Ask HN: How has your experience been with iOS 26?

I'm on an iPhone 16 Pro. iOS 26 is not an improvement, I'll put it that way. What's happened here is obvious - they had honed iOS down to a very good OS - perhaps as good as can be or very close to it. The problem arises when they have to show shareholders that they're still "innovating", so they change something just to change it. That's what the new glass interface is. To me, it's a more modern take on something from 20 years ago, which was touted as revolutionary when it became part of Windows Vista. This time, they've just added warping/refraction effects, which have become possible due to more powerful processors. It's distracting, though, and they've removed any option to turn it off. It also just looks instantly dated, IMO.

Beyond that, I've experienced some hangs here and there, and particularly when using Safari. The interface in general also seems less snappy.

I think we've just seen Apple peak. This is not the kind of move a thriving company makes, and runs completely counter to Steve Jobs' ethos, just as is Tim Cook's bowing to an authoritarian regime. They certainly aren't what they once were, and its only a matter of time before the inertia they gained over the last 20 years finally runs out and they begin to plummet.

Awful. both iOS and macOS 26 (which I've been running regularly since the early betas) are so buggy (including visually) that I decided to skip them on my main devices. Last time I skipped a major OS update, OS X was still paid. We’ll see what happens next year, though I have no illusions Apple learned anything from this debacle.

aweful i hadnt updated since ios 6.

It's sooooo bad. I hate it.

It's like the whole interface is covered in corn syrup. The inertia of the swiped elements feels like they don't want to respond to touch input.

Half the time I have to tap twice because I'm not sure if the screen is lagging or if I missed the button.

It's visually incomprehensible. Elements randomly switch between light and dark, depending on local color layering, but it affects the global element rendering.

It stutters. It freezes. I've ceded all the hardware gains of the previous decade to arrogance of someone else's misplaced aspirations and poor taste.

I updated my iPhone 15 Pro yesterday. The only performance issue I noticed is when making a new wallpaper, with the "Dynamic iOS 26" wallpaper. It was lagging like crazy, it even froze at some point, and the phone got very hot. I have a feeling it hit the battery like a truck, too, but we'll see in time if it was just one incident or what. Running full animations and graphics, and glass icons, no performance issues.

Just managed to click update on my iPad Mini 6th gen, we'll see how that goes. The M1 Air will have to wait some more.

It's sooooo bad. I hate it.

It's like the whole interface is covered in corn syrup. The inertia of the swiped elements feels like they don't want to respond to touch input.

Half the time I have to tap twice because I'm not sure if the screen is lagging or if I missed the button.

It's visually incomprehensible. Elements randomly switch between light and dark, depending on local color layering, but it affects the global element rendering.

It stutters. It freezes. I've ceded all the hardware gains of the previous decade to arrogance of someone else's misplaced ideals and poor taste.