I will resist updating till I’m forced if the released version looks like this. Horrible choice.
Apple never points a gun at your head and says you need to update software.
NEVER.
You are free to run the original software that your device shipped with.
Moreover there are mitigations in the Accessibility settings that can reduce the amount of "eye candy" that any Apple OS delivers. This is not specific for Apple's "26" operating systems, they have been around for years.
I think a lot of people just like to complain. I've been using it for the last couple days and it's nice. On iPhone 12 Pro Max, no major issues. Yes there are some bugs, and some areas where it needs work, but that's expected. Overall it's a fresh change and it's nice to use. It's still only beta so calm the f*** down, things will change with feedback before final release.
There are some screenshots especially of the Control Center where it looks too busy/messy etc but that's only specific situations. In use it's not bad. iOS 18 and previous was similar with transparency but the difference was the amount of blur of the background under the controls in control centre. If this is a widespread complaint during the beta phase I'm sure they will blur it more in the final release. They may have just had less blur this time to show off the glass refraction more and may intend to tone it down later.
My only (mild) concern is that going back to a skeuomorphism like interface may get old faster. I still don't like tinted icons, they work nicer now but still a bit ugly.. but that's just personal opinion.
I only have one question: why? Why would you want your apps to be transparant? To see what’s behind them? Why would you want your screens to refract light? That’s what you want to diminish. What a waist of time and money for absolutely nothing, for something that a lot of users wil turn off, I’m sure.
Exactly! The function of UX/UI is to serve the customer's jobs to be done and make sure this is done in an aesthetically pleasing manner. I can see the clear improvement to Apple Photos in iOS 26 for example, where simplification was greatly needed and they made the interface more contextual without sacrificing usability. However the whole idea around glass serves no purpose - it does not serve the job-to-be-done, in fact it makes it harder to accomplish the goal, all because of some visual effect they've been nerding out on.
It’s enough to call it a full redesign. But it doesn’t fix what’s not broken. So in total, it’s a redesign done right.
Apple tends to roll out changes and improvements and new features incrementally. The same will happen with OS 26.
The yearly system upgrades puts more pressure on Apple to wow people with every release.
That ain’t happening.
I find the iOS flat icons kind of boring. I liked it better when there was a more 3D look that popped a bit. Hopefully OS26 brings back some fun to the interface.
I only have one question: why? Why would you want your apps to be transparant? To see what’s behind them? Why would you want your screens to refract light? That’s what you want to diminish. What a waist of time and money for absolutely nothing, for something that a lot of users wil turn off, I’m sure.
Please see Apple's explanation. They explicitly don't want "your apps to be transparent." Liquid Glass is intended to be used for controls and navigation.
At the 6-minute mark: "It's primary goal is to remain visually clear, deferring to the content underneath. ... and to maintain clear separation from the content layer."
Or from the Adopting Liquid Glass article:
"Avoid overusing Liquid Glass effects. If you apply Liquid Glass effects to a custom control, do so sparingly. Liquid Glass seeks to bring attention to the underlying content, and overusing this material in multiple custom controls can provide a subpar user experience by distracting from that content. Limit these effects to the most important functional elements in your app."
I've been using iOS and macOS 26 for a bit over a day now and my first impression was: "Is it me or is this much faster than iOS 18?" I know it's weird, since this new version is supposed to be more hardware intensive, but everything just seems faster than they were before the install - both iOS and macOS.
But I completely agree with those who think of this as more than an update than a redesign. Some things have been more convenient/within easier reach for one-handed operation and, look a bit better. But there are also some warts - especially in my daily workhorse, Safari. iOS 26 actually made reaching my Favorites bookmarks harder to reach than they were before (extra button pushes). Same with closing all the tabs at once - had to hunt for that is now: "..." ->"All Tabs"->long-hold the checkbox at top-right...wtf? And let's talk about the web page color now taking up the entire header of Safari - i.e. if the web page has a white background, tab bar, favorites bar, and address bar are affected. In my typical dark mode, figuring out what the active tab can be pretty impossible. On some web pages, the favorites bookmark labels are completely hidden because the label color is the same as the background. And if you want to get an epileptic seizure, visit "theregister.com" - its bright red banner color is now blasting in your face big time.
I've been using iOS and macOS 26 for a bit over a day now and my first impression was: "Is it me or is this much faster than iOS 18?" I know it's weird, since this new version is supposed to be more hardware intensive, but everything just seems faster than they were before the install - both iOS and macOS.
Yeah it does seem much faster... at first straight after the install it was very slow and clunky and almost unusable so was worried... then rebooted again and it got better, (not amazing but usable), then a day later it's now really smooth and responsive/snappy and feels better than iOS18. And this is on iPhone 12 Pro Max.
Update or redesign, it's just semantics for me. Call it what you will, I love the look. There a a lot more to this update/redesign that most here are giving in credit for.
I liked someone referring to the "iickable" aspect as well as the skeuomorphism. I'd like to see it make at least something of a comeback. I didn't like the flat look at all. It looks like zero thought goes into making any icon.
There is some functionality I'll use, some I won't. Not a power user. But I can't wait for on all devices.
I don't like the thick font on the middle and right. Apple's thinner fonts always seem much nicer much cleaner. Maybe it can be adjusted. But I'm lovin' the look. I'll watch the WWDC video a few more times before the OS armada ships.
I've been using iOS and macOS 26 for a bit over a day now and my first impression was: "Is it me or is this much faster than iOS 18?" I know it's weird, since this new version is supposed to be more hardware intensive, but everything just seems faster than they were before the install - both iOS and macOS.
Yeah it does seem much faster... at first straight after the install it was very slow and clunky and almost unusable so was worried... then rebooted again and it got better, (not amazing but usable), then a day later it's now really smooth and responsive/snappy and feels better than iOS18. And this is on iPhone 12 Pro Max.
For me both were faster right after the install, not a day later. I've seen the 'day later improvement' on other iOS upgrades, and this wasn't it. I have a recent phone (16 Pro Max), but my MBP is 4 years old. But both are faster than they were.
I only have one question: why? Why would you want your apps to be transparant? To see what’s behind them? Why would you want your screens to refract light? That’s what you want to diminish. What a waist of time and money for absolutely nothing, for something that a lot of users wil turn off, I’m sure.
We're progressively moving from a 2-D world to a 3-D world, on all devices, not just VR/XR devices.
Liquid Glass brings true "virtual" depth to the entire interface, down to the smallest element.
Its a big step forward that many can't yet comprehend and appreciate, but a year from now, you won't want to go back.
I've been using iOS and macOS 26 for a bit over a day now and my first impression was: "Is it me or is this much faster than iOS 18?" I know it's weird, since this new version is supposed to be more hardware intensive, but everything just seems faster than they were before the install - both iOS and macOS.
Yeah it does seem much faster... at first straight after the install it was very slow and clunky and almost unusable so was worried... then rebooted again and it got better, (not amazing but usable), then a day later it's now really smooth and responsive/snappy and feels better than iOS18. And this is on iPhone 12 Pro Max.
For me both were faster right after the install, not a day later. I've seen the 'day later improvement' on other iOS upgrades, and this wasn't it. I have a recent phone (16 Pro Max), but my MBP is 4 years old. But both are faster than they were.
Form the Apple Insider article, "The software takes advantage of the improved hardware available in Apple's latest A18 and A18 Pro chips, which have the necessary processing power to achieve these glass-like effects."
So, how much of a reduction is there in the battery life per charge due to these two "improvements" (faster software response and glass-like effects)? Also can the glass-like effects be disabled in Settings?
I've been using iOS and macOS 26 for a bit over a day now and my first impression was: "Is it me or is this much faster than iOS 18?" I know it's weird, since this new version is supposed to be more hardware intensive, but everything just seems faster than they were before the install - both iOS and macOS.
Yeah it does seem much faster... at first straight after the install it was very slow and clunky and almost unusable so was worried... then rebooted again and it got better, (not amazing but usable), then a day later it's now really smooth and responsive/snappy and feels better than iOS18. And this is on iPhone 12 Pro Max.
For me both were faster right after the install, not a day later. I've seen the 'day later improvement' on other iOS upgrades, and this wasn't it. I have a recent phone (16 Pro Max), but my MBP is 4 years old. But both are faster than they were.
Form the Apple Insider article, "The software takes advantage of the improved hardware available in Apple's latest A18 and A18 Pro chips, which have the necessary processing power to achieve these glass-like effects."
So, how much of a reduction is there in the battery life per charge due to these two "improvements" (faster software response and glass-like effects)? Also can the glass-like effects be disabled in Settings?
Lots of moaning and bitching in this article. The redesign was needed to bring consistency over the different platforms, and there were some desperately needed control updates that are finally in the OS’s. One can debate about the taste, sure, but that is personal and should be left out or just raised as a personal opinion.
Behind on AI, well done not get me started on that one, besides coding which granted LLM’s can have a value add (but look at the train wreck happening in slow motion with vibe coding, we will be fluffed with half backed apps in the years to come 😉) - new models seem dumber then their previous versions … META, OpenAI, Anthropic … all their latest models struggle to advance and seem to ga backward, indicating a plateau has been reached. - Apple let these models play with Xcode and has its own code completion model …
More importantly Apple has taken a different approach and laid the groundwork to truly make LLM’s useful for real personal assistance across OS and Apps:
On-Device Processing: The model runs entirely on the device, ensuring user data privacy and allowing the app to function offline without incurring cloud API costs.
Swift API: The framework offers a convenient Swift API, making it easy to integrate into apps across macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and VisionOS.
Prompting and Sessions: Developers can start using the model with just three lines of code. The framework supports structured data output and allows for streaming responses.
Tool Calling: This feature enables the model to autonomously call functions defined in your app, such as fetching live data or performing actions based on user input.
Guided Generation: Developers can use this to get structured output by defining types and using natural language guides to control the values generated by the model.
Safety and Trust: The framework includes guardrails to prevent inappropriate content generation, and developers can add their own safety rules to ensure a trustworthy user experience.
Custom Adaptations: For specialized use cases, developers can train custom adapters using Apple's Adapter Training Toolkit, though this requires ongoing maintenance as the model evolves.
… The important one is Guided generation! You cannot use an LLM in your App in a reliable way if the response is text or if you ask it to generate a json file as these tent to be loosely used by the LLM and are not reliable.
I've been using iOS and macOS 26 for a bit over a day now and my first impression was: "Is it me or is this much faster than iOS 18?" I know it's weird, since this new version is supposed to be more hardware intensive, but everything just seems faster than they were before the install - both iOS and macOS.
Yeah it does seem much faster... at first straight after the install it was very slow and clunky and almost unusable so was worried... then rebooted again and it got better, (not amazing but usable), then a day later it's now really smooth and responsive/snappy and feels better than iOS18. And this is on iPhone 12 Pro Max.
Would be interesting to see gpu vs cpu usage between ios18 and 26 doing a similar workflow. I suspect there have been some underlying updates tied to the new look that allow better hardware usage
Older hardware would likely struggle with Liquid Glass, so it's not much of a surprise that iOS 26 dropped support for the 2018 iPhone XR and iPhone XS.
I mean, while it looks like to be fair, Apple still supports the iPad 8 with iPadOS 26, in other words, a device with the same A12 Bionic chip.
Comments
NEVER.
You are free to run the original software that your device shipped with.
Moreover there are mitigations in the Accessibility settings that can reduce the amount of "eye candy" that any Apple OS delivers. This is not specific for Apple's "26" operating systems, they have been around for years.
There are some screenshots especially of the Control Center where it looks too busy/messy etc but that's only specific situations. In use it's not bad. iOS 18 and previous was similar with transparency but the difference was the amount of blur of the background under the controls in control centre. If this is a widespread complaint during the beta phase I'm sure they will blur it more in the final release. They may have just had less blur this time to show off the glass refraction more and may intend to tone it down later.
My only (mild) concern is that going back to a skeuomorphism like interface may get old faster.
I still don't like tinted icons, they work nicer now but still a bit ugly.. but that's just personal opinion.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aqua_(user_interface)
I can see the clear improvement to Apple Photos in iOS 26 for example, where simplification was greatly needed and they made the interface more contextual without sacrificing usability. However the whole idea around glass serves no purpose - it does not serve the job-to-be-done, in fact it makes it harder to accomplish the goal, all because of some visual effect they've been nerding out on.
The same will happen with OS 26.
The yearly system upgrades puts more pressure on Apple to wow people with every release.
I find the iOS flat icons kind of boring. I liked it better when there was a more 3D look that popped a bit.
Hopefully OS26 brings back some fun to the interface.
Please see Apple's explanation. They explicitly don't want "your apps to be transparent." Liquid Glass is intended to be used for controls and navigation.
At the 6-minute mark: "It's primary goal is to remain visually clear, deferring to the content underneath. ... and to maintain clear separation from the content layer."
Or from the Adopting Liquid Glass article:
"Avoid overusing Liquid Glass effects. If you apply Liquid Glass effects to a custom control, do so sparingly. Liquid Glass seeks to bring attention to the underlying content, and overusing this material in multiple custom controls can provide a subpar user experience by distracting from that content. Limit these effects to the most important functional elements in your app."
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/technologyoverviews/adopting-liquid-glass
But I completely agree with those who think of this as more than an update than a redesign. Some things have been more convenient/within easier reach for one-handed operation and, look a bit better. But there are also some warts - especially in my daily workhorse, Safari. iOS 26 actually made reaching my Favorites bookmarks harder to reach than they were before (extra button pushes). Same with closing all the tabs at once - had to hunt for that is now: "..." ->"All Tabs"->long-hold the checkbox at top-right...wtf? And let's talk about the web page color now taking up the entire header of Safari - i.e. if the web page has a white background, tab bar, favorites bar, and address bar are affected. In my typical dark mode, figuring out what the active tab can be pretty impossible. On some web pages, the favorites bookmark labels are completely hidden because the label color is the same as the background. And if you want to get an epileptic seizure, visit "theregister.com" - its bright red banner color is now blasting in your face big time.
I liked someone referring to the "iickable" aspect as well as the skeuomorphism. I'd like to see it make at least something of a comeback. I didn't like the flat look at all. It looks like zero thought goes into making any icon.
There is some functionality I'll use, some I won't. Not a power user. But I can't wait for on all devices.
I don't like the thick font on the middle and right. Apple's thinner fonts always seem much nicer much cleaner. Maybe it can be adjusted. But I'm lovin' the look. I'll watch the WWDC video a few more times before the OS armada ships.
By "broadest", they are referring to across all operating systems, so that makes it true.
Liquid Glass is not just a visual redesign, but an architectural one, so does qualify as major.
Interface elements dynamically handling light is not just a paint job. They are actual "objects" that light is passing through, in a virtual sense.
Exciting times!
Liquid Glass brings true "virtual" depth to the entire interface, down to the smallest element.
Its a big step forward that many can't yet comprehend and appreciate, but a year from now, you won't want to go back.
So, how much of a reduction is there in the battery life per charge due to these two "improvements" (faster software response and glass-like effects)? Also can the glass-like effects be disabled in Settings?
The redesign was needed to bring consistency over the different platforms, and there were some desperately needed control updates that are finally in the OS’s.
One can debate about the taste, sure, but that is personal and should be left out or just raised as a personal opinion.
Behind on AI, well done not get me started on that one, besides coding which granted LLM’s can have a value add (but look at the train wreck happening in slow motion with vibe coding, we will be fluffed with half backed apps in the years to come 😉)
- new models seem dumber then their previous versions … META, OpenAI, Anthropic … all their latest models struggle to advance and seem to ga backward, indicating a plateau has been reached.
- Apple let these models play with Xcode and has its own code completion model …
More importantly Apple has taken a different approach and laid the groundwork to truly make LLM’s useful for real personal assistance across OS and Apps:
On-Device Processing: The model runs entirely on the device, ensuring user data privacy and allowing the app to function offline without incurring cloud API costs.
Swift API: The framework offers a convenient Swift API, making it easy to integrate into apps across macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and VisionOS.
Prompting and Sessions: Developers can start using the model with just three lines of code. The framework supports structured data output and allows for streaming responses.
Tool Calling: This feature enables the model to autonomously call functions defined in your app, such as fetching live data or performing actions based on user input.
Guided Generation: Developers can use this to get structured output by defining types and using natural language guides to control the values generated by the model.
Safety and Trust: The framework includes guardrails to prevent inappropriate content generation, and developers can add their own safety rules to ensure a trustworthy user experience.
Custom Adaptations: For specialized use cases, developers can train custom adapters using Apple's Adapter Training Toolkit, though this requires ongoing maintenance as the model evolves.
… The important one is Guided generation! You cannot use an LLM in your App in a reliable way if the response is text or if you ask it to generate a json file as these tent to be loosely used by the LLM and are not reliable.