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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

#231

Post by tombert »

porcoda wrote: post #31

This update is one of the rare cases where I really dislike the new version. I’m usually happy with Apple updates, even ones the commentators dislike. This time I’m sorta agreeing with them: I don’t like the new iOS. Same with the Mac and iPad: other than being glitchy, I just don’t like the changes. It feels like my screen real estate isn’t as efficiently used, UI elements feel jumbled and the transparency makes thi…

The transparency thing stopped being cute when I couldn't easily differentiate between Gmail, ProtonMail, and Apple Mail. These icons had color, used that color to differentiate them.

I don't think this is atypical, we have color screens for a reason.

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

#232

Post by tmarsden »

prody wrote: post #59

In summary, Apple messed up, they had nothing to present this year, so they came up with a bad design and passed it off as "revolutionary". This is the kind of thing a failing company does. I'm sad, I'm an Apple fan, but they are pulling scams for years instead of actual developments.

It definitely feels like they needed something, anything, to use as a marketing tool following the Apple Intelligence false advertising debacle.

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

#233

Post by doublerabbit »

MBCook wrote: post #213
whycome wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple is pretty good in not forcing upgrades as far as I remember. You can stay on an older OS until you personally run into app compatibility issues

They’re getting bolder about pushing you to upgrade with badges on settings and push notifications and defaulting people into automatic updates. But you can turn that stuff off. They may try to trick you so you have to remain somewhat vigilant. But I don’t think they ever absolutely force you to upgrade.

Even with updates turned off I get nagging notification in the messaging app and on the lock screen as well as the appstore. Still on 17.7.2.

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

#234

Post by nomel »

torben-friis wrote: post #37

iOS/macos 26 have me feeling isolated in a way I’ve never experienced in tech. Aesthetics aside (which I personally don’t like, but I can accept as subjective) I see extreme issues and regressions literally everywhere, from not being able to read the notifications in a half pulled curtain to memory leaks in half the native apps. Yet no one is raising their voice in the tech world. No bloggers, no YouTubers, nothing t…

> I see extreme issues and regressions literally everywhere

I would claim this is mostly unrelated to 26, and more related to .0. All the tech people that I know, who have experience with Apple OS releases, wait until .1 release to upgrade, for this reason. .0 are always a shit-show, since my first Apple device over 10 years ago. I see .0 as a public beta, and that's what I expect whenever I do decide to install them. I suspect there's some truth to this, where they don't have time to fix everything found in the actual beta.

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

#235

Post by seemaze »

shantara wrote: post #208
scelerat wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose an upvote should be sufficient, but I am so unhappy with the new UI I am actually holding off switching to a new M4 MBP and sticking to my old M1 still on Sequoia 15.7.1. I also try to give these things time and I am usually ok with the changes eventually, but the new UI elements are so incredibly distracting it's actually affecting my ability to focus on what I'm actually doing.

I decided to postpone an iPhone upgrade for another year rather than be forced to use iOS 26 without a downgrade option. This is the only way to send a signal.

I upgraded iOS after I discovered that the AirPods Pro 3 lose native integration with iOS 18 and macOS 15. Hated it so much, I sent the AirPods Pro 3 back for discounted AirPods Pro 2 and am considering trading my upgraded iPhone in for the latest model I can get on iOS 18.

I'm going to ride iOS 18 and macOS 15 into the sunset and then leave the Apple ecosystem.

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

#236

Post by mnls »

Thank you Apple for this update. You saved me so much money because I won’t buy another Apple product.

I find it unacceptable that people pay that kind of money for iPhones and iPads etc and have to deal with bugs, bubbles, readability issues with a theme that looks like a terrible 2011 android skin. And that’s a trillion dollar company.

Staying on 18, till iPhone dies.

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

#238

Post by nkrisc »

bicx wrote: post #79

2025 feels like a cardinal year for top-down decisions we all just have to endure for the present. The best we can do is bitch loudly and often, and hope the people at the top still feel threatened by consumers/constituents. This Liquid Glass decision is particularly challenging for my tiny startup. We have multiple platforms including iOS and Android. I was hoping to share much of our design language across iOS and…

Almost nobody uses both an iPhone and Android for their day to day use. It doesn’t matter if your iOS and Android apps don’t look share the same design language, no one is going to see both of them.

Integrate into each OS as much as you can.

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

#239

Post by bigyabai »

eschaton wrote: post #211
bicx wrote: post #79

2025 feels like a cardinal year for top-down decisions we all just have to endure for the present. The best we can do is bitch loudly and often, and hope the people at the top still feel threatened by consumers/constituents. This Liquid Glass decision is particularly challenging for my tiny startup. We have multiple platforms including iOS and Android. I was hoping to share much of our design language across iOS and…

You were wrong to even attempt to share design language across platforms. You should make your applications good native citizens if you have any respect for your users, because yours isn’t the only software they use.

> You should make your applications good native citizens

It's time to retire this dead meme. The most successful SAASes in the world are just websites that people pay for hand-over-fist regardless of what OS they use. Netflix doesn't use Liquid Glass, Spotify doesn't bother. Google Docs isn't going to inherit it and probably neither will Office 365. Websites online by-and-large won't adopt this design either.

The ideal of everyone taking the time to make a sexy native UI is appealing. But it's never going to fully be realized, especially when OEMs resist basic A11Y obligations and insist on battery-draining eye candy.

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

#240

Post by bavent »

porcoda wrote: post #31

This update is one of the rare cases where I really dislike the new version. I’m usually happy with Apple updates, even ones the commentators dislike. This time I’m sorta agreeing with them: I don’t like the new iOS. Same with the Mac and iPad: other than being glitchy, I just don’t like the changes. It feels like my screen real estate isn’t as efficiently used, UI elements feel jumbled and the transparency makes thi…

Beyond that, it’s buggy and inconsistent. In dark mode, text boxes suddenly become light mode when they expand to add a second entry line. Buttons aren’t aligned within their containers properly. Some times buttons are in light mode when my phone is in dark mode, or if I open an app, it starts out in light mode and then suddenly switches to dark mode after a second or two. There is a noticeable lag when I back out of a message before it loads the other conversations in iMessage.

I think I had tracked 15+ things I would easily qualify as bugs the first two days after upgrading my phone - this would be absolutely unacceptable where I work, and we aren’t a trillion-dollar company with psychotic hiring standards.

Was this even QAed? I don’t like the look, but that’s a personal thing, these are actual issues that are not subjective.

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