iOS 26's Liquid Glass Design Draws Criticism From Users

[Kal Madda]

Ok, noted.
Said this before, I continue to use my iPhone, iPad and Mac, all running the latest 26 releases, just as before 26 and I have no issues re readability, legibility and what not.
But that's just me ...

That’s not just you, it’s many others as well, myself included. 🙂👍🏻

 

[Kal Madda]

The feedback I'm getting from my circle of friends (an admittedly small sample size...), who aren't Apple geeks like we are, is they think LG looks nice. However almost all of them have issues with often used features being changed or moved for no reason, a specific example being the phone app. Almost all of them have either changed back to the "classic" design, or asked me how to. Hiding often used features like voicemail, or, in the case of Launchpad on the Mac, getting rid of them entirely with no equivalent replacement, just causes unnecessary hassles for people who just want to get stuff done. They shouldn't have to research and relearn how to do basic tasks they've been doing just fine for 20 years.

Yeah, I like the Liquid Glass design as well. But I do agree, some of the default changes could be confusing for people. And I definitely think it was a mistake to remove Launchpad from macOS, now I have to use a third-party app to try to replicate that functionality. The Apps page they replaced it with is so annoying. It’s worse than App Library on iPadOS, which I actually really like. App Library makes app categories far more accessible, and your most commonly used apps from those categories surface-level. Whereas this macOS Apps page is just poorly designed, and doesn’t do a great job as an app launcher. I don’t know why some hated on the Launchpad so much, it was a great way to visually organize apps. The “Siri’s the best way to open apps” people could still do that. There’s no reason they couldn’t have expanded Siri functionality and kept Launchpad. And the new page loses tons of functionality the Launchpad provided, such as update indicators, notification badges, and the ability to uninstall an app. Now one must go into Finder and hope that deleting an app from the Applications folder will actually completely uninstall the app and also delete any of the extensions and stuff for the app in other parts of the file system… That change feels incredibly misguided to me, especially with the new page lacking so much of that functionality the Launchpad offered.

 

[I7guy]

The feedback I'm getting from my circle of friends (an admittedly small sample size...), who aren't Apple geeks like we are, is they think LG looks nice. However almost all of them have issues with often used features being changed or moved for no reason, a specific example being the phone app. Almost all of them have either changed back to the "classic" design, or asked me how to. Hiding often used features like voicemail, or, in the case of Launchpad on the Mac, getting rid of them entirely with no equivalent replacement, just causes unnecessary hassles for people who just want to get stuff done. They shouldn't have to research and relearn how to do basic tasks they've been doing just fine for 20 years.

I don’t know if parts of the above refer to the Mac only or iPhone and mac. But I had no issues with the phone app or even the photos app. Took me a few minutes to figure it out.

 

[ProbablyDylan]

Suppose it's hard to believe that other people may have other experiences.

 

[lotones]

Yeah, I like the Liquid Glass design as well. But I do agree, some of the default changes could be confusing for people. And I definitely think it was a mistake to remove Launchpad from macOS, now I have to use a third-party app to try to replicate that functionality. The Apps page they replaced it with is so annoying. It’s worse than App Library on iPadOS, which I actually really like. App Library makes app categories far more accessible, and your most commonly used apps from those categories surface-level. Whereas this macOS Apps page is just poorly designed, and doesn’t do a great job as an app launcher. I don’t know why some hated on the Launchpad so much, it was a great way to visually organize apps. The “Siri’s the best way to open apps” people could still do that. There’s no reason they couldn’t have expanded Siri functionality and kept Launchpad. And the new page loses tons of functionality the Launchpad provided, such as update indicators, notification badges, and the ability to uninstall an app. Now one must go into Finder and hope that deleting an app from the Applications folder will actually completely uninstall the app and also delete any of the extensions and stuff for the app in other parts of the file system… That change feels incredibly misguided to me, especially with the new page lacking so much of that functionality the Launchpad offered.

I curious which Launchpad replacement you settled on. I got overwhelmed with choices and decided to wait and let the worst ones settle to the bottom.

 

[lotones]

I don’t know if parts of the above refer to the Mac only or iPhone and mac. But I had no issues with the phone app or even the photos app. Took me a few minutes to figure it out.

I was referring to both. And I didn't have many issues with the new interfaces either, but you and I hang out in a Mac tech forum. Most people, like my friends, don't. And taking "a few minutes" to figure out just how to hear their voicemail was a major PITA for them, understandably.

 

[Kal Madda]

I curious which Launchpad replacement you settled on. I got overwhelmed with choices and decided to wait and let the worst ones settle to the bottom.

I tried out a bunch of them and ended up landing on AppGrid, an app from the Mac App Store. It has a free version with a bunch of functionality. Obviously there’s some system-level things like update indicators, notification badges, and uninstall options that Launchpad could do that AppGrid can’t, but it does all the other basic stuff Launchpad does. 👍🏻

 

[turbineseaplane]

The Apple UX folks could learn a lot from this.

Source on Mastodon

 

[Kal Madda]

The Apple UX folks could learn a lot from this.

Source on Mastodon

That looks far more confusing than anything in iOS 26… 🤷🏼‍♂️

 

[lotones]

I tried out a bunch of them and ended up landing on AppGrid, an app from the Mac App Store. It has a free version with a bunch of functionality. Obviously there’s some system-level things like update indicators, notification badges, and uninstall options that Launchpad could do that AppGrid can’t, but it does all the other basic stuff Launchpad does. 👍🏻

cool, thanks Kal! I'll give it a shot.

 

[Kal Madda]

cool, thanks Kal! I'll give it a shot.

You’re welcome, I hope it helps you out! 👍🏻🙂

 

[HikingMike]

I just wanted to post that I'm glad a lively discussion is here. I posted at Apple's forum thread and mods removed my post. It was just a brief opinion and very tame. So judging by that... and that it is only 5 pages long and 75 posts, but has 1,100 "Me Too" and 750 upvotes... I have to imagine they must be deleting TONS of posts there and just leaving a small number so it doesn't look bad. Surely Apple's own forum has more traffic than MacRumors, right? 75 posts at the Apple forum vs 660 posts here 🤔 I noticed it is the same thread as linked in this MacRumors article so I figured it would be relevant to add.

How do I remove the liquid glass look fro… - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

My 2 cents is I'm not a fan of the Liquid Glass design overall. I liked most previous design change choices. The most problematic things for me are the shading/transparency/glowing stuff simply makes things a bit harder to see, the outlines such as on the number pad look yuck to me, a time display that's harder to read, and hiding the voicemail is a really strange one... Ok, swipe up on the address bar to get to web browser tabs, great, that helps.

 

[spamabyss]

That looks far more confusing than anything in iOS 26… 🤷🏼‍♂️

How is following numbers 1-5 confusing?

 

[Kal Madda]

How is following numbers 1-5 confusing?

Items are randomly positioned, not in a reading order, and are different shapes, not to mention being crammed together, with several “busy” elements of the design as well that clutter it. Nothing in Liquid Glass is that jumbled, uneven, and busy… 🤷🏼‍♂️

 

[whatnot]

I just wanted to post that I'm glad a lively discussion is here. I posted at Apple's forum thread and mods removed my post. It was just a brief opinion and very tame. So judging by that... and that it is only 5 pages long and 75 posts, but has 1,100 "Me Too" and 750 upvotes... I have to imagine they must be deleting TONS of posts there and just leaving a small number so it doesn't look bad. Surely Apple's own forum has more traffic than MacRumors, right? 75 posts at the Apple forum vs 660 posts here 🤔 I noticed it is the same thread as linked in this MacRumors article so I figured it would be relevant to add.

trying to complain on Apple's own forum is a bit like expecting objectivity from Pravda - cross the party line, and your post will be rewritten by the mods beyond recognition, if not removed outright for being 'unconstructive', and the thread locked, with some random reply left to shine as 'top ranking' whatever the number of upvotes.

since they are pestering me to switch to this vaseline soup every day, I can only conclude that it's been a universal success - not!

 

[I7guy]

trying to complain on Apple's own forum is a bit like expecting objectivity from Pravda - cross the party line, and your post will be rewritten by the mods beyond recognition, if not removed outright for being 'unconstructive', and the thread locked, with some random reply left to shine as 'top ranking' whatever the number of upvotes.

since they are pestering me to switch to this vaseline soup every day, I can only conclude that it's been a universal success - not!

Those forums aren’t for complaints. They are for problem solving. If you go there to complain I can see posts getting moderated.

 

[Kal Madda]

The Apple Support Forum is for requesting help/support from the community, not for expressing dissatisfaction with design changes… The Feedback Forum is the proper channel for expressing dissatisfaction. 🤷🏼‍♂️

 

[SactoGuy18]

Right now, the Liquid Glass interface seems to work best with any iPhone or iPad with 6 GB or more of local system memory. I have an iPhone 16 Plus and an iPad Air (M3) and I don't see any display issues (so far).

However, I do think Apple has considered offering more granular control of the Liquid Glass effect in iOS 27.0 and may offer an installation option to turn it off altogether.

 

[adrianlondon]

The Apple Support Forum is for requesting help/support from the community

I see you're having a problem with <badly summarised version of your post>.

Here's a link to the support note you've already said you tried and didn't work.
<link>

You should do a network reset for no reason, and if that doesn't work a full restore so that the bug is removed and put back again. Please upvote.

 

[UliBaer]

However, I do think Apple has considered offering more granular control of the Liquid Glass effect in iOS 27.0 and may offer an installation option to turn it off altogether.

Even if (I don't think so, they'll never admit, to be false...) Apple decides for an on/off toggle of Liquid GlAss, that doesn't remove the usability flaws, where now 2 or 3 taps are needed when earlier there was only 1 tap needed. Also the way too big controls and the wasteful use of screen real estate remains... 🙁

 

[whatnot]

Those forums aren’t for complaints. They are for problem solving. If you go there to complain I can see posts getting moderated.

aha. so I 'upgrade' to this mess aka 'problem', which I can't downgrade back from aka 'solve', and I can't complain? fascinating stuff (waves Little Liquid Glass Book and praises Chairman Dim Tim).

 

[Kal Madda]

aha. so I 'upgrade' to this mess aka 'problem', which I can't downgrade back from aka 'solve', and I can't complain? fascinating stuff (waves Little Liquid Glass Book and praises Chairman Dim Tim).

First, Time Machine backup… Second, you aren’t supposed to complain in the Apple Support Forum, but in Feedback… Third, I’m genuinely curious, why hang out in an Apple fan forum if you seem to dislike Apple as much as it seems you do? 🤷🏼‍♂️

 

[I7guy]

aha. so I 'upgrade' to this mess aka 'problem', which I can't downgrade back from aka 'solve', and I can't complain? fascinating stuff (waves Little Liquid Glass Book and praises Chairman Dim Tim).

Correct. You can only dial iOS 26 down a bit. Complain on MR, post a problem on the Apple forums.

 

[HikingMike]

The Apple Support Forum is for requesting help/support from the community, not for expressing dissatisfaction with design changes… The Feedback Forum is the proper channel for expressing dissatisfaction. 🤷🏼‍♂️

That is convenient for Apple 🙂 But yeah of course they would do that. People may want to talk about it in a forum where other people can see messages rather than sending it off into a black box. So it's nice we have MacRumors forum or others. But I can understand why Apple's forum would be the first place that people find.

Also, when you go to Apple's feedback form at https://www.apple.com/feedback/ , there is no option to provide feedback about iOS. But I guess the best thing to do is choose iPhone or iPad.

 

[Kal Madda]

That is convenient for Apple 🙂 But yeah of course they would do that. People may want to talk about it in a forum where other people can see messages rather than sending it off into a black box. So it's nice we have MacRumors forum or others. But I can understand why Apple's forum would be the first place that people find.

Also, when you go to Apple's feedback form at https://www.apple.com/feedback/ , there is no option to provide feedback about iOS. But I guess the best thing to do is choose iPhone or iPad.

Well, it’s just the facts… 🤷🏼‍♂️. Why should Apple be expected to host a forum for people to complain ad infinitum about new features? It would make no sense. If you actually want them to consider changing something, sending feedback via the feedback forum is the proper way…

And many of us here in MacRumors are tired of actual interesting discussions getting buried by reheated weak sauce anti-version 26 threads… 🤦🏼‍♂️

There are OS options in the Feedback app, they’re visible in the attached screenshot. On the site, you can just select the device and that includes the software as well, so you can provide feedback about iOS by selecting the iPhone, iPadOS by selecting iPad, etc.