Why Apple’s overhaul falls flat

Forget summer already; It’s the software season, and it rains beta positively. Between Android 16 and the new iOS 26, I was to the knees in mobile oss and, well … I have notes.

If you are a regular reader, you may know that I am not a big fan of the new Google equipment 3. I don’t hate him, but I certainly don’t like his paranoia of everything that approaches a right angle. But compared to what Apple has cooked in iOS 26, expressive equipment is like Adam’s modern creation.

Like the latest Android overhaul, iOS 26 and its new “liquid glass glass” user interface are designed to be more reactive and reactive to the aesthetic preference of the user. It is also designed to unify the appearance on the Apple product portfolio. However, it is well below the brand.

I’m sure you’ve already seen a lot of online images, and it’s as positively illegible as everyone says. Excessive use of transparency and refraction makes any superposition menu a mess induccing headaches and, from the point of view of accessibility, it is a disaster.

The expressive material 3 may seem flat in comparison, but its palettes of supposed and configurable colors avoid this type of confrontation and horrible discordants. It is easy to read and navigate, and does the work with a touch of simple customization.

A user interface should be functional above all, a lesson apple has apparently forgotten with liquid glass. Apple seriously needs to resume transparency before it ships. In addition, my iPhone 15 Pro has been incredibly hot and reduced the battery life from the update to iOS 26. It is too early to say if these graphic effects are to be blamed, but there is a reason why Windows has abandoned the Aero Glass theme of Vista.

Apple also introduced the icon theme with iOS 18 and has a new clear option to really cement its glass design change. However, the absence of color deprives instant recognition icons, which makes the whole user interface difficult to navigate. Although the efforts of icons on Google’s theme are not excellent, at least they are easily distinguished from the bottom. Android also provides a much smarter personalized theme on the user interface, which makes settings and options that are easy to see at a glance, regardless of your color palette. Apple is still not doing this, and its last glass icons are too difficult to occupy. It is a bad design – simple and simple.

To be fair, the glass effect is not terrible when associated with applications that mainly offer solid background colors. However, using side by side with the latest Google adjustments, it is difficult not to conclude that Apple is not interested in improving features. The application of the camera is an excellent example; Surprised caricatural bubbles and a labyrinth of hidden layers have replaced the elegant arrangement, easily accessible and inspired by the camera.

By putting aside the doubtful aesthetic choices for one minute, iOS 26 expressive materials 3 with its customizable “control center”, alias aka Android menu settings. You can now reorganize and resize icons, allowing you to adapt more or less to the screen, according to your needs.

In some respects, iOS 26 allows even more personalization with the ability to stretch the tilles vertically and horizontally. The multimedia center, for example, can be made more and more increasingly more and more of the amount of information you want to display, and even inappropriate, which you cannot do on Android. However, some tips cannot be resized in all directions, so again, it may seem a mess.

However, the implementation of the Apple user interface is the real problem for me. Android 16 separates resizing and repositioning by requiring long pressure on the rocking. IOS tries to do both simultaneously, which means that it is too easy to drag instead of resize, causing a microsoft style cascade of layout style. I found it exasperating to use.

Likewise, Android addressed a significant redundancy bug; Wi-Fi and Bluetooth tilles now open a small window directly to configure the required settings. IOS 26 is stuck somewhere between it, allowing you to set up / deactivate Wi-Fi quickly but not Bluetooth, which forces you to jump through several menus to find the torque page. Different results depending on the duration of the press or the location add to madness.

After spending a short time to browse the latest versions of Android and iOS, I left with a significant difference in mind.

Although it is not perfect, Material 3 expressive focuses mainly on the more user -friendly Android rendering. It is more customizable, modified to present information more clearly and includes new additions such as live updates. It is an improvement in the quality of life to an operating system that we already like; An upgrade rather than a recast.

IOS 26, in comparison, is almost everything about appearances. Liquid glass with pick cherry on the right background and it looks great, but the update corrects very little of my long -term bugs during navigation in the operating system. The personalization is slightly better, but always only the deep skin too often breaks its own aesthetic rules. The menus remain a laborious back-and-foster struggle which is probably worse in places, and glass design is hindering rather than helpability. It is a paint on a creaky foundation.

Cynic in me could accuse Apple of trying to divert attention from its lack of authentic ideas and the appalling state of Apple’s intelligence with a brilliant new interface. After all, these are the two main improvements in the iOS 26 press kit. However, the implementation is so mediocre that I am now really concerned about the direction of the trip of the platform. Seriously, who let this beta version pass quality control?

To quote the former chief of design, Jonny Ive, back to the launch of iOS 7 in 2013: “I think there is a deep and lasting beauty in simplicity; in clarity, in efficiency. The real simplicity is derived from much more than the absence of congestion and ornament. It is a question of provoking the order of complexity. ”

I let you decide which modern mobile operating system up to this mantra.