the pinnacle of iOS design with no subsequent version being better.

iOS 6 remains the pinnacle of iOS design and no subsequent version ever was better. Just to prove your point, I still stand by that, wholly, to this day. I do like the SF Symbols collection, though.

 

[IIGS User]

Me to iOS 26.

We good, Boo.

I’m happy so far with it. I have a couple of complaints but most are related to figuring out how things have changed. So I shake fist at cloud, tie an onion to my belt (which is the style ANYTIME) and trade 5 bumblebees for a quarter. Then I move on.

 

[ikir]

iOS 26 is fast on old devices too. More optimization will come. People as always are evaluating it in the first 10 min during system indexing and other background processes

 

[d4cloo]

Although I agree with many of the criticisms listed, I don’t have that much of a problem with it myself.

The real issue I have is with macOS Tahoe. Now THAT is a mess.

 

[currentinterest]

I am really enjoying iOS 26. I think it is a brilliant update that makes the phone feel fresh and new. I love the changes in photos and the camera app as well. Adding backgrounds to messages, and a host of other things are really fun.