Hands-on with iOS 26 and Liquid Glass: The good, the bugs and the ugly

Should you install it yourself? God no, it’s a buggy mess. You should definitely not install it on your daily driver. But should you be excited to get it in September, after Apple irons out the kinks? Absolutely. Keep reading or watch our video for a hands-on look at the joys (and annoyances) of iOS 26.

Hands-on with iOS 26 and Liquid Glass

iOS 26 is far from a routine update; it’s a big turning point. Apple’s newest mobile operating system comes with a total visual overhaul inspired by visionOS, and core apps like Phone and Camera have been completely redone. For developers, the beta offers a crucial first look at the next version of iOS — and a chance to shape it before it’s released to everyone this fall.

As this is the first beta of iOS 26, there’s a lot that will be cleaned up and tweaked. Nothing is yet set in stone — it all may change.

That doesn’t mean we should hold back from airing any critiques. In fact, now is the time when Apple is most open to taking beta feedback. I’ve filed all of my critiques in this post as separate feedback reports to Apple.

Liquid Glass

Liquid Glass — Apple’s fluid new UI design language for all its products — is kind of ridiculous and absolutely beautiful. The warping effect is remarkable and incredibly realistic, and it really sings on a ProMotion display.

The specular highlights around the edge of Liquid Glass materials look really cool, too. It reacts live to the movement of your phone in your hand, very convincingly.

While Liquid Glass is less opaque and less frosted than some of Apple’s previous attempts at translucent interfaces, it’s not as hard to read as people fear in real-world usage. Plus, there’s a Reduce Transparency option in accessibility settings that turns Liquid Glass elements into a frosted gray material that’s easier to see. Liquid Glass isn’t all clear, either; you can have color-tinted buttons that pop.

In previous versions of iOS, tab bars used to be a simple button at the bottom of the screen with a colorful outline, but liquid glass tab bars are flashy and animated. You tap a tab button, and it looks like the outline shape turns to liquid, flies over and plops down. It’s like a living blob of Jell-O.

The system share sheet is now a beautiful panel of frosted glass.

The keyboard now has a rounded edge around it that makes it look like it’s floating on top of the app, and not part of the app. It looks really cool.

However, the letters are a little narrower which reminds me of the Android font Roboto (in a bad way). You notice it most on G, O, C and Q. The Shift key is also no longer inverted when it’s activated; it’s only the arrow that turns white.

Liquid Glass isn’t everywhere — not everything has an interesting background that can shine through. Apps like Settings, Mail, Notes and others are still colored with dark gray on black or light gray on white.

The spacing has become much more generous on list views — I can’t say I like it very much. Comparing the Settings app before and after, iOS 18 used to show your name, the first group of settings and the top half of the second group. In iOS 26, the density is so low that you can only see the first section and none of the second.

Hands-on iOS 26 Spatial Lock Screens and clear Home Screens

I’ve never been the type to use a picture on my Lock Screen and Home Screen, but Apple keeps adding awesome features here.

You can turn any old 2D picture into a somewhat 3D scene. Spatial Photos on Vision Pro are more realistic, but the party trick with Spatial Scenes is that you can wiggle your phone around and see the perspective change. You can play around with this in Photos, and even set one as your wallpaper.

One reason I’ve never liked having a picture on my Home Screen is that your app icons cover up the picture. But with the new Clear icon style, you can see it peek through better than ever.

I still don’t think this is my jam, but it does look pretty cool.

Minimal Safari toolbar

Apple is taking another crack at simplifying the Safari toolbar. From left to right, you have the Back button, Page menu, address bar, Refresh and More.

Apple tried this once before in the iOS 15 beta, but with two key changes. Although the toolbar floats over the content, the new design doesn’t require publishers to change website designs; your phone automatically extends the bottom of the page.

Also, you can opt out of it. In Settings > Apps > Safari, you can go back to the full Bottom toolbar (as released in iOS 15) or the split top and bottom address bar and toolbar (like iOS 14 and earlier).

But personally, I love it. I really appreciate the simplicity. You can still swipe up on the address bar to see all your tabs, or left/right to flip between them. I’m also a sucker for the compact layout on the Mac, too, which it has had since macOS Mojave.

Redesigned Camera app

The new Camera app in iOS 26 is the first major redesign since iOS 7, which first introduced the spinning camera mode selector. It evoked the mode dial of a physical camera, but just like a DSLR, Apple put too many options in there as the list of modes grew.

The rumors indicated that this redesign would go back to two main modes, Photo and Video. Portrait, Cinematic, Spatial, Panorama and others would be in a submenu that would appear when you tap on either Photo or Video.

This isn’t the case. The new design shows Photo and Video, but the other options are still a spinning list to the left and right, where you can only see a few options at once — but your thumb covers half of them up. Although, credit where credit is due, you can quickly and fluidly swipe through them.

Hands-on with the iOS 26 redesigned Phone app

The Phone app has a new layout and design for the first time ever. Interestingly, you can choose whether to use it or not — perhaps Apple learned from being burned by the radically redesoligned Photos app last year. Now, when you first launch the new Phone app, a dialog pops up asking your preference.

In the old Phone app, the tabs across the bottom were Favorites, Recents, Contacts, Keypad and Voicemail. In iOS 26:

• Calls has your favorites along the top of the screen with your call history and voicemails below. Makes sense, no notes.
• Contacts browses through your contacts. Confusingly, this tab has its own search field at the top of the screen that’s unrelated to the search button to the right, the one that’s within easy reach of your thumb.
• Keypad is the same as before.
• Search is actually a tab that shows your recent calls (again) and your voicemails (for some reason). When you type someone’s name in the search field, you don’t see their contact information, but your recent call history with that person.

This clearly needs rethinking. Apple should make the search button, at the bottom, search through the tab you’re looking at.

99% of the time, I want to search through my contacts or browse my list of contacts. The big obvious search button that’s right next to the Contacts button — that’s within reach of my thumb — should do that.

I cannot even imagine a situation where I would want to type someone’s name and see a list of the last ten times I’ve called them instead of seeing their contact information. But if someone is looking at the Calls tab and hits the search button, I suppose that’s what should happen.

Hold Assist

Hold Assist is a new feature that automatically detects when you’re placed on hold during a call and offers to wait for you, silencing the call while keeping it active. When a live agent becomes available, the system notifies you and lets the agent know you’ll be with them shortly.

I haven’t used it yet, but there’s already an unfortunate limitation. If an automated voice interrupts the music to say “We are busy assisting other customers; please remain on the line,” Hold Assist thinks you’re no longer on hold and asks you to pick up the phone. And on certain automated systems, that may happen every minute.

Other odds and ends

In response to criticisms of the Photos app last year, there is now a tab bar in Photos that lets you switch between Library and Collections. I’m sure many people like the tab bar, but personally, I miss swiping up and swiping down to toggle between Library and Collections — it made switching between them pretty easy. The swipe could be performed from anywhere on the screen. Now, the tab bar is just a small tap target in the bottom left. Maybe Apple could add a swiping gesture to make the best of both worlds.

I watched the Keynote and read all the press releases, yet I’m still not entirely sure what the point of the Games app is, other than an easier way to access Game Center. Before, you had to dig through Settings to find it.

There’s a new daily Apple News+ puzzle called Emoji Game. You’re given three phrases that are missing most of their letters, three clues that hint at what the phrases mean, and six sets of emoji. You have to interpret the meaning of the emoji to fill in the gaps. It’s extremely hard.

Should you install iOS 26?

No. This is the buggiest beta I’ve used in easily the last ten years, since OS X Yosemite. There are lots of graphical glitches, a lot of your third-party apps may not work properly, your phone will run hot and your battery life will be much worse. Please wait until the public beta is released in July.

But when iOS 26 is released in September, you have a lot to look forward to. I’m optimistic Apple will smooth over all the rough edges, as always.

I haven’t tried macOS Tahoe yet because it scares me. But in the meantime, check out Ed Hardy’s hands-on with the new multitasking in iPadOS 26.