Liquid Glass popularity.

[avkills]

When it first came out I thought, "Oh, that's sort of neat," and then basically forgot about it until I came to this forum and realized that hating it is a thing. It's actually not the kind of thing that ever would have occurred to me as something that would make people so angry, but clearly it does.

FWIW, the thing about it that's "sort of neat" to me isn't even the design itself so much as that they've unified the design between Mac, iPhone, and iPad, so there is a sort of seamless fluidity transitioning from one device to another. But they could have stuck to the old design and done that, or have done it with Liquid Glass. I'm fine either way.

I just do not get why people are so amped over this. This subtle design change has not degraded the usability/functionality of any device in any way...at least not for me.

Remember back in the day the people who basically made a career out of hating Nickelback, and they tripped over each other to let the world know that they hate Nickelback even harder than the last guy who claimed to be the world's biggest Nickelback hater? Wild. That's how hating Liquid Glass feels to me.

GUI buttons on the watch not working 100% of the time and weird GUI freezes on my phone are exactly what degraded usability/funcitonality is. Are you saying you have not had anything like that on any of your devices?

 

[melodibit]

GUI buttons on the watch not working 100% of the time and weird GUI freezes on my phone are exactly what degraded usability/funcitonality is. Are you saying you have not had anything like that on any of your devices?

Honestly, cross my heart and hope to die, no.

I would be inclined to say that this sounds less like a Liquid Glass thing and more like the sad reality that eventually new updates always slow down old devices, except I'm rocking an iPhone 14 Pro, an Apple Watch Series 8, and a 2021 M1 MBP, and I'm not experiencing any of this on any of this older devices.

My wife's iPad mini was experiencing this. It might have started with Liquid Glass, but then we reset it and restored from backup, and now it's operating normally.

 

[maxoakland]

Its funny, how things evolve, this time last year, people were losing their collective poop on how bad liquid glass is, how apple really screwed up, how apple lost its design language. One year later, everyone is lauding it.

Nobody is lauding it. But Apple has definitely made some small changes that have improved it

 

[jinnyman]

Apple has done several tweaks to initial liquid glass. Based on the latest iteration, I don't mind its implementation on ios/ipados devices. iPad OS's multi-tasking is still not upto a perfection level, but that's a different matter.

However, I despise it on MacOS.

 

[avkills]

Honestly, cross my heart and hope to die, no.

I would be inclined to say that this sounds less like a Liquid Glass thing and more like the sad reality that eventually new updates always slow down old devices, except I'm rocking an iPhone 14 Pro, an Apple Watch Series 8, and a 2021 M1 MBP, and I'm not experiencing any of this on any of this older devices.

My wife's iPad mini was experiencing this. It might have started with Liquid Glass, but then we reset it and restored from backup, and now it's operating normally.

Could be I need to backup, reset and start fresh with my watch and iPhone, but they are on the older side and probably shouldn't have been allowed the update, which I would have been mostly ok with.

Let's just say my Mac Pro journey has been a lot harder to swallow.

 

[Luftkopf]

There is no depth on a 2-D display. Depth is fake. Glass is fake. Double fake. Apple's UI team is all about fake.

Come on dude, this bit is getting old. Maybe you've heard of this thing that western art learned about 600 years ago called 'perspective'?

GUI buttons on the watch not working 100% of the time and weird GUI freezes on my phone are exactly what degraded usability/funcitonality is. Are you saying you have not had anything like that on any of your devices?

My watch is a series 2, so it doesn't count, but my M3 Pro MacBook Pro ran better with Tahoe than Sequoia, and my iPhone 14, and my wife's iPhone 11 run perfectly fine, no freezes or glitches.

 

[iLuddite]

Much better as of iOS 27 beta 1 and steadily improving.

Voted: It’s growing on me

 

[sleep/to/dream]

I love Liquid Glass now that they’ve increased the sharpness and contrast on icons, and made it more like Aqua with the highlights coming from directly above. The 45 degree/moving highlights drove me crazy 💀

They need to work on consistency in quite a few places, esp how the top and bottom of scrolling content are handled, but hopefully that improves by the OS 27 release. Hoping they make the most transparent option even more transparent too 🙂

 

[Ledsteplin]

I was a bit skeptical at first, as I didn't like it on my homescreen. But liked it everywhere else. But I like it now. I especially like a clear dock.

 

[Siliconguy]

Maybe you've heard of this thing that western art learned about 600 years ago called 'perspective'?

Perspective does not make text easier to read.

 

[Luftkopf]

Perspective does not make text easier to read.

Neither does a dead flat, lifeless interface.

 

[GenPDX]

I’m just here to enjoy the (currently) 56+% positive to the 24% negative. Hopefully Apple will now stop listening to the minority on this, especially those who seem to have been completely unhinged about it. And – no – ongoing refinements to Liquid Glass do not constitute backtracking or some sort of admission of any supposed UI “mistakes”.

 

[capamac]

Come on dude, this bit is getting old. Maybe you've heard of this thing that western art learned about 600 years ago called 'perspective'?

Perspective is useful for some things like photographs, movies, art, paintings, video games. UI, not so much. They already tried it; it went nowhere:

Even if a UI is "3D" and has "depth" it's only surface-level nonsense, not actually functional. Functionally such a UI is only 2D, which is how iOS and macOS work. 2D. Coz it makes sense.

 

[SDAVE]

Perspective is useful for some things like photographs, movies, art, paintings, video games. UI, not so much. They already tried it; it went nowhere:

Even if a UI is "3D" and has "depth" it's only surface-level nonsense, not actually functional. Functionally such a UI is only 2D, which is how iOS and macOS work. 2D. Coz it makes sense.

Bro this isn't 1997 with a Linux System from Jurrasic Park

 

[thomassbecker]

I like the idea of Liquid Glass, but I think usability has to come first—especially with readability and responsiveness.
The latest betas seem to be heading in the right direction, though.
It feels like Apple is slowly finding the balance between visual flair and practical UI.
Curious to see how everyone's opinion changes once the final version ships.

 

[Luftkopf]

Perspective is useful for some things like photographs, movies, art, paintings, video games. UI, not so much. They already tried it; it went nowhere:

Even if a UI is "3D" and has "depth" it's only surface-level nonsense, not actually functional. Functionally such a UI is only 2D, which is how iOS and macOS work. 2D. Coz it makes sense.

That is definitely a subjective opinion. It has been demonstrated that flat interfaces are more difficult to use if you don't already know how they work.

 

[leifp]

I need to separate the aesthetic of Liquid Glass (it’s fine) with the UX (it’s an affront) and constrain it to OS version (26 is a pain point to me; 27 fixes some of that). All of my devices on 26 (iPad, MBAir, Mac mini) are frustrating; all others (macOS 15 on my MBPro, iOS 18 on my iPhone) are fine. The underlying tech is good/appreciated!

Ask again in a year once all of my devices are on OS27 (I imagine pretty much all will update at 27.1) and OS28 is in beta… 🥸

 

[FeliApple]

I’m just here to enjoy the (currently) 56+% positive to the 24% negative. Hopefully Apple will now stop listening to the minority on this, especially those who seem to have been completely unhinged about it. And – no – ongoing refinements to Liquid Glass do not constitute backtracking or some sort of admission of any supposed UI “mistakes”.

Keep in mind that MacRumors is typically very, very pro-iOS updates. Other forum polls I’ve seen show iOS 18 as the clear winner in a “what would you rather be running?” poll.

In fact, it is so pro-iOS updates that I’m the only forum member that I have seen that chooses a policy of never updating anything due to the detrimental effects of iOS updates.

MacRumors users typically upgrade more frequently, and those who don’t, update anyway. It’s a little skewed.

 

[I7guy]

Keep in mind that MacRumors is typically very, very pro-iOS updates. Other forum polls I’ve seen show iOS 18 as the clear winner in a “what would you rather be running?” poll.

In fact, it is so pro-iOS updates that I’m the only forum member that I have seen that chooses a policy of never updating anything due to the detrimental effects of iOS updates.

MacRumors users typically upgrade more frequently, and those who don’t, update anyway. It’s a little skewed.

The idea of a poll to find out who likes what is a nice idea, but MR published the iOS 26 adoption stats recently. The numbers overall are more or less consistent with previously iOS releases.

So regardless of peoples preferences and biases on online forum polls the numbers speak for themselves although people will slice and dice and provide their own spin on the numbers.

 

[FeliApple]

The idea of a poll to find out who likes what is a nice idea, but MR published the iOS 26 adoption stats recently. The numbers overall are more or less consistent with previously iOS releases.

So regardless of peoples preferences and biases on online forum polls the numbers speak for themselves although people will slice and dice and provide their own spin on the numbers.

Yeah, the adoption rate… on the one hand, I’m always surprised by how high it is. If people want to use garbage, let them, but it is surprising especially with older devices. People complain about the oldest supported devices being massively affected and they upgrade because of this and they keep updating. Einstein’s misattributed definition of “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”. He didn’t say that but it still applies here. And I’d say “idiocy” instead of “insanity” but I digress…

On the other hand… how valuable of a marker is it following a redesign when downgrading is impossible? I don’t think it is 100% relevant. Many people would go back if they could. They can’t. Even if the 26% that voted against it would go back, well… that’s very significant, imo.

 

[I7guy]

Yeah, the adoption rate… on the one hand, I’m always surprised by how high it is. If people want to use garbage, let them, but it is surprising especially with older devices. People complain about the oldest supported devices being massively affected and they upgrade because of this and they keep updating. Einstein’s misattributed definition of “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”. He didn’t say that but it still applies here. And I’d say “idiocy” instead of “insanity” but I digress…

On the other hand… how valuable of a marker is it following a redesign when downgrading is impossible? I don’t think it is 100% relevant. Many people would go back if they could. They can’t. Even if the 26% that voted against it would go back, well… that’s very significant, imo.

There are over 1 billion iPhone users, imo, these ad-hoc online polls don’t represent the majority or maybe even the minority of iPhone users.

If apple allowed downgrading I wonder what percentage of the active users would actively downgrade. My guess is a sliver of a sliver.

I understand why apple doesn’t allow downgrading, they stop patching older versions. And unlike Microsoft who, for example doesn’t care if you downgrade to XP from windows 11, Apple does care. It’s a real thing with them.

Before getting an iPhone, these are some things people should be aware of.

 

[FeliApple]

There are over 1 billion iPhone users, imo, these ad-hoc online polls don’t represent the majority or maybe even the minority of iPhone users.

If apple allowed downgrading I wonder what percentage of the active users would actively downgrade. My guess is a sliver of a sliver.

Yes because of lack of know-how, not because they don’t want to, imo. Especially with the garbage that is 26 for older devices.

I understand why apple doesn’t allow downgrading, they stop patching older versions. And unlike Microsoft who, for example doesn’t care if you downgrade to XP from windows 11, Apple does care. It’s a real thing with them.

Before getting an iPhone, these are some things people should be aware of.

Agree on people being aware, disagree on understanding. Apple’s malware should be kept far away from iOS devices.

Hopefully iOS 26 teaches people something. But if it doesn’t, it’s their devices that are garbage, not mine.

I’m avoiding Liquid Garbage for as long as possible or until I get a newer device.

 

[Boogerpicker]

Maybe it will look better on the all glass iPhone that keeps getting mentioned lol

 

[Boogerpicker]

I’m one of those people who has been trashing Liquid Glass from the very beginning.

I still think it’s a “fix” for a problem that didn’t exist in the first place, and that it was change for the sake of change. iOS 18 did look cleaner. It was refined. On top of that, Liquid Glass genuinely made iOS worse to use, both from a UI and a performance perspective.

That said, I’ve already started getting used to it. Either enough time has passed and I’ve genuinely adapted to it, or Apple has gradually improved it through the smaller updates and fixed some of its worst mistakes.

For context, I’m running the latest version of iOS 26.

Apparently, iOS 27 will come with a slider that lets you adjust Liquid Glass. To me, that’s Apple’s way of saying: “We screwed up, but we’re not going to admit it directly because Apple doesn’t officially make bad design decisions. We’re Apple, after all. Instead, we’ll add this slider that supposedly gives you more options, but in reality, it’s just a way to turn Liquid Glass off.”

I`m on dev beta 5 of iOS 27 and the slider now has an even more transparent quality on one extreme and basically off on the other end lol . There are a few other changes to it as well .I always thought Apple pushed the liquid junk because they lied about Siri improvements for so long lol

 

[FeliApple]

I’m one of those people who has been trashing Liquid Glass from the very beginning.

I still think it’s a “fix” for a problem that didn’t exist in the first place, and that it was change for the sake of change. iOS 18 did look cleaner. It was refined. On top of that, Liquid Glass genuinely made iOS worse to use, both from a UI and a performance perspective.

That said, I’ve already started getting used to it. Either enough time has passed and I’ve genuinely adapted to it, or Apple has gradually improved it through the smaller updates and fixed some of its worst mistakes.

For context, I’m running the latest version of iOS 26.

Apparently, iOS 27 will come with a slider that lets you adjust Liquid Glass. To me, that’s Apple’s way of saying: “We screwed up, but we’re not going to admit it directly because Apple doesn’t officially make bad design decisions. We’re Apple, after all. Instead, we’ll add this slider that supposedly gives you more options, but in reality, it’s just a way to turn Liquid Glass off.”

I just cannot understand why or how Apple just doesn’t care. Apple has repeatedly shown that they do not care about performance and battery life for anything that’s not the latest device.

I cannot understand why they take a 20-30% battery life penalty and a performance impact even on the latest devices currently being sold (the 11th-gen iPad, for one) so ridiculously lightly.

They can make software that is so well-optimised it’s beyond a joke, yet they take the impact of updates on every device so ridiculously lightly, and that’s on top of a UI perspective, like you said. From a usability standpoint it is also worse. Like you said, it is a solution in search of a problem that just isn’t there.