How are we feeling about iOS 26?

Eric

Eric

Mama's lil stinker
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It seems okay but TBH I'm not really loving the glass thing, I'm sure I'll get used to it though. The upgrades to the camera and text messaging to simplify things are a nice change. Not a bad refresh overall.
 
Ok with it so far. Only current gripe would be the address bar in Safari and how to switch tabs. The default is Compact, which requires more clicks than before to switch tabs. If you change Compact to Bottom in Settings it acts like before the update but the address field seems to take up more screen real estate than before unless I’m imagining it.
 
I've been holding off for now, wanting to get opinions from people I respect and trust.

Curious, I was at the other place yesterday. And the hate was thick on iOS 26. As expected, being a forum tradition going back 20 years (starting with "Who asked for a thousand songs in your pocket?"). Referring to Apple's release of iPod and Jobs' introduction saying (paraphrased) "And here's iPod... A thousand songs in your pocket".
 
I’m fine with it. Been using it since the second beta, so I’m used to it. Some nice stuff that I take for granted now. Playlist folders in Apple Music are my family’s favorite feature.
 
People at The Other Place love to complain. Not that some comments don't have merit, but the nitpicking and absolute certainty is often galling. As usual, Apple will address bugs and design issues in updates.

I've been using iOS 26 on my 15 Pro Max for several weeks. Although Liquid Glass at its most extreme translucent setting isn't to my taste, keeping the standard icon appearance and activating Reduce Transparency in Accessibility settings makes it just fine.

I appreciate several enhancements, notably the new Photos app, which lets you choose between your Library or Collections, and the separate Video and Photo settings in the Camera app. There's a lot to like in the Phone and Messages apps, too. I've used the Hold Assist feature, which sets hold music calls aside and notifies you when someone picks up, a few times. It works reasonably well, though it activates when there's an announcement like "You're the 100th person in the queue," even though you're still technically on hold. Maybe that will improve with Apple Intelligence.

I tried Live Translation with my AirPods Pro 2 yesterday. Unfortunately, the number of supported languages is still limited, but that will get better. CarPlay has some improvements, too. I especially appreciate that incoming calls no longer take over the entire screen, which was a pain while using navigation.

For those with older devices, I installed iOS 26 on an iPhone 12 Pro. Not the speediest, but it works.
 
Roller said:
People at The Other Place love to complain. Not that some comments don't have merit, but the nitpicking and absolute certainty is often galling. As usual, Apple will address bugs and design issues in updates.
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I think for my part, my frustration is that the legibility issues that Liquid Glass brings are both known issues in the UX space, and were brought up in June. While they have tweaked some things, the usability suffers most in the scenarios Apple VPs claim it was built to bring more focus to (Photos, Music, apps with a lot of visual content). Like, we knew excessive transparency was a bad idea in practice all the way back with Vista, almost 20 years ago. There's some real stubbornness present in Apple's behavior this cycle, as the stuff I was complaining about day 1 is now showing up in reviews based on the RC build. So I suspect we will have to wait a full cycle while Apple acts like a Japanese company trying to save face in the short term.

Roller said:
I've been using iOS 26 on my 15 Pro Max for several weeks. Although Liquid Glass at its most extreme translucent setting isn't to my taste, keeping the standard icon appearance and activating Reduce Transparency in Accessibility settings makes it just fine.
Click to expand...

I've been using the Increase Contrast setting. It's not perfect, but does wind up somewhere between full-on transparency and what Reduce Transparency does.

Roller said:
I appreciate several enhancements, notably the new Photos app, which lets you choose between your Library or Collections, and the separate Video and Photo settings in the Camera app. There's a lot to like in the Phone and Messages apps, too. I've used the Hold Assist feature, which sets hold music calls aside and notifies you when someone picks up, a few times. It works reasonably well, though it activates when there's an announcement like "You're the 100th person in the queue," even though you're still technically on hold. Maybe that will improve with Apple Intelligence.

I tried Live Translation with my AirPods Pro 2 yesterday. Unfortunately, the number of supported languages is still limited, but that will get better. CarPlay has some improvements, too. I especially appreciate that incoming calls no longer take over the entire screen, which was a pain while using navigation.

For those with older devices, I installed iOS 26 on an iPhone 12 Pro. Not the speediest, but it works.
Click to expand...

I like the functional improvements (minus some weird Websockets bug I hit with Authentik and Private Tabs), but I think the design team has lost the plot. I am just hoping it doesn't take as long as it took for Windows to tone down Aero.
 
Nycturne said:
I think for my part, my frustration is that the legibility issues that Liquid Glass brings are both known issues in the UX space, and were brought up in June. While they have tweaked some things, the usability suffers most in the scenarios Apple VPs claim it was built to bring more focus to (Photos, Music, apps with a lot of visual content). Like, we knew excessive transparency was a bad idea in practice all the way back with Vista, almost 20 years ago. There's some real stubbornness present in Apple's behavior this cycle, as the stuff I was complaining about day 1 is now showing up in reviews based on the RC build. So I suspect we will have to wait a full cycle while Apple acts like a Japanese company trying to save face in the short term.

I've been using the Increase Contrast setting. It's not perfect, but does wind up somewhere between full-on transparency and what Reduce Transparency does.

I like the functional improvements (minus some weird Websockets bug I hit with Authentik and Private Tabs), but I think the design team has lost the plot. I am just hoping it doesn't take as long as it took for Windows to tone down Aero.
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I get what you're saying about Apple's "we know what's best for you attitude." I could have done with the whole Liquid Glass transition, but I've found that the Reduce Transparency setting is best for me so far. It won't surprise me if Apple doesn't make changes sooner than you expect, but we'll see.
 
Roller said:
I get what you're saying about Apple's "we know what's best for you attitude." I could have done with the whole Liquid Glass transition, but I've found that the Reduce Transparency setting is best for me so far. It won't surprise me if Apple doesn't make changes sooner than you expect, but we'll see.
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There's good reasons to not make changes immediately, which include trying to zero in on what survives the "getting used to it" phase. It also prevents a bunch of whiplash of trying things in the public eye, but it also means that anything the org fails to catch prior to announcement/release is left to fester longer than it needs to.

I'm more just dumbstruck that it was able to get this far. Apple's usually better about catching this sort of thing, and generally they've been on the better end of keeping things readable in the industry from a visual noise perspective.
 
Nycturne said:
There's good reasons to not make changes immediately, which include trying to zero in on what survives the "getting used to it" phase. It also prevents a bunch of whiplash of trying things in the public eye, but it also means that anything the org fails to catch prior to announcement/release is left to fester longer than it needs to.

I'm more just dumbstruck that it was able to get this far. Apple's usually better about catching this sort of thing, and generally they've been on the better end of keeping things readable in the industry from a visual noise perspective.
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I agree that it won't be immediate, but before iOS 27.
 
I've been using it since dev beta 1, so I'm pretty much used to it. There's a lot I like about it. The few things I'm having issues with are just me: DND still doesn't work, and too many button presses to start a swimming workout.

I updated my granddaughter's iPad this morning and she took an instant dislike to it. No idea why. She didn't like the new camera icon. 🤷🏽‍♀️ Nine year olds.
 
Alli said:
I've been using it since dev beta 1, so I'm pretty much used to it. There's a lot I like about it. The few things I'm having issues with are just me: DND still doesn't work, and too many button presses to start a swimming workout.

I updated my granddaughter's iPad this morning and she took an instant dislike to it. No idea why. She didn't like the new camera icon. 🤷🏽‍♀️ Nine year olds.
Click to expand...
I'm still on the fence about this glass thing, it sort of feels like they did it because they felt like it needed a change more than anything else. TBH I do prefer the old look but it's not a deal breaker or anything.
 
Liquid Glass: could take it or leave it.

The ios26 call screening that does real time voice to text before I choose to pick up: game changer. they could do whatever to the UI, make it monochrome like the original Mac for all I care... that feature is killer.
 
Digging on the aesthetic change, needed something new. Some outstanding functional improvements, the new KB is a nice improvement, really liking the reduction of options on entry into apps, especially the less noisy Photos and Camera apps. Been having fun "spatializing" existing photos too.

WatchOS26 brings some nice new features (FFS, finally ... Notes), using the new Exactograph face which is very cool (I'm on a Series 10).

iPadOS26 I haven't spent much time with, but the new windowing seems pretty neat, again, the new design language is really noticeable on the iPad, lots of fun "glass effects".

Updated the two AppleTVs, other than the visual tweaks, haven't noticed much difference.

Love the new Car Play (bundled into iOS26), my 15PM is connecting much faster, the widgets are slick, I really like the revised "home" screen design, lots of information on a single screen.

Everything seems super snappy, zero hiccups with "life critical" things like HomeKit, CarKey.

The ladies haven't updated, probably won't as they have a new 17 and 17 Air arriving tomorrow :)
 
throAU said:
Liquid Glass: could take it or leave it.

The ios26 call screening that does real time voice to text before I choose to pick up: game changer. they could do whatever to the UI, make it monochrome like the original Mac for all I care... that feature is killer.
Click to expand...

Stoked to see this in action, just when you want some (potential) spam calls, I'm not getting any :D
 
I like having a sleep score on the Health app now. My wife has always gotten a score from her Oura ring and my competitive side gets jealous.
 
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