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iOS 26's Liquid Glass Design Draws Criticism From Users
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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.
it certainly does look horrible with increased contrast and reduced transparency enabled
I'd do the same but I got a new phone coming on Friday that doesn't have that option
If transparency and low contrast are barriers to accessibility... shouldn't the initial design take those factors into account?
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!
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!
...or the heavily cycled/aged battery, that doesn't hold a meaningful charge anymore.
Which is the direct consequence of wasting energy and using up battery cycles faster.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Yawn 🥱 people are always reluctant to new stuff. Just like they did with iOS 7. Liquid Glass is beautiful.
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!!😎
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!!😎
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(?)...
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(?)...
I just played with it on another person’s phone, and while it’s not terrible, it definitely feels like a step backwards in design. I don’t hate it, but I’m not a fan.
It's the first time I really regret upgrading... and it's the worst macOS update since the introduction of OS X