I have the same model, and similar complaints. I reduced the transparency (Settings-Accessibility) and that helped, but the needless animations and other cutesy touches are annoying and distracting. I turned off the call screening, because it was condescending. Maybe if I was a busy CEO it would be useful, but I'd rather see who's calling myself without another layer in between.

All of this BS about "fresh" and "exciting" is just BS. Apple is trying hard to create a trend, but I think it's overreaching.

Unfortunately, these days an iOS issue has to make it into a point release before people are convinced it's a serious problem. Going to be interesting watching the Liquid Glass product cycle.

Same in the MacBook pro.

This sentiment is common with every major UI change. Give yourself some time to adjust, and Apple time to work out some of the bugs, before doing anything drastic. iOS 7 was very rough around the edges and got a lot of hate (rightfully so), but it evolved and got better.

I was bothered by how many taps I had to use to do things in Safari, but then I figured out I can swipe up on the ellipsis to select something from the menu, so it’s one action. Bringing up the tabs is a quick double tap, I don’t actually need to wait. Things like that, which I’m figuring out through use, are helpful. I had issues with not being able to see some widgets with certain wallpapers, so I changed my wallpaper for now until they work that out.

I've gotten used to it mostly, i still think it's a significant downgrade from the almost perfect Interface they had in iOS 18. But what i just can't get used to and what i hate with a passion is the HDR effects on touch down. Who in their right mind thought that it was a good idea to increase the brightness of the screen beyond what it is set to in partial areas of it?? It's incredibly distracting and serves in my opinion no purpose.

All in all it feels to me like a hacked together Gen Z "Aesthetic" toy interface and not at all like a professional piece of software.

I updated on an iphone 13 pro and had to go back to my old iphone with an older OS. I write on my phone (substack), and it cannot be done with this OS. Together the two have become inoperable. And to think I updated because of how bad the experience was on the old OS. Buying a new "nothing phone" later today

Two factors in play, IMO.

1. The hubris of big companies deciding that they know what you want better than you do. I used to chide Microsoft, not that they were listening, that their motto was "We will optimize you (if you change your life to do things our way)", like the ubiquitous "Excel as a database." Only a visionary can anticipate your needs, and Steve Jobs is gone.

2. Change for the sake of change. Compare with the crazy expensive yearly cosmetic (if not comedic) changes in auto styling.

3 (of two). Well, you know that they're greasing the skids for some secret unified watch, computer, phone, AR, OS to run the world. But can't tell you because your future is a secret that we can't share with you, and most assuredly won't ask you about.

4 (of two) The only sane future is Free and Open Source, where people outside the castle have nonzero say.

Beyond the eye-watering UI, all the 3GB RAM devices on the supported list are slow to the point I don't think they're usable

Apple silicon has never once felt slow to me until I installed iOS 26 on devices with 3 and 4 GB RAM... Tahoe even makes my 32GB RAM M-series Macs feel slow like a computer used to feel back before the M1

It's like this Liquid Glass was "splashed" over still-current flat style - it feels like there's no visual consistency and this is some internal transitional beta software.

They did add contrast between interface elements but in some places forgot to change size of buttons to fit with the rest. Interface flashes trying to figure out if text and icons should be black or white. Sometimes it even loads some unstyled gray flat widgets and then "pours" this glass over. Some apps still hasn't changed at all and continuously use one color or mix of both like Home.

The "traffic lights" windows widget on tablet: I just hope nobody will get that brilliant idea to bring it onto desktop because it's just plain horrible. Menu bar you pull down from the edge of the screen is rather useless at the moment; doesn't seem any app already updated to utilize these. Switching from library to main sprinboard screen on tablet causes icons to squeeze together and fly randomly at either right or left corner.

We got a doubtful visual update but rubber-banding call screen, notifications that won't synchronize across devices and won't disappear until you open apps - that's still here year after year.

I didn’t update to iOS 26 yet specifically because of the horrendous glass UI with its zero contrast everywhere. Just wondering if enabling high contrast and disabling gradients in the accessibility settings help.