Anyone else hating Apple's recent iPhone iOS 26 "Liquid Glass" updates? WTF is going on at Apple?

I'm surprised at how sloppy this whole iOS 26 update feels. As someone working in UI/UX, I'm aware of how change-averse people can be, especially with something as personal as their iPhone. This update feels different than usual though: drastically worse legibility in places, totally pointless gimmicky UI flourishes that contribute nothing useful to overall UX. The visual flourishes aren't even impressive, they're just messy and create visual distraction. Many motions and animations (like home screen/unlock) are even slower than before. Feels like Apple is regressing in many aspects of their user interface design.

I also tried the Tahoe macOS update on a older M1 Macbook Air, which failed 3 times. Neither the system update nor the manual .pkg installer actually worked. Probably for the best if this is what Apple's software QA has become.

Even the simple iOS calculator app didn't escape from getting covered in liquid ass:

The button size and appearance animates obnoxiously as you tap on them. That's like Windows Vista level impressive.


Great contrast levels and legibility throughout iOS...

and:



I did discover you can greatly improve text legibility by enabling "Reduce Transparency" in:
Settings -> Accessibility -> Display & Text Sizes

There's also:
Settings -> Accessibility -> Motion -> Reduce Motion
Which helps speed up the ridiculous unlock animation and some other elements.

I've seen screenshots from people that were able to update macOS, which looks just as finished and refined as iOS:



Relevant article:
https://world.hey.com/dhh/apple-has-no-one-left-who-can-say-no-1a542329

That's the end of my rant, thanks for coming.

I switched to the liquid glass type icons and switched back immediately. I was hoping for improvement to car play, instead I think it might be worse. Not impressed.

Yeah, I was curious if the complaints were justified. They are. 😀

The CarPlay update appears to be targeted at large screens, I’ve got a smaller one that can’t be any bigger due to the dash size limitations and I found it runs out of space for my favourite destinations in maps which is pretty rough

I updated my AppleTV and HomePods to version 26 without any problems (so far), but I'm waiting for 26.1 (probably late October or early November) to update my iPhone and Apple Watches. None of my Macs will see version 26 until at least 26.2 (December?). There's just too much that's changed, and I expect it will take several additional releases to get things stable enough to actually use.

Pinch to zoom doesn’t seem to work in either of my cars with CarPlay. Works with Android ;(.

Appropriate youtube thumbnail.

I haven’t updated yet either, but as a Design Director running a Design agency that specializes in enterprise level apps and websites we’ve been across this for a while as Apple have given us roughly 6 months to get our client’s apps ready for this update. By that I mean that the change isn’t just at the OS and Apple app level but will also affect all other apps, changing defining aspects of not only their UI but also enforcing their new responsive app approach... which is going to mess with a lot of existing apps. While apps that are not updated will still function on iOS 26, they definitely won’t take advantage of new features, and in some cases, your favorite app might not display correctly due to these ‘improvements’.

I always appreciate new UI approaches but this one has really left me wondering if Apple are just trying to showcase the capabilities of their custom-designed silicon, particularly the GPUs in their A-series and M-series chips… by doing so force/nudge people to upgrade as they encounter their old devices struggling under the rendering requirements.

I am an avowed Luddite.

Both tech and change annoy me greatly. I can guarantee that I don’t want it on my iOS 18 phone.

Parts of this are amusing.

So far I have no real problem with the display, but it screwed up carplay. Google map is blank on my screen.

😊