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This week at WWDC, Apple introduced its first redesign of iOS in over 12 years. The last time Apple did a drastic redesign was with iOS 7, which launched in 2013. Apple is dubbing this redesign as “Liquid Glass”, and to be honest, it looks pretty nice in some parts of the OS, but in other parts, it looks cheap and not good.
As is the case with any major change like this, it’s been met with a pretty polarizing reaction. You either love it or you hate it. Which sounds familiar for some reason. That’s because it was the exact same reaction to Google’s Material 3 Expressive redesign when it was unveiled last month.
Apple released the first developer beta right after the keynote, which the company does every year. In recent years, Apple has made it easier for anybody to download the developer beta, which I believe is a mistake. Now, it’s a quick setting on the Software Update page on your iPhone or iPad. Before, you would need a developer account and get your device’s unique UDID registered to get the update. Meaning far fewer people were able to download it. I do think Apple needs to go back to limiting who can use the developer beta.
The reason for that? This is the first of probably seven or eight betas before iOS 26 ships later this year with the iPhone 17 series. Last year, with the iOS 18 Developer Beta, there were 8 betas released between June 10 and August 28. Not including a Developer Beta 3 re-release (this was to bring the developer beta on track with the public beta that launched in July). And this means that we’re going to see loads of changes before the final product ships. Just like Apple did with iOS 7 in 2013.
What’s so bad about Liquid Glass?
The design itself looks pretty cool, but it’s clear it still needs some more time in the oven. The biggest issue that I’ve noticed so far is readability.
If you’re using a wallpaper that’s not dark – like the default iOS 26 wallpaper – then readability is going to be a problem. The notifications are hard to read because they’re white on a light background with a somewhat translucent notification background.
The Control Panel is also pretty bad. That’s because there’s almost no background blur behind the settings in the Control Panel, making it hard to actually see the toggles, and tell if they’re on or not. This, I think could easily be fixed with some background blur there, but we’ll see how Apple handles it in future betas.
Then there’s the icons. Apple did add a new clear mode, which in their presentation, it looked great. And I was excited to use it. But in actuality, it looks pretty bad. It’s also somewhat hard to read, but thankfully that is an option.
With the regular light or dark mode icons, it’s not that great either. With the glass look, some icons look pretty blurry. And as someone that wears glasses, I know what blurry looks like. Some apps that are really affected here include most of Google’s apps, ESPN, Facebook, Bluesky and Amazon. It really affects those that are white, with an icon in the center – which is almost every single Google app. Below, you can see a good example of how other icons look in iOS 26 vs iOS 18.
Something else Apple changed that some people love and others hate, is the text in pop ups. The text has been center-aligned for, basically the entire lifetime of the iPhone. But now in iOS 26, it’s left-aligned. Which looks a little odd, but some people like it. To me, the centered text looked better, but I’m sure I’ll get used to it. I do prefer that the options are different colors now, since some apps will rearrange options like the one for enabling Facetime.
However, Apple did pay attention to the details with iOS 26. I do wish they paid more attention to readability. When moving around the OS, any of Apple’s updated OS’ that were announced this week, you can really see the glass effect. And it looks great. For example, watch this video of bringing down the notification shade. Now don’t freak out, the notification shade does not look like that normally, it doesn’t show your home screen in the background if you let go of the notification shade.
Will Apple fix iOS 26?
Yes, of course, Apple will fix iOS 26. But will it be fixed the way you wanted it fixed? Maybe not. I’m expecting to see loads of changes over the next few betas, even before the Public Beta becomes available in July. But Apple will continue to refine this design throughout iOS 26, and even into iOS 27 next year.
It really wouldn’t take a lot for Apple to improve the readability of iOS 26. Because let’s face it, that’s the biggest problem with this platform right now, as it stands in Developer Beta 1. Of course, we’ll be following along (as we are with Google’s Material 3 Expressive redesign) to see how things change over the next three months.
As always with a redesign, it’s going to take some time to get used to the new iOS. And that’s something everyone’s going to have to deal with. Especially when it comes to the camera app.
iOS 26 will have slower adoption versus other versions of iOS
One metric that Apple likes to tout every so often, is the adoption rate of its new iOS versions. Which is a little unfair, since everyone gets the update at the same time, versus Android having to wait for the OEM to push it out.
However, with iOS 18, Apple had an adoption rate of 76% for devices introduced in the last four years. That’s the same as iOS 17 at this same time in 2024. But still down from 2023 when iOS 16 was at 81% adoption.
Because of these changes and the new design, the adoption rate is likely going to be much lower, when Apple releases these numbers next January. But, if we compare to iOS 7, which was actually downloaded pretty quickly after release, it could see a higher adoption. In August 2014, nearly a year after iOS 7 launched, Apple said that 91% of iOS devices were on iOS 7. It also was a 35% adoption rate after just one day. So, despite most hating the change, many still downloaded it.
Will this cause many to leave the iPhone for Android?
Google, Samsung, Motorola, and other Android OS makers are definitely hoping this will cause many to leave the iPhone and head for a better-designed OS like Android 16.
But here’s the thing. Apple has locked its customers so far into the walled garden that it’s very hard to leave. Even for Android, this is an issue. Think of the apps you’ve bought, or money you spent on in-app purchases, when you leave Android for iOS, that’s all gone. Never mind the continuity with a laptop, smartwatch, and earbuds.
I do not think we will see a mass exodus from iOS, but we could see a small number of people leaving. Likely under 1%, which is still a lot of people, since there are 2.35 billion active iOS devices in the world right now.
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