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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

#411

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

jonhohle wrote: post #351
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of them are SwiftUI apps. I feel that SwiftUI is not ripe. I use it for one of my apps (I have to, in order to use the charts), but it’s too limited to use for anything else.

It’s so bizarre. I wanted to use it for a menu extra and something as simple as animating the icon couldn’t be done. There are several of Apple’s own apps that use animated Menu extra icons and they’re probably doing the same hybrid AppKit/SwiftUI workarounds.

I won’t use UIViewRepresentable. I feel that it’s a kludge, and kind of negates the whole purpose of SwiftUI. I know that some of the “native” types are probably UIViewRepresentable, under the covers (like maps), but I feel as if it’s a “duct tape” solution. Also, some of the code gymnastics that I need to do, in order to implement “non-standard” functionality, are pretty crazy. SwiftUI makes it absurdly easy to do stuff that follows the intended workflow, but completely falls down, if you stray off the path. UIKit complains, but grudgingly goes along with you.

I actually want SwiftUI to work. I think they have a good idea, but it’s a massive undertaking, and really, breathtakingly ambitious, when you consider what it’s trying to do.

UIKit represents a mature tech that has been refined since 2008, and a lot of that is based on lessons learned, implementing AppKit, which has been around forever (especially if you consider that it came from NeXTSTEP, which probably started in the 1980s). With AutoLayout and UIKit, I can do pretty much anything I want.

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

#412

Post by lawgimenez »

kh_hk wrote: post #393
lawgimenez wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Been using Liquid Glass since the first developer beta release, as an Apple dev I like it. OP seems to even deliberately choose a stupid message background just to prove his/her point. Of course, there's a lot of backgrounds to choose from.

Oh, so OP is holding it wrong?

Fo sure, no sane person has a grass as their chat background or any background. That seems silly.

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

#413

Post by rkomorn »

lawgimenez wrote: post #412
kh_hk wrote: post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, so OP is holding it wrong?

Fo sure, no sane person has a grass as their chat background or any background. That seems silly.

This is one of my "boomer" opinions.

I don't like transparency, backgrounds, or (most) animations anymore.

That said, I'm used to Liquid Glass now and I don't much care either way anymore. It's just not a big deal to me.

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

#414

Post by shantara »

seemaze wrote: post #331
shantara wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks, that’s very good to know. I was actually eyeing the new AirPods, and it didn’t even occur to me that their functionality is tied to the iOS version. Now they’ve become just another thing to skip.

They still work as generic Bluetooth earphones, including ANC and transparency, but they don’t show up in FindMy and you can’t control case charging sounds or notification volume.

These extra proprietary features are the main reason to pick AirPods over some non-Apple headphones.

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

#415

Post by lynndotpy »

DrammBA wrote: post #355
lynndotpy wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> On MacOS, it even requires running terminal commands at startup to fix performance regressions. You can't just say that and not share the goods

Sorry about that, caveat that these are commands I found online which I don't honestly entirely know what they do. They seem harmless enough.

  launchctl setenv CHROME_HEADLESS 1
  defaults write -g NSAutoFillHeuristicControllerEnabled -bool false

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

#416

Post by lynndotpy »

microtonal wrote: post #388
lynndotpy wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 not…

Just from my anecdata, I know someone whose dad stopped responding to voicemails since he was confused by the new app, and another person whose parents both using iPhone SEs (2020 / 2022 version) who also really don't like it. (They upgraded because I'm always talking about software updates- feels bad.)

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

#417

Post by mdnahas »

Gigachad wrote: post #283
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…

I’d rather an app look consistent with iOS than look consistent with an android version I don’t use.

Until you want to explain to your friend or elderly parent with a different phone how to use the app.

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

#418

Post by andix »

mnls wrote: post #236

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.

I'm also pushing the upgrade of my Xs year after year now. It runs fine on iOS 18, and it still gets security updates (the newer models didn't get 18.7).

After more than a decade, I'm seriously considering to switch back to Android again. Also because Apple doesn't want to release some features in the EU, they prefer picking a fight with the regulators. Fine with me, but they have to be okay with us not buying Apple products anymore.

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

#419

Post by nkrisc »

sroussey wrote: post #364
mvdtnz wrote: post #350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It matters because engineering time can be better spent improving the app functionality itself.

And it’s not about the two platforms looking the same, sometimes you just want your own look. And it’s easy to see in websites since no one uses the base system design for ui.

And most apps that eschew the base design system while using the same kinds of GUI elements it provides, are usually terrible. Only when the app does something way out of the lane of what the OS provides does it usually work well.

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

#420

Post by randyrand »

Gigachad wrote: post #283
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…

I’d rather an app look consistent with iOS than look consistent with an android version I don’t use.

And what about online tutorials, marketing, user manuals, customer support? You probably want your app to look consistent with that too, right? Do you really expect or even want to sift through multiple different versions of tutorials and guides?

As long as an app is easy to use, people prefer a single look. No one cares about "looking like the OS", except maybe 0.1% of users.

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