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Liquid Glass Is Cracked, and Usability Suffers in iOS 26

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Re: Liquid Glass Is Cracked, and Usability Suffers in iOS 26

#101

Post by canpan »

ano-ther wrote: post #32

Some of it (like hiding the Safari tab button in a menu) feels like Windows-11-stupid. Luckily, Apple is ok at supporting older phones, so I just have to be careful to not accidentally upgrade my SE to iOS 26. Makes me nostalgic for Apple's interface guidelines, which were very well thought through, based on evidence, and with clear principles. https://vintageapple.org/inside_r/pdf/Human_Interface_Guidel...

Safari and the lock screen clock were my biggest issues.

The lock screen clock went from "can read in a split second" to "wait what number is this?".

Luckily there was a setting for that one.

Re: Liquid Glass Is Cracked, and Usability Suffers in iOS 26

#103

Post by epistasis »

dangus wrote: post #60
binarynate wrote: post #13

I haven't upgraded to iOS 26 because of Liquid Glass, mostly because I've read that it causes performance degradation on older devices (I use an iPhone 13 Mini because I have zero interest in using a larger phone). So, it looks like I'll be using iOS 18 for the foreseeable future.

It has horrible battery life, even on a relatively new device. Don’t upgrade.

This is the worst part of it.

I actually feel a warm computer now, something that I have never experienced in five years of having this M1 MacBook.

This takes amazing hardware and degrades it to Windows laptop slop.

In the Jobs days, at least one VP head would roll for this, and Apple would be far better off for it. I don't think Tim Cook is strong enough for that though.

Re: Liquid Glass Is Cracked, and Usability Suffers in iOS 26

#104

Post by zt64 »

evanjrowley wrote: post #11

If it makes Apple users feel better about Liquid Glass, the Material 3 Expressive in Android 16 is an overall worse experence than what came before. Yes it looks better, but apps are much laggier, at least on my Pixel 7 anyway. The venreble 120 Hz refresh rate on Android doesn't help when scrolling HN is enough for an FPS drop.

Interesting, it seems just as smooth on my OnePlus 13. As an app developer I don't see how the Material 3 Expressive UI would cause reduced performance. My only guess is poor usage of the API by developers.

Re: Liquid Glass Is Cracked, and Usability Suffers in iOS 26

#105

Post by [deleted] »

nielsbot wrote: post #33

Seems like I'm against the trend here in HN, but I personally like it more the more I use it. (Admittedly I don't have any accessibility issues which may come up for others) Also, I appreciate the UX improvements (as opposed to the pretty glass effect), such as the much improved menu system and the generally (IMO) improved changes in layout in Calendar, Mail, Safari, etc. That said I do find it a bit more annoying to…

[deleted]

Re: Liquid Glass Is Cracked, and Usability Suffers in iOS 26

#106

Post by thewebguyd »

andrewmcwatters wrote: post #21

As someone who pretty strictly adheres to Apple Human Interface Guidelines, it's really off-putting to see them slip so badly backwards on their own published work. There are now portions of iOS that use either iOS 18's UIKit, or iOS 26's Liquid Glass UI in apps. It feels like Apple is having a Windows moment with their operating systems for the jarring combination of old and new UI designs sitting next to each other…

Yeah it's so un-Apple like it's really jarring.

It feels like they pulled this out of their ass last minute after the AI siri failures, they had to have something to put out for 2025.

I actually don't mind it on iPhone outside of the bugs and inconsitencies, but it's attrocious on macOS and the new iPad windowing was obviously made with zero consideration for touch-first users and was only made to cater to the whiners about iPad needing to become more mac-like.

Just poorly though out all around.

Re: Liquid Glass Is Cracked, and Usability Suffers in iOS 26

#107

Post by frizlab »

donmcronald wrote: post #27
noname120 wrote: post #6

Let’s not forget how Liquid Glass made my Apple Watch Series 10 laggy and battery-hungry due to the expensive fluid simulations. Reducing transparency in accessibility settings didn’t help unfortunately.

I don't like how everything seems to require extra clicks or has extra animation now. For example, the workout selection has a weird feeling like it's fluid and everything just kind of scrolls along. Then when you stop on something long enough, the rest of the UI elements like the start / play button show up. Why do I need to watch a mini video to have UI controls appear? It's incredibly annoying. My Linux install fe…

Interestingly the animation when an app is opened has actually been sped up in iOS 26!

On macOS you can speed up/disable the animations using some hidden defaults (you can easily find that on the internet).

Personally I like the animations; I find them well-done on macOS. They serve a purpose but are not “too much” either IMHO.

Re: Liquid Glass Is Cracked, and Usability Suffers in iOS 26

#109

Post by 98codes »

mfro wrote: post #5

Literally every change made in iOS 26 feels like a downgrade to me. This is the first time I have ever considered downgrading iOS.

Settings -> Accessibility -> Display & Text Size -> enable Reduce Transparency

That made a world of difference for me.

Re: Liquid Glass Is Cracked, and Usability Suffers in iOS 26

#110

Post by jacobp100 »

symlinkk wrote: post #14

Made my phone immediately much laggier (iPhone 13 Pro) which is probably the intention

Every update slows your phone down temporarily, because there’s background processing that goes on for a while after. That’s always been the case
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