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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

#381

Post by nielsbot »

ebbi wrote: post #269
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…

Just in case you aren't aware, you can swipe up from an existing tabs address bar and it'll show all open tabs UI

I did know that! But just seems harder to invoke after the update.

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

#382

Post by asplake »

krrrh wrote: post #309
TheAmazingRace wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Also check Reduce Motion and the whole OS will feel more stable even if it’s only an illusion.

That has long been an important setting for anyone who suffers from vertigo

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

#383

Post by troupo »

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…

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

Ah yes, let's require all developers scramble to try and fix their apps instead of spending time to actually fix and polish the design system we force down everyone's throats.

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

#384

Post by sevenseacat »

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.

Well I guess I'm not updating my iPhone 11 then!

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

#385

Post by baxtr »

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…

I came here to look for this comment. I like it as well.

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

#386

Post by captn3m0 »

rfmc wrote: post #55
captn3m0 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I made the mistake of upgrading (13 Mini) and it is very clear that the new UI was not tested at all on smaller screens. The rounded buttons take up so much extra margin that actual usable space is greatly diminished.

How's the battery on your 13 Mini? Mine is abhorrent compared to a few weeks ago.

I just replaced it before the 26 upgrade. It was at 76% by then. With the new battery, I haven’t faced any issues. It lasts a whole day easily, unless I do things like tethering etc.

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

#387

Post by wltr »

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.

On iPhone 12 mini, the battery life is incredibly worse. I was charging once a day, 30 → 70% usually, and now I’m charging all the time I have a chance. I’m not very active user, but each session of screen time reduces the battery significantly. Before that I felt that despite the small battery, the device works forever. Now, I’m back into my iPhone 4S times, when I upgraded to iOS 7.

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

#388

Post by microtonal »

lynndotpy wrote: post #342
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…

If it were implemented as intended, it would just be very ugly, slower, and a waste of battery life. But a lot of it is really just broken. In the past hour, I saw a number of funny glitches. The funny glitches are better than the glitches where things crash or hang. On MacOS, it even requires running terminal commands at startup to fix performance regressions. This is hitting people who aren't tech-savvy particularl…

This is hitting people who aren't tech-savvy particularly hard

I don't really see it among family and friends. My parents who are not very technical mostly went shrug, it looks a bit different and went on with their lives. The only family member who said anything about it was our daughter, who likes it a lot.

Agree that Photos is much-improved.

Personally I am not really a fan of liquid glass. On the Mac, I don't notice it much. On the iPhone I find it more noticeable, the primary thing I'm annoyed by is the overlay with video play controls (macOS too). I would rather have seen them invest time into fixing existing issues than a redesign (e.g. why can I not configure Headphone Accommodations on the Mac for AirPods Max, but I can on the iPhone).

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

#390

Post by sandspar »

I think that HackerNews is full of old techie greybeards, whereas Liquid Glass is designed for Gen Z and Gen Alpha. Young people tend to like things that wiggle and bounce around and so on. If I were Apple then I'd say hmm, we still want to be around 20 years from now. So let's design for young people.
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