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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

#291

Post by b_e_n_t_o_n »

bigyabai wrote: post #247
b_e_n_t_o_n wrote: post #228

I like it, but regardless of one's aesthetic opinions I think an important thing people are missing is the move towards UI elements being overlays on top of content instead of sandwiching or interleaving with content. This is very apparent on some apps like iOS Safari, Maps, etc. The general idea is your app content is a full screen/window canvas and your UI sits on top of it, which allows it to get out of the way of…

If this is how you're going to build your web UIs going forward, take note from Apple here - add an A11Y mode. These changes exclusively harm the overall contrast of the UI and it's unfair to expect visually impaired users to deal with your visual clutter for the sake of r/unixporn eye candy. I think you'll quickly realize that static text content has a much more appreciable "reader mode" quality that isn't a slog to…

Yeah reduced motion would probably toggle opaque backgrounds as well. But you can't really get that glass shader with css anyways so I imagine there wouldn't be many transparent effects, it's more just the layout I'm talking about for web.

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

#293

Post by SV_BubbleTime »

andix wrote: post #280
tsunamifury wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Liquid Glass was clearly rushed to cover for the total failure of Apple Intelligence. Even the design being criticized distracts from fraudulently selling phones based on features never shipped.

The recently presented ChatGPT apps are what Apple Intelligence (and Siri) should've been. Some chat/voice interface, that can access data from installed apps and trigger actions. It should've been a home run for Apple. ChatGPT starts with zero existing apps, Apple has one of the biggest app ecosystem, and with (Siri) Shortcuts they already have most of the necessary interfaces available for years.

Apple still has an ultimate advantage.

They have your context. OpenAI doesn’t know where you are. It doesn’t know what you bought or when you last called your wife, it can’t know your heart rate or your work schedule.

Apple can turn it around.

Great AI is a good model with lots of context. Your model can be the best, but if you need the user to provide the context it’ll never be a great experience.

After working with Claude code for a while now, I’ve become much more aware of how to convey context to a machine, and just how poor some humans are at doing it in conversation.

Your AI product is toast if you need people to make it work.

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

#294

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

bavent wrote: post #240
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…

One of the issues is almost certainly that the app developers didn't add the UIDesignRequiresCompatibility = YES[0] item to the Info.plist.

Set that, and it doesn't use Liquid Glass in your app.

I set it for all my apps. One was designed by a professional designer, who absolutely defecated masonry, when I showed him what it did to our app.

I'm worried that Apple may end up ignoring that flag, and will force us to use LG. That would suck. It says that it's temporary, but I'll bet that Apple will be hating life, if they ignore it.

I'm not freaking out about Liquid Glass, but I don't like it. I completely agree that it is quite unusable.

[0] https://developer.apple.com/documentation/BundleResources/In...

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

#295

Post by andix »

SV_BubbleTime wrote: post #293
andix wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The recently presented ChatGPT apps are what Apple Intelligence (and Siri) should've been. Some chat/voice interface, that can access data from installed apps and trigger actions. It should've been a home run for Apple. ChatGPT starts with zero existing apps, Apple has one of the biggest app ecosystem, and with (Siri) Shortcuts they already have most of the necessary interfaces available for years.

Apple still has an ultimate advantage. They have your context. OpenAI doesn’t know where you are. It doesn’t know what you bought or when you last called your wife, it can’t know your heart rate or your work schedule. Apple can turn it around. Great AI is a good model with lots of context. Your model can be the best, but if you need the user to provide the context it’ll never be a great experience. After working with…

Yes, Apple still has the advantage over OpenAI. But OpenAI can also release some iOS and Android integration layer, that allows to connect with installed apps on the device.

If Apple doesn't get their act together with the next iOS release, it could be too late.

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

#296

Post by bavent »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #294
bavent wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

One of the issues is almost certainly that the app developers didn't add the UIDesignRequiresCompatibility = YES [0] item to the Info.plist. Set that, and it doesn't use Liquid Glass in your app. I set it for all my apps. One was designed by a professional designer, who absolutely defecated masonry, when I showed him what it did to our app. I'm worried that Apple may end up ignoring that flag, and will force us to us…

I’m referring entirely to built-in Apple apps - Mail, Messages, etc. The in-house apps can’t even get it right, which to me means:

- devs are so siloed, nobody knows what’s going on - product is not communicating anything outside of individual fiefdoms - there is zero QA testing - no designers are actually signing off on the final results

…which all seem pretty typical for a large bureaucracy, I guess I just had higher expectations of Apple, since we pay a premium for their products. Some of these bugs are frankly pretty embarrassing.

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

#297

Post by moscoe »

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…

For the first time ever, I haven’t yet updated to the new version of iOS.

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

#298

Post by TheAmazingRace »

NaomiLehman wrote: post #255
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 know it's shit. But for all of you, regardless of whether it's Mac OS or iOS, go to accessibility options and enable high contrast. It removes transparency/liquid glass.

Thank you for this tip. iOS feels so much better now!

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

#300

Post by cheema33 »

SomeHacker44 wrote: post #128

I have reduced transparency turned on in iPadOS accessibility forever. However there is so much gratuitous transparency now I can barely use half the features. Why do I need to see behind quick settings to adjust brightness? Or do anything? This new update has made me miserable. It never even asked me if I wanted to upgrade. Which I would never want anyway. I only use one, exactly one app... Foreflight.

> Why do I need to see behind quick settings to adjust brightness?

It totally boggles my mind that somebody thought this was good idea.

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