Apple’s Liquid Glass interface in iOS 26 looks like a sleek, modern upgrade. At first glance, it brings back the glossy depth of older design eras like Windows Vista and macOS Aqua, offering translucency, blur effects, and smooth layering. But once the novelty wears off, users are finding it less practical than it seemed on stage.
The problem isn’t the aesthetics alone. It’s the trade-off between style and usability. In daily use, the effects can make it harder to read text, find icons, and navigate basic UI elements. Depending on your wallpaper or settings, you might be squinting just to check a notification. That’s not progress. It’s friction.
It’s Pretty, Until It Isn’t
Across developer and public beta testers, one of the most common complaints is legibility. The blur-heavy interface looks great in promotional images, but many users report that the translucent layers clash with real-world usage. When transparency competes with content, function loses.
There’s a setting in Accessibility to reduce transparency, which turns the look into more of a frosted glass effect. That improves readability, but raises another issue. Why is the fix buried in a hidden menu? Users expect Apple to lead in usability, not hide essential features under layers of settings.
Critics argue this redesign is all surface and no substance. It’s a visual tweak, not a system improvement. The OS still struggles with core problems like autocorrect bugs, Siri limitations, and battery drain. Focusing on a visual layer while neglecting deeper flaws feels like a misread of what users actually want. When your system still fumbles basic tasks, a shinier coat of paint doesn’t matter.
Looks Cool. But Does It Help?
For many, Liquid Glass just isn’t worth the battery cost. Transparency effects mean more processing power, and that means more drain. It’s not clear what users get in return. The effect blends into the background after a few days. It looks good, then disappears from notice. In exchange, you get reduced legibility and no major functional upgrade.
Another frustration is inconsistency. Some controls use the glass effect, others don’t. Sometimes it only appears on touch. Some icons look updated, others are recycled from older versions with a bit of gloss added. It doesn’t feel like a finished idea. It feels like a halfway update dressed up as a bold shift.
Then there’s the broader context. Apple devoted a significant chunk of its developer keynote to Liquid Glass. But for many users, it missed the mark. They weren’t asking for visual sparkle. They wanted innovation that solves problems. Instead, they got an effect that echoes design choices from over a decade ago.
So What’s Really the Problem?
Apple isn’t wrong to iterate on its design language. But Liquid Glass has landed at an awkward point. It’s not a full redesign like iOS 7. It’s not unique enough to feel new. And it doesn’t seem tied to any major functionality upgrade. The result is a visual overhaul with no clear purpose beyond style. That’s left users questioning whether Apple is focused on the right problems.
It’s not just about taste. It’s about direction. This design signals where Apple is choosing to spend time and resources. When interface polish gets priority over fixing broken features or developing new capabilities, people notice. A new look can be exciting. But if it’s the main thing being shipped, it sends the wrong message.
Liquid Glass isn’t a disaster. It’s not even a bad idea. But it’s a reminder that visual design only goes so far if it doesn’t serve the experience. If Apple wants this to be the foundation of iOS moving forward, it needs to strike a better balance between what looks good and what works.
26.4 should have not been released, and does nothing to improve my iPad performance in any way
AND
This silly age varification thingy ——- I don’t have a credit card ,& driver licence doesn’t work. The whole update is rubbish !
Thank y’all for the information. It sounds very much like Apple is once again opting for minimizing information in the user interface, leaving just enough for users to figure out, with some effort, what they need to know instead of getting the information at a glance. Me, I want the interface to help me do what I want to do, not be something that I have to outwit. They’ve done it before, though not at this scale. I have so far eluded the whole thing, but eventually my devices will stop working at all unless I update/downgrade to their latest system. I can only hope and pray that they fix their stupidity before then.
Plan to buy a used iPad somewhere with the old IOS 18 version and put a sledge hammer into this iPad that just “downgraded” to IOS26 with this horrible useless Liquid Glass. Did all he tweaking I could do in the menus but can no longer use this iPad. Who in the world want fuzzy, translucent, unreadable text and screens?
100% agree and super pissed I can’t upgrade back to iOS18. This also just cost Apple a sale as I was thinking of moving to an iPhone, and now I’m not.
Liquid Glass looks like sh*t. Apple is far behind Android when it comes to customizing the home screen and app icons.
Glass UI is “old”… we’ve been doing this trick in .css for a long time, and it is only “better” in limited circumstances. It seemed like a cool idea back in the day but it’s now old and tired. Apple does this sort of retro UI crap occasionally; I can’t remember exactly what the last one was (been awhile – I was building iOS apps back then), but I remember it really ticked me off and I stopped caring about my iPhone as a serious device for anything but text messaging and a convenient camera. I am now many generations behind the latest iPhone, and they’ve lost me for an upgrade between the ugly UI, performance issues, and abandoning the smaller sized designs (I have small pockets and I need my phone to fit them). I saw what the latest UI did to my wife’s iPhone and decided no way I’m installing it. I suspect my iPhone will die from planned obsolescence forced by Apple causing my battery life to erode. I really really wish those fake Tesla phones would become a real thing. sigh.
Liquid glass is a big downgrade in usability.
It’s super ugly all round. The corner radius of windows is way too big and the ratio of outer to inner panel radii is all messed up. The entire thing is butt ugly. The transparency is a technical cool effect but it’s terrible for actual user experience. I hate it, with a vengeance. This is the first thing Apple has ever done to make me consider going back to Windows. Did I mention I hate it?
They were doing this sort of thing in Linux operating systems 10 years ago. It was ugly and horrible then and Apple have really nailed it in emulating that horror show. I hate it too.
The outlines on everything are really getting me! It’s so tacky and dated!!!
I suspect that its a design language prepping users accept XR. If you get your user base used to glassy transparencies, you have a greater chance of getting your user base to accept AR glasses, or vision pro visual languages and limitations.
Swiping up from the bottom is “slippery” I can’t seem to swipe up
I’ve not really had any issues with reading text or anything. I just think it’s dated and tacky.
Solid surfaces provide separation of concerns and context. Can you imagine if most objects in your house, in your apartment block, in the streets, were transparent and visual cues and identification were provided only through the effects of light diffraction? It is the same metaphor.
Especially when working, focusing on work, concentrating, solid surfaces work best because they isolate the context of everything that is behind them. That’s why signs are designed over solid surfaces, work spaces are most typically made of walls with opaque structures and not with glass, and glass walls are generally reserved for invitational spaces, when it is desired to blend the exterior with interior… think business entrances. And that’s why it is my belief that Liquid Glass works wonders for the desktop and lock screens, and less for application surfaces. That’s why I also believe that the MacOS implementation of Liquid Glass is going great, exactly because it is much less invasive than in the iPhone and iPad.
In short, look at the metaphors on the real world. Transit signs, desk tables (where you focus for your work), office walls, but at the same time business entrances, windows… Glass has its place in the world, but it is not a panacea to be used everywhere like its metaphor is currently being applied on the iPhone and iPad. It is no wonder people are complaining and legibility is suffering so much.
Well said Yet another reason to replace Tim Cook with a true product visionary.
The reason I hate it is because I am 76 years old and need as much color and contrast sometimes so that can see the icons. Liquid glass for me on any device; my iPhone, iPad and my Mini 4 pro is going to be a disaster It will be so hard to tell the apps apart. But we will not really know until it comes out.