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.
iOS 26's Liquid Glass Design Draws Criticism From Users
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Overall I like it more than I expected- but there are some areas where it just looks hideous and broken. Which gives me hope that they can improve on these particulars. Like the WORST part is pulling down the lockscreen/notification center. like WTF where they thinking to keep everything in full transparency behind those bubbles?
Or take control center. Why are all the icons rounded, when on the homescreen we still have those rounded corner squares?
Or try to edit a sent imessage with the cursor maginifier.. it just gets stuck in one place and you can't see where you're moving. Not to talk of the awful, bright blue elements in message in half transparent elements that scream windows vista....
Or take control center. Why are all the icons rounded, when on the homescreen we still have those rounded corner squares?
Or try to edit a sent imessage with the cursor maginifier.. it just gets stuck in one place and you can't see where you're moving. Not to talk of the awful, bright blue elements in message in half transparent elements that scream windows vista....
They are not software designers; they are interns.
apple clearly was trying to force this idea of "liquid glass" to bring harmony with the Vision Pro. EPIC FAIL.
Because this is how LiquidGlass was designed. It's to be transparent. You can fix the problem by doing it non-LiquidGlass (old) way. I'm sure you understand that it's hard for them to revert changes of design language that was most important announcement of WWDC (even though they are doing this silently).
I think when they introduced the iOS 7 redesign it was about reducing things and get a more streamlined design. You could hate the design but after all it worked. After a lot of criticism they also tweaked it heavily. However with Liquid Glass they made navigation a lot worse for me. Also the UI is slower on my iPhone 16 Pro than before. The only thing they achieved is distinguishing the UI from others, but it feels like they forced it instead of coming up with a new great experience. Thumbs down for Liquid Glass from my side!
My thoughts exactly. I was a total windows guy before the release of the slop that was windows vista and then I jumped ship never looking back. Apple is getting sloppy.
No, I don’t understand why they can’t simply let’s say animate the icons out while I pull down the Notification Center.. in fact that’s what they are doing when you pull it down quickly. Or they could still add an extra frosted layer befind the Notification Center. AS THEY DO with control center on iPad too…
While the Safari back button + address bar + ellipsis button is visible at the bottom of the screen, swipe up from the address bar to get to your tabs.
I was getting 10% (or less) remaining at the end of the day, now I get 35-40%, what the heck?! I didn’t have any indexing issues, so impressed! iOS26 seems highly optimised and the software team and feedback from beta testers clearly did a great job, it’s fantastic!
Maybe because animation would be even more distracting adding chaos to already distracting design? I don't know. But I'm sure a lot of changes still should be expected concerning LiquidGlass to improve usability. But not soon. For now Apple keeps original design as announced in WWDC.
Maybe there is something wrong with me. I like it. Not sure why but added a bit of fun to the UI for me.
It has improved the battery life of my iPhone 13 and many of the new features actually have been implemented on this older device. This includes the new features applicable to the Airpods Pro 2, excepting the hypertension element.
It's the best update I've yet experienced, no question.
It's the best update I've yet experienced, no question.
Okay, so I had to look up a side-by-side video, because it was hard for me to recollect ios 18's interface while not using it - which is the biggest compliment any UI can get in my book. And oh boy, ios 26 is so atrocious, that not only I won't update my current phone, but also changed my plans on buying an iPhone 17.
except visionos did not use liquid glass, it used flat translucent UI elements
I am very cautious about this and am absolutely not upgrading at this time. I’ll give it time, but what I’ve seen so far I do not like. Definitely taking a wait and see approach.
For Liquid Glass, 'the most obvious inspiration was visionOS', says Craig Federighi
I don't like it. I'm strongly a believer in "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," while this seems to be yet another case of "change for its own sake".
"Reduce transparency" helps a little, "reduce motion" doesn't eliminate enough animations, which I find annoying.
"Reduce transparency" helps a little, "reduce motion" doesn't eliminate enough animations, which I find annoying.
For me, the big issue was the constant light flickering and odd glitches that appear on screen when you’re just going between apps and windows. This didn’t happen previously.