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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

#421

Post by lotsofpulp »

sethops1 wrote: post #227
walkabout wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only time before this I've felt like Apple took a huge UX or appearance dive on an OS upgrade was iOS6 -> iOS7. People complain about almost every macOS upgrade, but the closest they've come to bothering me is that I hated the new tab styles in desktop Safari they introduced a while ago, but that was configurable so I just set it back to normal and that was that. I've disliked other things (the Touch Bar was neve…

Heh, I submitted a complaint with Apple every day until they reverted those Safari tab styles. Awful design. There is something deeply broken inside Apple allowing these broken, awful designs get out.

People are getting paid based on how many changes they effect.

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

#423

Post by layer8 »

t-writescode wrote: post #343
layer8 wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not really a bug, it’s a side effect of the heavier blur resulting in more average colors for the backgrounds of UI controls, reducing contrast with the text and icons in the foreground. Instead of blurring whatever is behind the controls, they’d have to choose actual solid backgrounds for UI controls, but the whole Liquid Glass concept largely abandons that.

It's definitely a bug that high contrast no longer provides high contrast in the liquid glass setting. It doesn't matter if that is the logical outcome of a series of events and choices that were made to that point, it's a breaking change in behavior, therefore a bug. Bugs aren't always NPEs. Business Logic bugs are still bugs.

There is no “high contrast”. Increase Contrast has roughly the same (limited) effects it always had (enhancing the presentation of specific UI controls in specific ways), hence it’s not broken. What I’m saying is that Reduce Transparency is reducing contrast in a way that is orthogonal to, and isn’t prevented by, also having Increase Contrast turned on.

Features like Night Shift also happen to reduce contrast. That doesn’t mean they are buggy, or that Increase Contrast is buggy.

It does mean that Reduce Transparency is not suitable if you don’t want reductions in contrast compared to regular-transparency Liquid Glass, regardless of whether you also use Increase Contrast.

I do agree that Liquid Glass as a whole is broken for anyone needing a higher-contrast UI. In my opinion, a GUI should be reasonably high-contrast by default, without special accessibility settings.

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

#424

Post by deaux »

andix wrote: post #295
SV_BubbleTime wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

OpenAI can't, they're completely dependent on Apple and Google permitting such a thing. Unless you have a particular way in mind they could currently achieve this?

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

#425

Post by SV_BubbleTime »

deaux wrote: post #424
andix wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

OpenAI can't, they're completely dependent on Apple and Google permitting such a thing. Unless you have a particular way in mind they could currently achieve this?

This is what I was getting at. Permissions in an app are one thing, but if Apple or Google wanted to they could go way deeper.

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

#426

Post by exasperaited »

torben-friis wrote: post #257
exasperaited wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> (Admittedly I don't have any accessibility issues which may come up for others) Yet. This design is really punitive for older, tireder eyes and they really need to learn not to do this. Because their audience gets older all the time (as the population in all western countries does). Their design team is evidently skewed young again, and needs to really learn about how ageing affects eyesight for absolutely everyone…

>It is insane to put everyone over about 50 into an accessibility category accessibility != for the disabled, and apple used to champion that principle. What's good for someone with eyesight problems is also good for a young person standing outside under the sun's glare. What's useful for a one-handed person will also serve you when you're carrying your toddler in one hand. A silence compartment on a train might make…

Indeed.

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

#427

Post by andix »

deaux wrote: post #424
andix wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

OpenAI can't, they're completely dependent on Apple and Google permitting such a thing. Unless you have a particular way in mind they could currently achieve this?

They can integrate into third party apps, if the publishers want to. A lot of them are going to do it.

It's already possible to connect Gmail, and many other services, this can extend even more. The connection of those services could be done by the iOS/Android apps.

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

#428

Post by pornel »

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…

It would be a waste of effort to adopt Liquid Glass now. Even Apple hasn't figured it out yet.

The new UI breaks existing conventions, and isn't even self-consistent. You're not helping users by jumping into that chaos.

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

#429

Post by klinch »

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.

Wow. Disabling Transparency makes a huge difference on my iPhone 13 (sluggish, stuttering animations -> smooth af). Thanks!

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

#430

Post by pornel »

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's functionally tolerable when you disable transparency and increase contrast in accessibility settings.

Of course it makes everything look dull and primitive. Crammed and misaligned controls are even more obvious when elements have borders. You still have unhelpful animations.

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