iOS 26 Shows Unusually Slow Adoption Months After Release (macrumors.com) 61
Apple's iOS 26 appears to be witnessing the slowest adoption rate in recent memory, with third-party analytics from StatCounter indicating that only 15 to 16% of active iPhones worldwide are running the operating system nearly four months after its September release. The figures stand in stark contrast to iOS 18, which had reached approximately 63% adoption by January 2025, and iOS 17, which hit 54% by January 2024. iOS 16 had surpassed 60% by January 2023.
StatCounter's breakdown for January 2026 shows iOS 26.1 accounting for roughly 10.6% of devices, iOS 26.2 at about 4.6%, and the original iOS 26.0 at 1.1%. More than 60% of iPhones tracked by the analytics firm remain on iOS 18.
MacRumors' own visitor data tells a similar story: 89.3% of the site's readers were on iOS 18 during the first week of January 2025, but only 25.7% are running iOS 26 during the same period this year. iOS 26 introduced Liquid Glass, a sweeping visual redesign that replaces much of the traditional opaque interface with translucent layers, blurred backgrounds, and dynamic depth effects.
StatCounter's breakdown for January 2026 shows iOS 26.1 accounting for roughly 10.6% of devices, iOS 26.2 at about 4.6%, and the original iOS 26.0 at 1.1%. More than 60% of iPhones tracked by the analytics firm remain on iOS 18.
MacRumors' own visitor data tells a similar story: 89.3% of the site's readers were on iOS 18 during the first week of January 2025, but only 25.7% are running iOS 26 during the same period this year. iOS 26 introduced Liquid Glass, a sweeping visual redesign that replaces much of the traditional opaque interface with translucent layers, blurred backgrounds, and dynamic depth effects.
Correction (Score:5, Insightful)
iOS 26 introduced Liquid Glass, a sweeping visual redesign that replaces much of the traditional opaque interface with translucent layers, blurred backgrounds, and dynamic depth effects.
iOS 26 introduced Liquid Glass, a sweeping visual redesign that replaces much of the traditional opaque interface with pointless translucent layers, blurred backgrounds, and dynamic depth effects.
There FTFY.
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and ruins everything including your ability to touch things on the screen accurately and having the machine respond to those touches.
i literally have clicked 30+ times on buttons in my Mail app with no action. close the app and reopen it and wow what do you know it works fine!
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i literally have clicked 30+ times on buttons in my Mail app with no action
Another retarded bug (of sooooooo many) is how the cursor flickers quickly when trying to figure out the location to 'grab' a splitview for resizing. Turns out as long as you're close enough you can grab it even when the cursor's all wrong, but annoying until you realize it doesn't matter.
The 'fit and finish' of this OS version is the equivalent of a polished turd.
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I see people have translucent effects in Windows. It might even be a default these days? I recall having to turn it off on my computer at work. Looking at it for even just a few seconds gives me a headache. I don't understand the appeal, but then again I've always been more about functionality than eye candy.
Re:Correction (Score:4, Insightful)
I see people have translucent effects in Windows. I don't understand the appeal, but then again I've always been more about functionality than eye candy.
Transparency is a solution to a problem no one ever fucking had.
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Transparency looks cool and doesn't cause any problems (it's cheap to calculate these days) if it's not overused.
Apple, however, has lost all restraint it once had. The classic Mac interface was understated, simple, and clean. You might even say elegant. While it did not do many things, it was completely consistent and never confusing except perhaps when some applications did some stupid stuff with file type codes. And those were usually very niche programs, and if you were into that kind of stuff you could
Re: Correction (Score:2)
iOS 26 introduced Liquid Glass, a sweeping visual redesign that closely mimics windows 7
FTFY
Re: Correction (Score:3)
How to undo a lot of Appleâ(TM)s mistakes:
Settings > Display > Liquid glass > "Tinted".
Accessibility > Motion > Reduce Motion
Phone > top right menu > Classic
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I don't see any "Classic" option when I pull down the top right menu?
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Poorly stated by OP.
1. Open Phone App
2. Select "Recents" tab
3. Select the menu in the upper right
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where is this on ipad? they added a phone app but there are no recents there.
ios26 is such a massive step backwards.
Re: Correction (Score:2)
Ah thanks, I had no idea that he was talking about the phone app.
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iOS 26 introduced Liquid Glass, a sweeping visual redesign that replaces much of the traditional opaque interface with translucent layers, blurred backgrounds, and dynamic depth effects.
iOS 26 introduced Liquid Glass, a sweeping visual redesign that replaces much of the traditional opaque interface with pointless translucent layers, blurred backgrounds, and dynamic depth effects.
There FTFY.
Bluntly put, if you are not forced to "upgrade" because of getting a new Apple Watch (as I was), there is absolutely no reason why anyone in their right minds should install iOS 26. It is such a massive regression in UI usability across the board that it should never have shipped even in beta. And it is bad enough that when people ask me if I like my watch, I advise them not to buy one, or to buy a used one from a previous generation so that they do not have to upgrade their phones to iOS 26.
Here we are a
I'm on ios18 (Score:2)
Re: I'm on ios18 (Score:4, Funny)
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Same place as Preparations A thru G.
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They'll correct this low adoption the usual way (Score:2, Insightful)
And that way is by only making future security updates available in OS 26 for devices that support it.
So next time there's an important security update that everyone should have, those with a device running OS 18 that is capable of also running OS 26 will only have that security update available as a OS 26 upgrade only, and not available as a point release update for OS 18 for those devices.
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I held off on the iOS 26 as long as I could because its I find the whole phone slows each upgrade. I bought a new apple watch December and was forced to upgrade to iOS 26 to use it. They got me the usual way.
Same. I very nearly returned the watch when I realized it was going to force me to "upgrade" to iOS 26. Months later, I'm still not sure I made the right decision by keeping it, because the moderate added utility of the watch is dwarfed by what a disaster my phone has become.
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I should have just tried to replace the battery.
you were smarter than me though, you did your research before and knew it would be a forced upgrade.
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you were smarter than me though, you did your research before and knew it would be a forced upgrade.
I didn't, actually. It was my first Apple watch, and I found out when I tried to use it for the first time. I almost returned it right then and there and paid the restocking fee to Best Buy. That's how much I didn't want to move to iOS 26.
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The oldest iphone supported by iOS 26 is the iphone 11 series, which shipped with iOS 13. So you would want Apple to release the latest security updates for every single iOS version that was available for the iphone 11 ? That's iOS 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18, to satisfy anyone who, for one reason or another, would have chosen to stay on any of these version ?
My old iphone SE (the original one, first generation), got its latest security update in september last year. That's almost ten years of support for sec
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So you would want Apple to release the latest security updates for every single iOS version that was available for the iphone 11 ?
No, I'm saying that Apple are such assholes that if someone's running 18 on something that can support 26, Apple will eventually force them to upgrade to 26 (MS Windows 11 style) even if they want to stay on 18, otherwise they'd then be using an insecure device even though other users with devices that can only run up to 18 would get that security update.
Because it's unmitigated crap (Score:3)
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My phone is OK but my watch often takes a few seconds to respond. It's also now harder to read notifications on the watch because of the 'glass' nonsense which puts pretty graphics above actual functionality.
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1) Your friend could not have "updated" his iphone 17 to iOS 26, because the iphone 17 shipped with iOS 17.
2) The only "AI feature" on iOS is Apple Intelligence, which can be disabled.
3) Almost all those "heavy graphics effects" can be completely disabled, either directly or through accessibility options.
So it's clear to anyone who actually knows what he's talking about that you don't actually have a friend whith an iphone 17, that you've probably never used, or even seen, an actual iphone, and that you're
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... shipped with iOS 26. Dammit.
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It was the iPhone 15 - sorry, I didn't get enough sleep - and everything else about my comment was true. I've never lied on this website, nor was it my intent to do so this time. You may want to look me up before accusing me of every sin under the sun.
Second, not all AI features in iOS 26 can be disabled.
Lastly, glass effects cannot be fully disabled.
The 26th release is extremely resource-heavy, slow, and buggy. Despite a single wrong digit in my comment, that part still stands true. Have a nice day!
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After my friend installed iOS 26 update on their iPhone 17, the phone became as slow as molasses. In addition to that applications sometimes freeze, and the whole experience has become unbearable. This release is extremely poorly optimized and is choke full of dubious AI features and heavy graphics effects. And most of this useless garbage cannot be disabled because ... Apple.
It's his own fault for not having the latest Iphone. I mean how disloyal is that. He needs to report to the nearest Lord and Saviour, Steve Jobs centre for an re-iEducation. He can sell a kidney for the new Iphone on the way there.
iOS Regret (Score:5, Informative)
I have a new iPhone 17 Pro, so I have no choice but to run iOS 26. I can say I now fully regret this upgrade. They sold this on AI, which was an embarrassing failure; the Liquid glASS is something I can live without, it doesn't add anything useful -- the new Safari experience is completely trashed, unintuitive. If I would install/run iOS 18 on this device, I probably would.
As a long-time Apple user, I am really concerned about their future, if they don't get their act together.
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I would think liquid glass also introduces more processing power and reduces battery life slightly.
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I would assume the same thing; though, we can assume their code is written to exploit the custom chipsets.
The only reason I update these phones is for the camera improvements and storage, and processing speed of course. I still find iOS 26 to be something they could have withheld for a while longer. They don't have a public beta testing platform, because Apple is so secretive and they think they know what is best for everyone. But, Apple doesn't seem to respond to public feedback, unless there is some
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No wonder people are not upgrading. I remember long ago when iOS updates brought significant change and everyone got excited and installed immediately. Now it just slows my phone down.
How much more ... (Score:2)
Liquid ass (Score:5, Informative)
I use X tools, and a lot of enterprise software - I am totally OK with bad UI.
But the Liquid Glass crap is just appallingly bad. Text overlapping blurry text, things out of alignment, weird motion for no reason - just garbage.
The other phone and my Mac will sit this one out.
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I turned off autoupdates (Score:2)
Specifically to avoid the liquid ass update.
Glass (Score:1)
Liquid glass. It's visually neat and I'm sure the programmers are very proud of themselves but the novelty has worn off. In some cases the liquid glass UI elements have poor contrast because of whatever background might be beneath, and the UI transitions are too slow for my liking. Sometimes liquid buttons can join together due to simulated surface tension (e.g. top-right in the photo app 'library')... neat but was this really necessary? I guess it was.
Software bloat is like a gas - it expands to fill its c
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Siri is still crap.
Yup - they spent all this time on Liquid Ass and no time on making any actually useful fixes.
Guess this is what we can start expecting from multi-$trillion dollar companies with thousands of "engineers" housed in multi-$billion campuses.
Missed opportunity (Score:1)
Version 26.2 should've been called "Marathon Edition."
Delayed forced upgrade (Score:3)
I think that Apple knew that this was a shaky release and thus waited a bit longer before pushing it out as a fully automatic update.
Liquid gross (Score:1)
People hated the Frutiger Aero era of Microsoft design. Nobody wants it on their phone. Apple needs to get back to making innovative products instead of shoehorning stuff into the hardware and software just so they have something to advertise.
hi apple employees (Score:2)
Some apps do work properly in iOS 26 that have been fully optimized...basically just Youtube since they apparently have a large market share of users not on the latest and greatest devices.
Everything else, including Apple's own native apps, have GLARING UI errors. Try getting search to work properly in Apple Mail and you'll see it (it will only use half the screen). Try using face ID consistently (it will go to black screen sometimes and freeze up). Count how many buttons i
Apple has no QA of any kind (Score:2)
I know you are reading this [Apple employees].
You're addressing this to a group of people that have shown they don't [lapcatsoftware.com] care [openradar.me], so it's pointless to try to address them.
glass (Score:2)
iOS 26 introduced Liquid Glass
a shitty trash that in Jobs' days would've seen the entire department fired on the spot and rightfully so. This abomination looks so amateurish it's like the Apple design team lost a bet. It is the first time since the very first iPhone that I honestly think that Android looks better.
If there is still sanity left in Cupertino, give us a choice in iOS 27 to use liquid shit or the old UI. I'm fairly sure if you collect the metrics the user referendum will be very clear.
It's the overuse (Score:2)
Liquid Glass is okay. But, developers are using it where they shouldn't. Making lists and other items glassy is wrongs. Reserve it for buttons and panels. And, be sure to check contrast.
I have encountered several apps that seem to screw up when editing text in Ios26. But, these apps are reported to being built in Flutter and Electron rather than SwiftUI. Those tools don't handle Liquid Glass and, instead, try to emulate it with varying degrees of success.
On my Mac, I disable the transparency and go wit
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That's not the fault of the apps. Some of the fundamental UI elements like side panels are just transparent. They didn't do that and sometimes they can't change it. Apple's own Apps egregiously put transparency in all sorts of places it doesn't belong. This is squarely on Apple and Alan Dye. Thank goodness he left and took a bunch of people with him so some real designers can start fixing it.
It's not just liquid glass (Score:2)
I have made this point before, and I'll make it again, but the entire line of 26 OSes (save TVOS) are much worse. It's not just liquid glass. Sometimes the glass effect is legitimately cool.
The OSes are now completely incoherent in some cases. Buttons do things you don't expect, action items are hidden behind buttons that you don't think to press. MacOS 26 has icons in its menus, and there are different icons for similar things, similar icons for different things, and too much visual clutter in general. It
Wasn't offered to me... (Score:1)
100% Wank features (Score:2)
Hey Apple, go look at "Books", it would even has been an embarrassing piece of shit way back on MacOs 7.
I have also NOT updates my M3 MBP, again, no reason to, I dont want more junk features.
How about making Mail work with "Shared' mail boxes on the exchange server, I am forced to use outlook to do this.
ZERO interest in all the AI wank/enshitification happening.
Apple is making thing HARDER to use, not better.