. But here is the thing – everyone is not happy that they did it.
But first, yes, Apple made the jump iOS 18 directly iOS 26
If you are far from Apple World for a minute, you might be shocked to see your iPhone (iPhone 11 or more recent) to ask to update iOS 26. Don’t worry – you didn’t miss seven whole versions overnight. Apple simply decided to synchronize its name system on all platforms. Now everything is clean and tidy: iOS 26iPados 26, Watchos 26, MacOS 26, Visionos 26. More incompatible figures like iOS 18Watchos 12, and visionos 2. Instead, Apple went with a name -based name approach, so iOS 26 Cover the 2025-2026 cycle. This allows people to instantly know that they are running the latest operating system.
To regret or not regret
I lived with iOS 26 And iPados 26 for a week now, and honestly, I’m torn. Do I want to go back to iOS 18? Not really. Should I wait before installation? Probably yes. The main reason: the battery leak, I am not alone here. Many users report a less good battery life since the update, which could explain all of this demotion research. However, it looks more like a temporary problem. Each time you install a major iOS update, your iPhone runs a bunch of background tasks – reindex files, update of applications, active download. It eats energy and makes it slow at first. Usually things are smoothed once all this work is done. The other complaints include the offset during the passage between applications and icons which are not always linked correctly. Boring? Yes. Permanent? Probably not. But one thing that sticks, whether or not, is the new apple flashy design language: liquid glass.
Liquid glass effect
Video credit – Apple
The problem? Happy is not optional. The user interface is a central part of iOS, and you cannot simply turn a switch to go back. The closest bypass solution reduces transparency, which reduces things a little, but that’s it.
You can compose transparency a little in the settings. | Screenshots by phonearena
Liquid glass looks elegant, but it comes with real drawbacks:
- Visual coulet and readability problems: Too much transparency makes text difficult to read and disorder icons.
- Conviviality problems: Different applications use it differently, so that experience can feel fragmented and inconsistent.
- Performance hits: All these blurred layers and animations require a lot of treatment power, which can affect the performance and the life of the battery, in particular on older iPhones.
Personally, my biggest headache is safari. The closing tabs now take additional steps, and Liquid Glass makes the text of the website more difficult to read. It looks like Apple added friction where there were none.
But that’s not all bad
For the most part, iOS 26 looks pretty good. | Image credit – Apple
Just the start of Apple’s new management
So, is the liquid glass the reason why some people regret iOS 26? Probably. I doubt that it is the new features such as Live Translate, spam filtering or adjustable lock screen widgets – these are solid. The great upheaval is design.
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