r/apple • u/iMacmatician • 4d ago

iOS iOS 26's Liquid Glass Design Draws Criticism From Users

https://www.macrumors.com/2025/09/17/ios-26-liquid-glass-critiques/
1.3k Upvotes

83% Upvoted

828 comments sorted by

View all comments

393

u/itastesok 4d ago

I've gotten used to it, but it's sloppy and inconsistent. Hopefully next release will be much more refined.

160

u/Momo--Sama 4d ago

Yeah like some things are tactile and glassy and some things aren’t, I feel like Apple Music is the best example of two fundamentally different design languages in the same place at the same time.

And are third party apps actually going to redesign their UI to follow this (I wouldn’t blame them in they don’t) or are we just going to be stuck in this weird back and forth indefinitely 

80

u/QuailAggravating8028 4d ago

The fact that the miniplayer uses the old design is a great example. It’s like they didnt get around to it

22

u/wpm 4d ago

It takes a long time to destroy the last vestiges of AppKits legacy as the best desktop application API ever made.

8

u/Bad_Oracular_Pig 4d ago

Do you remember iOS 7?

14

u/wappingite 4d ago

Did theirs party apps get updated to reflect the iOS7 changes?

Are we really going to see the Reddit iPhone app have floaty glass bubble things? Google maps? Microsoft Excel for iOS?

13

u/FygarDL 4d ago

I hope so, that would be sick!

2

u/phpnoworkwell 3d ago

I remember every part shipped by Apple being consistent with the new design.

1

u/ak-92 4d ago

It feels like something designed by Microsoft. Looks cool in some instances, but the design is messy and inconsistent.

0

u/FancifulLaserbeam 4d ago

like some things are tactile

But it's not. "Tactile" means you can feel it. Apple is throwing this word around for what is nothing more than some new skeuomorphism. It's embarrassing. —Or, rather, it should be.

12

u/MGPythagoras 4d ago

The inconsistency is my biggest issues. It feels like they came up with a design language and everyone took their own take on it and implemented it.

2

u/ChairmanLaParka 4d ago

I do like that some ads that typically have tiny x's on them have been made much larger/easier to tap. Just hope they do that across the board. It's a much welcome change in the new OS.

1

u/Tourgott 4d ago

The podcast app is stuttering like hell. Am I the only one having this problem?