iOS 26's Liquid Glass Design Draws Criticism From Users

[JPack]

Of course it would! There's no functional reason to make things transparent. Sure it might look nice, but it's worse in function.

There's a reason why books and computer screens aren't transparent, except in movies.

It's the first time every I've opted for the Accessibility features to reduce transparency.

 

[garethh]

I installed one of the betas about a month ago. I am not sure it adds all that much yet but have never been confused or bewildered by the changes. And, yes, I am sure it will be improved over time.

 

[zach-coleman]

Note: A simple example of well-reported bugs, which have been around since B1 and are unfixed:
- Spotlight: Swipe down... the search bar is a mess of overlapping text for a second until it fixes itself
- Home Screen: Each app icon undergoes some kind of redraw when it's minimized, making something 'pop' on the icon
- Spotlight: When you hold down on text in the search field to move the cursor, it glows so bright you cannot read the loupe at all
- Spotlight: Files content appears, despite being turned off.

The one that’s the craziest to me is if you set a background on an iMessage conversation this makes the entire app hang for 500-1000ms every single time you click to that conversation. This happens on all of my devices including the Mac. On the iPhone the background pops in like a full second after the conversation appears. This is like a beta 1 tier issue that somehow made it all the way to the public release.

iMessage backgrounds, even static photo ones, make my 15 Pro overheat like crazy too. Both of these issues happen with essentially 100% consistency on all devices, I have no idea how they didn’t fix them.

 

[Kkspire]

Ummmm. It’s a beautiful redesign. I hope it continues and the software optimizes along with 3rd party apps sooner than later. 16 pro gets warmer than usual on 26. Yes, I’ve been on beta from the start.

 

[iZac]

"reduce motion" in the accessibility settings basically reverts it to the frosted look from iOS18 but does remove the app opening / closing animations that I quite like.

 

[EM2013]

As someone who’s still on iOS 17 I’m looking forward to trying out 26 on the 17 pro max

 

[uller6]

It’s awful. Legibility is problematic. I think it’s a problem in search of a solution.

 

[kognos]

You don't like it? You're enjoying it wrong.

 

[atomwork]

It breaks my heart as a longtime apple users how far the apple has rotten from the inside.

 

[ZMacintosh]

my main critique and dislike is that one it is fairly distracting...however they are on the right path to sort of unify the structure of the OS on the device (ie; instead of search bar being at the top on app and the bottom of another first party app and being inconsistent, this is an improvement. same with having similar features and functions across first party apps). the other part is, sort of related to distracting, there is just so much damn bloat in the OS and seems like everything was thrown into a junk drawer and every time you need to find something you have to have to sort through it. apple has gotten away from the philosophies of "less is more" and "simplicity is the ultimate sophistication", let's get back to that Apple.

 

[MDTyKe]

The one that’s the craziest to me is if you set a background on an iMessage conversation this makes the entire app hang for 500-1000ms every single time you click to that conversation. This happens on all of my devices including the Mac. On the iPhone the background pops in like a full second after the conversation appears. This is like a beta 1 tier issue that somehow made it all the way to the public release.

iMessage backgrounds, even static photo ones, make my 15 Pro overheat like crazy too. Both of these issues happen with essentially 100% consistency on all devices, I have no idea how they didn’t fix them.

I quite honestly am beginning to believe that no bugs were fixed from the beta/s, and the entire QC team are on some kind of annual vacation. I wish I was not being serious.

 

[uller6]

"reduce motion" in the accessibility settings basically reverts it to the frosted look from iOS18 but does remove the app opening / closing animations that I quite like.

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?

 

[Unity451]

I tried the transparent icons. It was too confusing. I need the colors.
I wish they had a version where the icons are transparent with the original, individual colors of the apps slightly opaque rather than a single color for all of them.

 

[Think|Different]

I think it's wonderful! My only feedback is that I really only 'feel' Liquid Glass on iOS. It feels minimal in iPadOS, TvOS, and MacOS.

 

[Plerf]

Reduce transparency and everything is pretty much ok.

Got used to the slightly changed interactions, now I don’t really care.

I feel like, just like iOS 7, it’s mostly a day or two of thinkery and then it just falls away into being completely normal.

In a way, it hardly seems worth it to make these massive changes.

 

[turbineseaplane]

• It makes the iPhone feel faster.
• It feels modern and clean, and makes a boring smartphone a little more fun.
• It's bright, bouncy, and just plain cool to use.
• Getting notifications is satisfying, and the Lock Screen keypad is like bubbles.
• It's fresh and easy to get accustomed to.
• iOS 18's flat UI was depressing, so iOS 26 is an improvement.
• It's technologically impressive with the light refraction and diffusion of chromatic aberration.
• The icons are slick and it harkens back to the OG Apple UI design.

Wow, this is a list of so little substance that actually matters for an OS and a UI.

 

[n00boflife]

People tend to forget how much design complaints are really about familiarity. When Apple changes the look of iOS, the first reaction is often negative because the old design feels comfortable and the new one feels strange. Psychologists call this status quo bias: people prefer what they already know, even if the change is objectively better in usability or aesthetics. The same happened when iOS 7 dropped skeuomorphism, when macOS went flat, and when Safari moved its address bar. Each time, forums filled with frustration, and yet within a year most users accepted the new style as normal. What feels jarring today often becomes invisible tomorrow. That does not mean all criticism is invalid, but it does suggest that the intensity of the reaction is often more about adjustment than about actual flaws in the design. If the design truly gets in the way of function, adoption numbers and long-term complaints will show it. Until then, some of this criticism may just be our brains clinging to what they already know.

 

[MDTyKe]

my main critique and dislike is that one it is fairly distracting...however they are on the right path to sort of unify the structure of the OS on the device (ie; instead of search bar being at the top on app and the bottom of another first party app and being inconsistent, this is an improvement. same with having similar features and functions across first party apps). the other part is, sort of related to distracting, there is just so much damn bloat in the OS and seems like everything was thrown into a junk drawer and every time you need to find something you have to have to sort through it. apple has gotten away from the philosophies of "less is more" and "simplicity is the ultimate sophistication", let's get back to that Apple.

With that logic they wouldn't have scrapped Launchpad on macOS - but they did. Instead, they've left everyone with Spotlight. Perhaps, though, since Spotlight has so many fans, they should just scrap the iOS app icons altogether, and everyone can just search for the apps via Spotlight.

 

[MDTyKe]

People tend to forget how much design complaints are really about familiarity. When Apple changes the look of iOS, the first reaction is often negative because the old design feels comfortable and the new one feels strange. Psychologists call this status quo bias: people prefer what they already know, even if the change is objectively better in usability or aesthetics. The same happened when iOS 7 dropped skeuomorphism, when macOS went flat, and when Safari moved its address bar. Each time, forums filled with frustration, and yet within a year most users accepted the new style as normal. What feels jarring today often becomes invisible tomorrow. That does not mean all criticism is invalid, but it does suggest that the intensity of the reaction is often more about adjustment than about actual flaws in the design. If the design truly gets in the way of function, adoption numbers and long-term complaints will show it. Until then, some of this criticism may just be our brains clinging to what they already know.

It's not the change I have an issue with. It's the sloppiness and inconsistency, and absurd level of bugs for a public release...All bugs well documented over the past many, many months. It's the fact there was no apparent team working on bug fixes, and zero QC at all. Apple used to shine with polished, beautiful products.

 

[tewster2]

I’ve been an Apple user and stockholder since the 90’s. IMHO the iPhone is becoming nothing more than a fidget toy with all the endless cute little colors, emojis, animations, etc.

 

[Think|Different]

I break my heart as a longtime apple users how far the apple has rotten from the inside.

You break your heart? As a longtime 'apple users?'

 

[arkhanjel]

So basically what you're saying is you gathered info from all the places where the people that frequent them rarely have anything other than complaints and got mostly complaints. Got it. Don't even get me started on the Media complaints. A lot of the media sites, YouTubers and podcasters are worse than a lot of the trolls in the forums. How else are they gonna get the clicks they need?

Am I saying it's perfect? No. But, it's far from unusable. And, at this point y'all are just beating a dead horse. They aren't gonna change it back. Just go Accessibility and make the necessary changes for you and move on.

I like it but if this is to be believed I'm in the minority. Haha

 

[ghostface147]

Imagine had they kept it as glassy as beta 1.

 

[MallardDuck]

First thing I did was 'reduce motion' and 'reduce transparency' which helps a lot, but the worst of the stuff is still there.

The tilted/warped icons have to go in the very next release. it's probably the single worst UI choice apple's made in a long time.

I really dislike the 'Roger Rabbit' style bubbles for tabs on all OSs.

On iOS, safari can't seem to decide if it's in light or dark mode (and no, the phone is always set to dark). Still trying to figure out how to get rid of the icons in my bookmark list on the phone.

The fonts are universally too small (this is especially true in the fitness app on the apple TV).

On iOS it's been really annoying to do things like change airpods from noise cancelling to transparency (the toggle doesn't work when touched, it just closes).

All the app icons look washed out - I keep wiping my screen thinking I have suntan lotion all over it.

All in all, it's a completely meh upgrade. The sole meaningful new feature is multitasking on the ipad, and for that, I'll tolerate a bunch of other regressions.

 

[atomwork]

You break your heart? As a longtime 'apple users?'

Good catch... Thanks. LOL. Changed the entire meaning of the message