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iOS 26's Liquid Glass Design Draws Criticism From Users

anthony131 said:
I would love to read an article about someone’s positive experience. I don’t understand how anyone, especially Apple, could feel like there’s anything positive about this at all. I mean, “fresh” is one thing but this is literally like polishing a turd. There are blatant… Sorry, your comment isn’t the place for me to rant.

I just want someone to point at these things everyone is complaining about and provide a counter argument. Give me a legitimate reason why you believe it is a better or even acceptable experience to have text on top of text and a lack of definition when a white icon is on top of a white background. Tell me how it’s more intuitive and a joy to have to go about all four corners of your 6+” screen to find menu items.

To be fair, a lot of complaints are frivolous and will likely be resolved. They shouldn’t exist, for a three trillion dollar company, but they’ll be fixed this version or the next or the next.

The larger issue is the whole design language. The entire concept of “liquid glass” should have been rejected at the concept phase. The concept itself is irrational for a small flat screen that’s already trying to do too much.

So, I want to know from the people who love it, what specifically is it you love and how do you feel about the larger issue of usability? Because I honestly think you’re either lying to us or to yourself.
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No one is obligated to justify why they like something to you.
 
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UliBaer said:
Oh well, i can't hear any more of this marketing BS babbling "Oh, the A19 is more efficient, so that the battery lasts longer" - bla, blub, bla, bla...

...and on the other side now Apple finally found a way to eat up all this "efficiency" in the OS by wasting a considerable amount of the energy stored in the battery for unnecessary, gimmicky and distracting bling-bling, that even goes in the way of normal interaction with the UI. At least a relatively eye-candy way to waste more cycles of the battery life to fulfill the demands of the shareholders for earlier purchase of a newer model for more and more money.

If they would really care about system efficiency - then how about an efficient OS instead of such a wasteful one?!
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Sluggish performance on older iPhones make people want to buy a new one.
 
I had no problem with iOS 7, and quite enjoyed its look and feel.

But iOS 26 here, not so much. I am not one for acquired tastes or “you’ll get used to it” commentary.

As far as macOS 26, so far it isn’t as distracting to me as its iOS counterparts.
 
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I just wished the turning it down / off was not at such a penalty, i think that is the way forward let us tone it down and not make it look horrible. I find it so so , i just find the base OS to have all the normal bugs that eat all the battery for no good reason and welp that is the major flaw with 26. I know folks will cite liquid glass, but i have decay in power just doing nada face down no screen on.
 
sziehr said:
I just wished the turning it down / off was not at such a penalty, i think that is the way forward let us tone it down and not make it look horrible. I find it so so , i just find the base OS to have all the normal bugs that eat all the battery for no good reason and welp that is the major flaw with 26. I know folks will cite liquid glass, but i have decay in power just doing nada face down no screen on.
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it certainly does look horrible with increased contrast and reduced transparency enabled
 
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wolfgangm9 said:
Funny. I see it the other way round. I love it on macOS and iPadOS, but I actually reverted my iPhone to iOS 18, something I have never done before... Was much easier than I feared, but is only possible for the next few weeks, of course, as long as Apple still signs iOS 18.
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I'd do the same but I got a new phone coming on Friday that doesn't have that option
 
All this really reminds me of the iOS 7 blowback regarding poor legibility which was slowly reversed or adjusted one-by-one.

With the return of the parallax effect on the Springboard, perhaps the 'liquid glass' project was a just UI test started back during the iOS 7 development that never materialised because of poor performance - they seem to be making many of the same mistakes!
 
This reminds me of the late 90s when transparency was just popping up in UIs and then EVERYTHING had to be transparent, including the hardware. Yuck. Liquid Glass, like all the other skeuomorphic crap over the years is a fad gimmick and I hope it goes away with quickness.
 
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ProbablyDylan said:
If transparency and low contrast are barriers to accessibility... shouldn't the initial design take those factors into account?
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It's like having a see through screen if we're really that futuristic then there should be a toggle to make it opaque same for iOS 26 instead of just reducing transparency which doesn't do much Apple should add a new toggle to make icons and safari address bar fully opaque.

lgoeldsid2024_3.jpg
 
canadianreader said:
It's like having a see through screen if we're really that futuristic then there should be a toggle to make it opaque same for iOS 26 instead of just reducing transparency which doesn't do much Apple should add a new toggle to make icons and safari address bar fully opaque.

View attachment 2551017
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They should have made it look the same as iOS18 but with the extra functionalities of iOS 26. This liquid glass brings nothing to the table IMO. At least provide a toggle.
 
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They will improve it over time. But as a long time Apple user and forum member, I really find myself questioning what in the hell they’re doing more and more, especially with this AI fiasco in the past year. It begs the question: Has Apple finally lost their way?

Their way was the intersection of liberal arts and technology. It wasn’t about vaporware demos and clunky UI/UX that flies in the face of accessibility. It was about under promising and over delivering on every aspect of a device.

In the mean time, my hope is that they will offer a simple toggle to disable it. Not some half baked accessibility solution. Something that realistically disables it across the system and brings back the simple background blur frosted effect.

They will never do that.
 
Liquid Glass is nice without full transparency options :) And it in fact makes even 15 Pro slow with any kind of power management modes

Performance will be likely fixed in most places soon
 
I love everything about iOS 26!! I love the feel, the animations, the glass feel, etc. Like others tho, I do share some complaints…

The keyboard. It looks out of place. I also do not like the UI navigation elements, such as the search prompt, floating above the scrollable content, such as in the messages app. It looks very clunky and out of place. I also wish the home screen icons when choosing “Clear” would have an option for some color so I can have the full glass effect and still have colorful app/folder icons preserved🙏🏻

Overall it’s a wonderful change and I’m really enjoying this new experience!!😎
 
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I like it better in person. Dark Mode App icons works well with it.

Tweaking Accessibility settings can help. "Reduce Transparency" has always been a useful one (although i've disabled it for now as I like the glass effect). I also like Bold Text & the 4th dot along the Larger Text scale works for me.

I've also Disabled 'Reduce Motion' for the first time in years as I think it's quicker(?)...
 
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