iOS 26's Liquid Glass Design Draws Criticism From Users

[ChazSch]

They made the icons all lopsided, blurry, and wobbly. Shame on you, Tim Apple!

mine are fine

 

[ChazSch]

Love it! I didn't like the first public beta at all, but when the second one came out, I gave it a shot and it was way better. I've been a fan ever since. For those who complained, they probably didn't realize it was still indexing after installation, so it takes a bit of time. But once that's done, it's super smooth. They're attention-grabbing, for sure.

oh they've been told, but it doesnt fit their narrative.

 

[MacFan782040]

light flashes? huh?

 

[CATiNTHESTORE]

View attachment 2554088

 

[dongding]

I absolutely love the new call screen feature built into iOS26, it's my fav feature of an iOS build in years! But man I hate liquid glass! I call it Liquid Ass, it's truly terrible!

 

[dongding]

View attachment 2554088

 

[ypl]

note how all the 'positives' are a variation of 'feels' - 'feels so fresh', 'so bouncy', 'just so cool', 'makes a boring smartphone a little more fun' (!) - because who cares about functionality when your boring phone feels 'like bubbles', just throw some emojis in the mix, and you have the paying horde drooling.

good thing they butchered OS too with this vaseline therapy, because the suffering from flat 'depressing' UI was at pandemic levels.

mind boggles.

Exactly! I noticed it too. Actually LG _is_ “catchy” so such first reaction is understandable. That’s the only good feature of LG btw. Apple actually copied Android paradigm implemented many years ago - put everything in capsules which don’t add any functionality but look “cool” and take a lot of space. This is actually end of Ive/Jobs era. For good and bad. Maybe they made research and saw that younger generations prefer distracting, catchy capsules instead of simple, productive, rectangle based design. I don’t know. We’ll see in 1-2 years. Apple knows that it’s just the beginning of the road and a lot of improvements (and rollbacks) are to be made in the following years.

 

[BelgianChoklit]

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.

Funny how much opinions can differ. iOS 1 to 6 were the most hideous ever imo

 

[CATiNTHESTORE]

Most of all I like this manipulation with the name of the operating system. Psychological manipulation of human consciousness creating the illusory nature of the new version of the operating system every year

 

[whatnot]

This is actually end of Ive/Jobs era. For good and bad. Maybe they made research and saw that younger generations prefer distracting, catchy capsules instead of simple, productive, rectangle based design.

to quote from that Verge article, it's all

part of a trend within Apple right now toward a total collapse of the gaps between devices, in an attempt to make everything be everything to everyone all the time.​

so they stuff OS with cartoonish iOS features, making us hostages to the zero-attention-span trinket crowd, which needs everything baby-book-sized and popping and flashing and morphing and gimmicked to death to keep it focused.

I'm stuck with 15.7 until it's run its course, at which point I'll be moving on, if I even get there, because having to clean my mbp while it's on (what is a power button?) is driving me nuts already.

 

[ypl]

to quote from that Verge article, it's all

part of a trend within Apple right now toward a total collapse of the gaps between devices, in an attempt to make everything be everything to everyone all the time.​

so they stuff OS with cartoonish iOS features, making us hostages to the zero-attention-span trinket crowd, which needs everything baby-book-sized and popping and flashing and morphing and gimmicked to death to keep it focused.

I'm stuck with 15.7 until it's run its course, at which point I'll be moving on, if I even get there, because having to clean my mbp while it's on (what is a power button?) is driving me nuts already.

Couldn’t agree more. The worst part of the story is that device that influenced LG the most was Vision Pro - device that hardly anybody uses and even wants. It’s crazy …

…. unless it’s part of a long term plan? Maybe Apple will introduce 3-dimensional screens in 2026 or 2027 (20th anniversary of iPhone). LG on 3-dimensional iPhone would look amazing (usability and cleanness left aside for now).
“Our products are EVEV BETTER now! Let me introduce: three dimensional iPhone with amazing LiquidGlass interface!”- Tim in 2026/7.
🤔

 

[packeteer]

yeah, it's kinda ****. Going back to ios 18 / Sequoia

 

[whatnot]

…. unless it’s part of a long term plan?

call me Luddite idc, as far as phones are concerned, I'd actually be happy if they would let me upgrade my 1st gen SE to this vaseline and emoji soup, because anything else is too big for my needs.

as for the rest, nothing I do requires a touch 3D screen, so whatever their plan, I won't be joining. I don't change my socks every hour, so I'm not their target audience anyway, my previous mac served me a good ten years, and UI wise, remains miles ahead. I was just waiting for them to bring back a screen that doesn't double as a mirror, so now I'll just let this M4 machine run its course, and then go back to pen & paper or whatever.

 

[ypl]

call me Luddite idc, as far as phones are concerned, I'd actually be happy if they would let me upgrade my 1st gen SE to this vaseline and emoji soup, because anything else is too big for my needs.

as for the rest, nothing I do requires a touch 3D screen, so whatever their plan, I won't be joining. I don't change my socks every hour, so I'm not their target audience anyway, my previous mac served me a good ten years, and UI wise, remains miles ahead. I was just waiting for them to bring back a screen that doesn't double as a mirror, so now I'll just let this M4 machine run its course, and then go back to pen & paper or whatever.

Don’t mix 2 things: personal preferences and objective view on Apple strategy.

For the letter - it’s just my guess that LG may be part of something bigger e.g. 3 dimentional screens in iPhone and Apple Watch (and MacBook?). I have no idea whether it does make sense. Just me analyzing things.

For the former - I’ve just installed fresh new Sequoia on my Mac with no plans to upgrade soon + just buying new iPhone 16 (having 13 now) with plan to downgrade to iOS18 until it’s possible (it’s not possible on iPhone 17).