iOS 26's Liquid Glass Design Draws Criticism From Users

[dongding]

The transparency puts jagged lines everywhere lol, it's like playing a game with no anti-aliasing, just jaggies everywhere, it is truly terrible lol WTF. I bought a 17 Pro but I am hoping that Apple either fixes Liquid Ass or lets us revert back to previous UI. If not, I think when these Apple devices I have become EoL for me, I might even leave Apple the Liquid Glass is just that bad.

 

[I7guy]

Exactly! I noticed it too. Actually LG _is_ “catchy” so such first reaction is understandable.

True. Visually, I find it appealing and I am not a “spring chicken”.

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.

After android wholesale copied iOS years ago, lol.

This is actually end of Ive/Jobs era.

I thought people said iOS 7 was, now we find out iOS 26 is?

For good and bad. Maybe they made research and saw that younger generations prefer distracting, catchy capsules instead of simple, productive, rectangle based design.

That was windows 3.1, imo.

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.

Agreed. iOS 7 saw many tweaks over the years and this is a shift with more tweaks to come.

People are threatened to leave Apple over LG? Do it. That’s the only way to send a message to Apple. Complaining and then buying product which leads to record sales doesn’t send the message.

 

[ypl]

1/ After android wholesale copied iOS years ago, lol.

2/ I thought people said iOS 7 was, now we find out iOS 26 is?

3/ That was windows 3.1, imo.


4/ People are threatened to leave Apple over LG? Do it. That’s the only way to send a message to Apple. Complaining and then buying product which leads to record sales doesn’t send the message.

Seems like we agree on many points. Nice.

Some comments for other points:
1/ Yes Brave Apple Hero. Google did it actually. I don’t know what even slightest input to this discussion it has, but yes - it’s true.
2/I don’t know. I used Android then (using Apple for 5 years). And not “we find”, but “I find”. Might be right or wrong, but my opinion is that Ive would never agree on LG (nor Jobs).
3/ That was 3.11 _as well_. But not only. Look at buttons, windows, whatever in iOS or macOS. Rounded (a bit) rectangle is a standard. LG changes that. Base shape is capsule, of course expanded to rectangle-like shape for larger sizes.
4/ No you’re wrong. Not using Apple is just one of many ways to give message to Apple. There are many others like giving feedback to beta versions or writing commments on this forum. BTW. All methods have the same result: NONE. And most important. Giving such advise is sort of … not quite best behavior. Forcing people to stop using product to give message? Really? Giving up environment that user got used to, just because one of 100s of aspects of a product doesn’t meet their needs. Strange advise, indeed….

EDIT

… especially when no competition exists but only duopoly. On one side Android (my opinion - ugly system for which people buy with privacy) and on other side Apple products which used to be great but start to be broken because “something is rotten about Apple” (John Grubber, 2024).

 

[I7guy]

Seems like we agree on many points. Nice.

Some comments for other points:
1/ Yes Brave Apple Hero. Google did it actually. I don’t know what even slightest input to this discussion it has, but yes - it’s true.

Mentioned because of the number of comments over time about who copies who.

2/I don’t know. I used Android then (using Apple for 5 years). And not “we find”, but “I find”. Might be right or wrong, but my opinion is that Ive would never agree on LG (nor Jobs).

Yeah, we don’t know, but it’s clear Apple is breaking from the past.

3/ That was 3.11 _as well_. But not only. Look at buttons, windows, whatever in iOS or macOS. Rounded (a bit) rectangle is a standard. LG changes that. Base shape is capsule, of course expanded to rectangle-like shape for larger sizes.
4/ No you’re wrong. Not using Apple is just one of many ways to give message to Apple. There are many others like giving feedback to beta versions or writing commments on this forum. BTW. All methods have the same result: NONE. And most important. Giving such advise is sort of … not quite best behavior. Forcing people to stop using product to give message? Really? Giving up environment that user got used to, just because one of 100s of aspects of a product doesn’t meet their needs. Strange advise, indeed….

Sure, for some very bad things bad publicity causes change. Some things not so much, like removal of the headphone jack. But sales is the biggest message to send to a company. And nobody is forcing anybody. People have threatened to move away from Apple and hence the comment about sales. Comments like that go deeper than “I’m not sure I’m a fan of Liquid Glass”, for example.

EDIT

… especially when no competition exists but only duopoly.

In terms of interface there are hundreds of manufacturers that can skin their products the way they want.

On one side Android (my opinion - ugly system for which people buy with privacy) and on other side Apple products which used to be great but start to be broken because “something is rotten about Apple” (John Grubber, 2024).

John Grubers’ comment hold no sway over me.

 

[zenmacx]

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.

I concur!

After experiencing all the betas on my secondary iPhone, iPad and MacBook Pro I was as prepared as one could be for the recent public release.

Now a few days after installing iOS 26 on my primary iPhone 16 Pro Max it’s still indexing and delivering terrible battery life. While that’s not surprising it is disappointing.

As one who embraces change, this situation is quite challenging. Welcome to the world of Apple.

 

[AppleTO]

Anybody else thinking about going back to iOS 18 needs to do it very soon.

Once they close the signing window, you will never be able to go back again.

I updated my 14 Pro and I kind of regret it. I tried reducing transparency but now everything just looks odd. I might go back to 18 on there, even if for a limited time.

Updated my MacBook as well. I might go back to Sequoia for longer considering older macOS still receives updates.

All these new Liquid Glass aesthetics are just so... unnecessary.

 

[ypl]

Mentioned because of the number of comments over time about who copies who.

Ok. So it seems like it is outside our discussion. It makes no sense these days anyway, imo. Everybody is copying everybody and systems become more and more similiar.

Yeah, we don’t know, but it’s clear Apple is breaking from the past.

Definitely. For good or bad, we'll see.

Sure, for some very bad things bad publicity causes change. Some things not so much, like removal of the headphone jack. But sales is the biggest message to send to a company. And nobody is forcing anybody. People have threatened to move away from Apple and hence the comment about sales. Comments like that go deeper than “I’m not sure I’m a fan of Liquid Glass”, for example.

OK. So again this comment doesn't concern me. 99% would buy new iPhone even if GUI was made of yellow-orange triangles <sarcasm>. Because Apple. They would be praying Apple that it's finally launched something fresh and amazing. The rest is here and is discussing it's problems with LG. That's why moving away from Apple wouldn't work. Too small impact.

In terms of interface there are hundreds of manufacturers that can skin their products the way they want.

Come on! Let me repeat. GUI is one of 100s of features that phone provides. Sure you can choose provider with less ugly GUI, but you still get private data collector in bundle (usually 2 private data collector - Google Apps and HW providers subsystem).

John Grubers’ comment hold no sway over me.

I, for one, like what he said as I had that feeling before he even made that famous comment. The difference is that despite the fact that Apple had flops lately, I think that it is not exactly Apple's fault. It's just that modern solutions are against their philosophy. E.g. true AI = hallucinations + private data consumption which is against Apples paradigm of privacy and high quality. Same for LG. Their clean, amazing (my opinion) GUI doesn't match expectations of huge markets (not US/EU anymore) and average target consumer. And there's no strong personality like Jobs to convince them to use what he wanted them to like. Apple had to go Android's way it seems. Which is bad news for some (including me).

 

[RealMonster]

My problems have relatively little to do with Liquid Glass per se, it's the obtrusiveness of the UI and the nonsense decisions that they've made that make me nuts. Things are hidden in weird places.

Take a screenshot. The 'delete screenshot' button is under a CHECKMARK. Take another screenshot. Now under the checkmark is the button to delete ALL the screenshots, but if you just want to delete a SINGLE screenshot, that's under the X in the other corner.

I like some of the features of the OS--call screening is great! I like colourful backgrounds in messages. I like that you can use visual intelligence on screenshots (though I don't like that you can't seem to use it on images in your photo library unless you screenshot them?)

But man, this is just a BAD UI. In its supposed stated goal to 'get out of the way' it's MORE in the way than ever. Things are hard to find, the UI imposes itself in places you don't expect and don't want. Siri seems worse than ever at picking up my voice, and I think FaceID has failed more times in iOS 26 than I ever remember and I can't tell if that's just me or if it really is the phone.

Alan Dye has been nothing but a menace. I'm refusing to update my Mac to macOS 26 because some of the problems I've seen are absolute deal breakers. Maybe I'll get it after a couple revisions, or maybe I can wait it out until '27.

 

[ProbablyDylan]

But man, this is just a BAD UI. In its supposed stated goal to 'get out of the way' it's MORE in the way than ever. Things are hard to find, the UI imposes itself in places you don't expect and don't want. Siri seems worse than ever at picking up my voice, and I think FaceID has failed more times in iOS 26 than I ever remember and I can't tell if that's just me or if it really is the phone.

Alan Dye has been nothing but a menace. I'm refusing to update my Mac to macOS 26 because some of the problems I've seen are absolute deal breakers. Maybe I'll get it after a couple revisions, or maybe I can wait it out until '27.

Brilliantly put. If all you do is look at things on your phone - perfect, a clear and unobtrusive UI with few buttons works. If you want to actually do anything, like you mention deleting a screenshot, suddenly the unobtrusive UI becomes obtrusive.

 

[Isamilis]

All these new Liquid Glass aesthetics are just so... unnecessary

This!

 

[Mike Wolf]

I’m of two minds. I like the animations and app icons and notifications especially when used on a dark wallpaper. I’m using light mode against the Sky wallpaper in “dark appearance” and set my lock screen clock to “solid” instead of glass so it’s legible.

My biggest complaint really is all the damn visual bugs iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 introduced. For example when I go into Safari settings the option for “Allow Website Tinting” doesn’t do anything. Whether I toggle it on or off it still tints on my
iPhone, yet this works perfectly fine on my iPad. Another example, Apple completely forgot to add the glass animation to the toggle in WiFi settings in both iPadOS and iOS. I noticed it was missing in the RC but thought surely Apple would have it fixed when the software was released…
Another example, you know how text and symbols in the status bar and clock transition from black to white or white to black depending on if it’s a dark background or light background? I’ve noticed that on iOS and iPadOS this transition doesn’t happen all the time and sometimes the black text/symbols are illegible against the dark background. Minor annoyance but something that shouldn’t be happening. I see this behavior with the glass elements too as the glass changes from a light glass with black text to a dark glass with white text, but since we’re still early in 26 I’m giving it a pass…for now. Now if this continues into 26.4 or something then I’m gonna be annoyed.
There’s other things too but they’re minor and infrequent.

 

[Isamilis]

My take after a while with iOS 26 is that Liquid Glass needs to be toned down a bit, in a few key areas. When it works, it works well. It’s not like there wasn’t transparency in iOS 18. I think Apple will get it sorted and it will be fine.

CarPlay, on the other hand, looks fantastic. A definite improvement aesthetically.

Will be curious to see how much Apple tweaks iOS 26 in the coming months.

I tend to agree when someone in X said that we better start using iOS 26 on Jan 2026, as its name implies.

 

[jk48]

I use my iPad Pro for work and my workflow relies heavily on slide over and split view. For this reason alone I immediately rolled back to iPadOS 18. I say this reason alone because I have numerous issues with iOS/iPadOS 26. The new camera app in 26 requires additional taps to do things and the UI clogs up the screen.

Example; on 26 to change aspect ratio I would have to tap or swipe up for control, the controls menu covers the screen where I would take a photo. Also I believe it covers the shutter button so if something happened while I was doing setting I would miss the shot. To change aspect ratio from 4:3 to 1:1 I have to tap TWO times to cycle from 4:3 to 16:9 to 1:1. And if I accidentally mistap once I’d have to go through the cycle again.

On iOS 18 I swipe up, tap aspect ratio, tap the one I want. No cycling options, no mis-tap. It’s clean, the UI stays out of the way, I select what I want without a wasted tap, and can smash that shutter button at any time during the process.

Photos in 18 was absolute garbage, Photos in 26 is mild garbage. Still bad. Having a dedicated page for the photo roll is great! But the second page of albums and stuff lacks the ability to hide categories and customize the way I want. Furthermore, each category only shows a few albums within it and I have to tap to see a full list. All I want the second page to be is a full sized list of all my albums. I can do this in literally any other app, which I do. Currently using Darkroom.

And as always Photos editing tools are the worst of all platforms. Especially highlight and shadow adjustments.

These issues among many other annoyances, unnecessary taps, bad UI choices, all amount to the most confusing release ever. Most the time doing things on 26 I asked myself…. But why? Why these changes? They’re either of no benefit or they are worse. The most shocking and important to me was slide over and split view. I truly am shocked they removed such a fundamental feature.

 

[shpankey]

I actually love the new ios. 15 Pro here

 

[CodeWisdom]

Liquid Glass is total dog ****. It complete ruins the UI. Makes everything hard to see. Now I'm going to say it. Tim Cook needs to go. It's over Tim. You can easily serve on boards, but your days as Apple's CEO are over IMHO.

 

[danpass]

I’ve been using iOS 26 on the Air and I do just like every prior iOS release.

I do everything to:

• Reduce transparency
• Improve contrast/readability
• Knock down/eliminate animations and transitions
• Get rid of all the eye candy

And every iOS version they keep doubling down on the above lol.

-

 

[Stingray77]

It is like someone has gone mad with the filters in 1996 Photoshop.

 

[Bazza1]

This!

When you've got nothing of substance to offer, dazzle the plebes with sparkly distractions.

Tim is taking this guidance to heart, seeing how it works with his chum, Donnie.

 

[ThePinkChameleon]

So…is there anyone in here that used a BB back in the day... ? I used to change themes like it was my job…Apples “new” glass icons reminds me of a theme actually called “Glass” that a lot of us over at Crackberry used…for the life of me I can’t remember the dev’s name….

ANY WHO, that’s what apples new Liquid Glass reminds me of…but just not as polished.

(FWIW I still have my pink blackberry and the 9650 stowed away 🫣 I really do miss the BB days….)

 

[helloapple1]

I really dislike Liquid Glass. It's just so annoying to look at.

 

[p.willis]

a week on and i really like the default Liquid Glass on my phone.

updating Watch now and will do Macbook once I clear some disk space.

I dont get all the fuss. I was worried but even the default values are fine and the subtle added effects are cool.

 

[genzai]

I really wish they would create a theme that basically combines the "clear" icon and widget style with low saturation color- I think this would actually work really well. The clear option as it is makes it too hard to distinguish icons quickly and creates an overall black and white feel that just goes a little too far imo. And tinting can look good but is also too monochromatic and remains difficult from a usability perspective. Keeping a truly glassy / semi transparent look but adding back in just a little of the color from the icons would be a really nice balance that kept things visually easy to distinguish while also keeping the stronger overall liquid glass effect.

g\

 

[jkmoses]

What I think of when I see people posting, "You losers always complain a bunch, but eventually you'll get used to it and shut up."

https://happyproject.in/learned-helplessness/


The dogs get used to it. But I wouldn't call them happy.


Tell me; would you like it if every few years car manufacturers moved all the controls around to create something fresh and new?

I didn't say that. I am a UX designer. I know how these things work. It's not like they took away all the buttons and settings. It's not an alien incarnation. Liquid glass is not a significant change. I'm speaking from EXPERIENCE and not pointless b*tching which is what keyboard jockeys like to do. You know why they don't get changed back? Because you are the SEVERE minority of users. Period. It's a numbers game. If a majority of their customers hated it, they would reverse course as they have done in their product development (think MagSafe on MacBooks). So, as much as you may personally dislike it, unless you're a majority of the users, they don't care.

 

[jkmoses]

It's not the change that the majority of people have issues with. It's the gross inconsistencies, and bugs everywhere that people are complaining about. Bugs and inconsistencies I will add that have existed through the entire beta cycles. People will not accept a "get used to it" or "get over it" response from a trillion-dollar company with next to unlimited access to talent and resources. What we're getting is an insulting level of sloppiness from a company that once prided itself on beauty, consistency, and user experience.

Reality check: Obviously, a "majority" of people don't care. If they did, it would get changed. Period.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Reality check: Obviously, a "majority" of people don't care. If they did, it would get changed. Period.

I really wish it was this simple.