„Just some beta bashing“

[iSuzan]

Thanks @hasanahmad for the link to the WWDC video. 👏

That is the real contribution of this thread. Testing iPadOS on my iPad and are happy to watch the development until the final release.

​

 

[jbmelby]

I’ve been experimenting with various options since I installed beta 1, and one thing that impresses me is that the UI is almost endlessly customizable. Most of the complaints here can be resolved by selecting some of the choices that Apple offers. And FYI, I am a developer.

 

[Parowdy]

And it’s not my fault you chose to publicly complain about iOS 26's very first external beta, which is intended for access to developers, not being up to scratch.

Oh believe me I complained in private, too.
Like I said previously, my complains mean nothing in the greater scheme of things. There are many other people, including actual developers and UI engineers, that complain about beta 1.
I understand it’s supposed to be developer‘s access to prerelease tools and visuals.
But that doesn’t change the fact that this is also THE beta being picked apart, as that’s just the nature of new things. It’s the first glimpse the general public has of the all new revolutionary design language going to be present on all of Apples platforms. First impressions matter, ESPECIALLY when the biggest feature is a new design.
Apple thought this to be good enough for any portion of the public to get their hands on, fully knowing it will be talked about by public figures, and they are being criticized for it, rightfully so.
Sorry that I voiced my opinion on the internet of all of places. If you don’t like it or disagree, that’s not my problem.

 

[lindros2]

well this sure puts a wrinkle into getting a new iPhone.
Looks like I'm buying a 16 Pro Max to prevent moving to this until they sort it.

 

[star-affinity]

And I can only hope that until September they've figured out how to fix this abomination.
Black Wallpaper users will not be happy, unfortunately neither will be anyone else. All in all, it seems they have forgotten what their goal should be, because this readability nightmare isn't it, and the low quality app icons don't help. The inconsistencies in the UI are glaring and, frankly, an ugly downgrade.
I understand how it might look great on a case free 16 Pro Max, but the great thing about the previous design is how it goes with every screen, every case and basically every environment.
I never imagined to be let down by Apple's redesign but here I am, typing this on my MacBook while restoring iOS 18 on my 15 Pro.

View attachment 2518283View attachment 2518284View attachment 2518287
Edit: how can something so „clean“ be so unpolished?

Third screen looks okay I think. The first two need more blur on the background (which the third has and there it looks better. I do think they will adjust these things during the beta. But I agree it looks messy.

Watching the developer session shared above you get the sense a lot of thought went into this. I’ve got to believe legibility issues will be fixed in future betas. I mean there’s no way the people at Apple who worked on this would say this is legible and should ship in the fall.


View attachment 2518502

I wonder where that screen shot comes from, because if going to the source (Apple's iOS 26 library on Sketch) it doesn't look that bad (i.e. white text is black in that situation):

Sketch

Sketch

www.sketch.com

 

[Love-hate 🍏 relationship]

It's completely bewildering to me that they said they were going to unify all their platforms and now the gap between visionOS and iOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS is stark.
visionOS is still one of the best UI's that I've ever seen and I really hope that they take notes throughout the beta and align it more to that.

Right? I was surprised as well

 

[leman]

Do the icons look kind of low resolution to you too, or is it just me?

It feels like I'm looking at 240p screen, potato quality.

Some of the icons (e.g. Files, Safari) on the iPad seem a bit blurry, and some icons have inconsistent borders (e.g. shiny borders around TV icon, black borders around calendar icon etc.)

 

[Rogifan]

Third screen looks okay I think. The first two need more blur on the background (which the third has and there it looks better. I do think they will adjust these things during the beta. But I agree it looks messy.


I wonder where that screen shot comes from, because if going to the source (Apple's iOS 26 library on Sketch) it doesn't look that bad (i.e. white text is black in that situation):

View attachment 2518831

Sketch

Sketch

www.sketch.com

Lots of things are floating around social media. Not sure if some of them are really bugs?

I’m convinced some things we’re seeing now will not be what ships this fall (because they’re so bad) but I don’t understand how they didn’t get fixed before the first beta dropped. Unless they were rushing to get something available in time for WWDC and had no choice but to seed this?

 

[one more]

I installed it on my spare iPhone and while my initial reaction was similar to yours (and a bunch of professional designers weighing in too), the new design is now growing on me. There are some bugs and inconsistencies, but I believe Apple will have time to polish it all up over the next three months. I will most likely be installing PB1 on my daily devices, carpe diem style. 😉🖐️

 

[Rogifan]

I’ve been experimenting with various options since I installed beta 1, and one thing that impresses me is that the UI is almost endlessly customizable. Most of the complaints here can be resolved by selecting some of the choices that Apple offers. And FYI, I am a developer.

I’m hoping some of the rough edges are resolved by the time the public beta drops in July. Not sure what version that will be though. No one should have to tinker with accessibility settings to get legible text. I wonder though if some of this is things not translating well as screenshots posted to social media?

 

[GioGiusi]

Drama drama drama. If OP doesn't like it then it MUST be bad. That's what he's saying.

No, it's actually fantastic and remarkably stable for a beta 1. There are some obvious things to be tweaked between now and release, and that's fine. But it is a damn fine new design.

 

[Yimbaz]

Another year, another round of people complaining about a beta they had no business installing in the first place.

Wait for September before you put this on your personal devices, people!

 

[Larsvonhier]

"You are backgrounding it wrong"

 

[Siliconguy]

The overreaction is strong to a beta 1 release. If you have been a part of the beta since the ios7 days, you know things can change significantly from now - September.

Very true, so you guys with the beta have a duty to complain through the official "what were you thinking?" channels

 

[FNH15]

Lots of things are floating around social media. Not sure if some of them are really bugs?

I’m convinced some things we’re seeing now will not be what ships this fall (because they’re so bad) but I don’t understand how they didn’t get fixed before the first beta dropped. Unless they were rushing to get something available in time for WWDC and had no choice but to seed this?

If this is like years past when Apple’s redesigned their UI, they have more polished UI builds ahead of what’s been released - I believe this was true during the iOS 7 and iOS 4 days. It was certainly the case with OS X Lion. Back then you could tell during the live demos as things were a bit different on what was on stage (icons, UI design).

 

[iPhoneUser16]

And I can only hope that until September they've figured out how to fix this abomination.
Black Wallpaper users will not be happy, unfortunately neither will be anyone else. All in all, it seems they have forgotten what their goal should be, because this readability nightmare isn't it, and the low quality app icons don't help. The inconsistencies in the UI are glaring and, frankly, an ugly downgrade.
I understand how it might look great on a case free 16 Pro Max, but the great thing about the previous design is how it goes with every screen, every case and basically every environment.
I never imagined to be let down by Apple's redesign but here I am, typing this on my MacBook while restoring iOS 18 on my 15 Pro.

View attachment 2518283View attachment 2518284View attachment 2518287
Edit: how can something so „clean“ be so unpolished?

I also have to say, this is the first developer beta, they will fix multiple things, and personally, i like the glassy control center

 

[bigchrisfgb]

Another year, another round of people complaining about a beta they had no business installing in the first place.

Wait for September before you put this on your personal devices, people!

Exactly this.
People complaining that certain apps aren’t working on a phone they have as their daily driver.
Another saying he’s ’A long term beta tester’.

Guys, you paid $100 for a developers account to gain access to a pieces of software that is in a testing stage and only being allowed access to developers who need to amend their apps ahead of the public release. All because you can’t wait for final public release. Apple even semi-caved in you people like you by offering a free public beta programme, but still you guys want it on day 1 of developer access.

They have no business complaining about things that don’t work, be it apps, the software itself, or even the design elements.

 

[Parowdy]

Another year, another round of people complaining about a beta they had no business installing in the first place.

Wait for September before you put this on your personal devices, people!

So even though Apple lets non devs download it they shouldn’t?
See, my opinion is not exclusive to me and you seem to forget two things. There are more opinions on this than there are devices running iOS 26 thanks to social media. At least I had some hands on time and tried different things before having an opinion.
Also, if you decide to completely overhaul something people wanted to change for years, it doesn’t matter if it’s labeled a developer beta or something else, the first publicly available iteration is the one that will be judged by said public.
I, like mostly everyone else, expect things to look different in the end, but that doesn’t change what it looks like right now.
First impressions matter.

 

[Wieslawo]

Before he died, Steve Jobs spent a lot of time with Tim Cook sharing his vision for the future. Looks like Tim finished the checklist a couple of years ago and has no ideas about what to do.

Not necessarily. Jobs and Ive, especially Ive dreamed of a glass block. I think this is the stage of iOS 7, which was not pretty, Helvetica is a beautiful font, but not a system font. They started a revolution and the assumptions are bold, I will evaluate the execution in September, but iPhone 20 may be the fulfillment of the dream of a glass block without physical buttons and ports - pure form.

 

[Parowdy]

Exactly this.
People complaining that certain apps aren’t working on a phone they have as their daily driver.
Another saying he’s ’A long term beta tester’.

Guys, you paid $100 for a developers account to gain access to a pieces of software that is in a testing stage and only being allowed access to developers who need to amend their apps ahead of the public release. All because you can’t wait for final public release. Apple even semi-caved in you people like you by offering a free public beta programme, but still you guys want it on day 1 of developer access.

They have no business complaining about things that don’t work, be it apps, the software itself, or even the design elements.

Actually, you don’t have to pay the fee to have a developer account. Certainly I don’t.
And yes, I do think people are allowed to voice their opinions on the first somewhat publicly available iteration of something, especially if it’s an ecosystem wide design change after 12 years. Apparently the public feels the same way.
To be honest, everyone that didn’t expect people to tear apart „Liquid Glass“ on the spot is naive in my opinion.
I don’t say the final design is going to be bad, I just think Apple fumbled this initial release.

 

[Parowdy]

I’ve been experimenting with various options since I installed beta 1, and one thing that impresses me is that the UI is almost endlessly customizable. Most of the complaints here can be resolved by selecting some of the choices that Apple offers. And FYI, I am a developer.

What choices would that be?

 

[nsklaus]

it's sh*t ..
apple new UI theme is just that: "liquid sh*t"

just like everything that came since that horrible "big-sur" new theme, it has all been like a downward spiral through the toilet. macos has become horribly disfigured. it's such a shame to see an OS that used to look so good to be so miserably altered like this by designers that are clueless, experience-less and tasteless.

since around the time jobs went away apple became so lost. they look like they have no idea what they're doing and where they want to go, like a headless duck trying to fly and escape.

(and yes i count the M-series CPUs ..which are very nice.. to be one of the last steve jobs project because, designing new CPU takes long time, and that project was most probably initiated while he was still at the helm, so i attribute the merit of that vision to jobs era).

 

[Parowdy]

Another year, another round of people complaining about a beta they had no business installing in the first place.

Wait for September before you put this on your personal devices, people!

Sorry but what is the public beta for if not for real-world-use feedback on people’s actual devices?
I get that DB‘s always carry stability risks, but do you expect PB users to only run betas on secondary devices?

 

[Yimbaz]

So even though Apple lets non devs download it they shouldn’t?
See, my opinion is not exclusive to me and you seem to forget two things. There are more opinions on this than there are devices running iOS 26 thanks to social media. At least I had some hands on time and tried different things before having an opinion.
Also, if you decide to completely overhaul something people wanted to change for years, it doesn’t matter if it’s labeled a developer beta or something else, the first publicly available iteration is the one that will be judged by said public.
I, like mostly everyone else, expect things to look different in the end, but that doesn’t change what it looks like right now.
First impressions matter.

Sorry but what is the public beta for if not for real-world-use feedback on people’s actual devices?
I get that DB‘s always carry stability risks, but do you expect PB users to only run betas on secondary devices?

There is no public beta for iOS 26 right now. What you have on your phone is a developer beta, and it sounds like you aren't a developer. This is a rough version designed for people who know how to handle it, not for people who are obsessed with newness and can't handle the FOMO of waiting for a stable release.

 

[Parowdy]

There is no public beta for iOS 26 right now. What you have on your phone is a developer beta, and it sounds like you aren't a developer. This is a rough version designed for people who know how to handle it, not for people who are obsessed with newness and can't handle the FOMO of waiting for a stable release.

I never claimed that Developer Beta 1 is a public beta.
I did claim however that it is available to the public, even to non dev fee paying people, and that it is the one beta that will be (and is being) talked about in alll of those tech centric videos and podcast.
And I also said that first impressions matter.
None of that is wrong.