I absolutely loathe iOS 26

[profmjh]

Just “up”graded my iPhone to iOS 26 and I absolutely hate it. It’s visually the ugliest iOS Apple has ever produced. The icons all have a distracting (and non-sensical) edge to them. The blurred wallpapers look nothing like they used to.

It’s so ugly I’m thinking of cancelling my iPhone Air order and looking at Samsung options.

 

[tyranne201]

if you think iOS 26 is distracting, wait till android. oh boy.

 

[orsev]

You can roll it back with minimal effort, if you find it that 'bad'.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/ios-26-rollback-guide.2465856/

 

[Jackbequickly]

You have no choice unless you want to go to Android. I am not that impressed with 26 but would never leave the Apple system. The wrist flick on my AW is my favorite new feature.

 

[raziel101]

I dislike it as well. And the experience on my 13 Pro is terrible - all the animations run slower than iOS 18, and there is a sluggish feeling in how things perform

 

[Tubamajuba]

Just “up”graded my iPhone to iOS 26 and I absolutely hate it. It’s visually the ugliest iOS Apple has ever produced. The icons all have a distracting (and non-sensical) edge to them. The blurred wallpapers look nothing like they used to.

It’s so ugly I’m thinking of cancelling my iPhone Air order and looking at Samsung options.

Go ahead and switch to Android then, this is what we got and what we're going to continue to get.

 

[AppliedMicro]

I am not that impressed with 26 but would never leave the Apple system. The wrist flick on my AW is my favorite new feature.

Wait until you've tried the swipe-to-get-back gesture on an Android phone

 

[bmark]

iOS 26 Liquid Glass effect is utter trash! Apple's software team must have been on cocaine when they designed this.

 

[vi2867]

I am scared to put it on my wife's phone, but eventually I am going to have to do it, right...

 

[AppliedMicro]

Apple's software team must have been on cocaine when they designed this.

Their design team is on cook-aine now.

 

[vi2867]

What I have been doing is go to settings and type in the search bar what I need to change, and/or use ChatGPT. It works.

 

[MBAir2010]

if you think iOS 26 is distracting, wait till android. oh boy.

I hear yee..... Alexzander Graham Bell's phone had better GUI than android!

 

[teeshot44]

Updated mine and wife’s iPhone to 18.7 and turned off updates. I’ve been on and off 26 betas through out the beta cycle and see nothing that impresses me. Numerous changes will totally confuse my wife. I am very familiar with android and have no issues using it. 17 is ordered for delivery Friday and deciding between now and then if to keep. IMHO Apple made this drastic design change partly to draw attention away from other promises made and delayed or not kept.

 

[adrianlondon]

You can roll it back with minimal effort, if you find it that 'bad'.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/ios-26-rollback-guide.2465856/

I think the OP wanted to like it as the new 17s aren't compatible with anything else.

 

[Reverend Benny]

What I don’t get is how they managed to get an approval to prioritise a new GUI. They do have other parts and a bit of a backlog of things that I would have considered more important to fix.

It’s not like the old GUI was bad and looked dated

 

[Apple_Robert]

Just “up”graded my iPhone to iOS 26 and I absolutely hate it. It’s visually the ugliest iOS Apple has ever produced. The icons all have a distracting (and non-sensical) edge to them. The blurred wallpapers look nothing like they used to.

It’s so ugly I’m thinking of cancelling my iPhone Air order and looking at Samsung options.go

Go back to iOS 18.

 

[chabig]

All of these complaints are normal. Apple made some changes. However, once the initial shock of change wears off, and you use the system for a while, everything that’s now new and scary will become normal. Give it some time.

 

[ScreenSavers]

You’ll get used to it. Been on it since June and really like it. Using devices with iOS 18 feels outdated now.

 

[orsev]

I think the OP wanted to like it as the new 17s aren't compatible with anything else.

I think it's likely you could load 18.7 onto it? I don't know, but it's worth a shot. I just put 26 on my 15PM and it's not that bad. I'll let the 16 update overnight.

 

[Scott H]

I was going to order an iPhone 17 Pro Max, but I am so disappointed with iOS 26 that I will not get anything new. The new interface is not visually appealing to me and is more difficult to read on most screens. Apple could have done much better.

 

[krspkbl]

Ok. Hope you feel better soon.

 

[ProbablyDylan]

iOS 26 looks cheap to me. The way all the UI constantly changes colors and shape and shading is so distracting. To say nothing of the shimmering edges on everything.

Whoever pitched Liquid Glass needs to be moved to sales if they managed to convince the powers that be that it's a good idea.

 

[Ethosik]

You will get used to it. I remember a lot....A LOT of complains with the Aero theme when Windows Vista and Windows 7 came out. A LOT of people were complaining about performance and toggling the Basic theme which looked EVEN WORSE. Now we look back and report Windows 7 was the last objectively BEST operating systems in existence.

Similarly Windows XP became known as a meme as Fischer price OS. I remember being disgusted by the look originally. Again, XP was another S-tier operating systems to ever have existed.

Point is, spend some time with it and you will get used to it.

 

[Neo11111]

Just “up”graded my iPhone to iOS 26 and I absolutely hate it. It’s visually the ugliest iOS Apple has ever produced. The icons all have a distracting (and non-sensical) edge to them. The blurred wallpapers look nothing like they used to.

It’s so ugly I’m thinking of cancelling my iPhone Air order and looking at Samsung options.

iOS 7 was a lot worse than iOS 26.

 

[Kyberplayer]

iOS 26 Liquid Glass effect is utter trash! Apple's software team must have been on cocaine when they designed this.

Nah that was before!!
Now the glass is so clean you can see through it.