iOS 26 Launch Live: All the new features plus reaction to the polarizing liquid glass nest design

Does liquid glass need something polish?

IOS 26 is only on an early developer -beta scene, so of course there are many rough edges. But some commentators, such as YouTube MKBHD (above), also point out some potential problems that are clear, even in Apple’s official photos for the us update.

In the above example, I agree that lock screen messages would be harder to read on some backgrounds. There is no doubt that the floating glaze effect is attractive, but is it practical? After all, most of us use our phones as tools rather than aesthetic experiences.

There is plenty of time for Apple to make adjustments to the transparency around some menus, but it can also dilute the new experience it was so eager to give in iOS 26. I look forward to trying the beta soon and see how Apple refines it in front of the public beta next month.

Backlash performs (sometimes) work

Apple made the rare admission that it got something wrong in WWDC 2025 by bringing a feature back to the photos app in iOS 26.

In a classic piece of understatement, Craig Federighi (Apple’s Senior Vice President of Software Engineering) said that “many of you missed out on tabs in the photo app” so it brought them back in the form of library and collections (above).

The former is to find newer snaps, while the latter is home to your albums, favorites and more. It was definitely not the only criticism of the new photos app in iOS 18, but it will be a welcome change for many.

The ‘perfectly clear look’ is not for me

Although I like many aspects of liquid glass on iOS 26, an option that has confused me is a bit, the “clear look” above.

On the WWDC 2025, Apple was talking about app icons now made of liquid glass (the difference looks less to me) and can adapt to different conditions such as dark state. But one of the new possibilities is the “clear look” above that I am not fully convinced.

As some have noticed, it looks a bit like you’ve used a budget-third-party app-launcher and make it difficult to separate apps from one another by a moment. I liked the new ability to hide app names in iOS 18 last year, but this one just feels a little gimmicky.

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How to try iOS 26 developer Beta

If you want to try iOS 26 for yourself, the software is now out in developer Beta.

Of course, this is aimed at developers, so we will not exactly recommend it. But it is also possible to sign up and try it as an ‘individual’. A warning word: Early developer Betas has lots of problems and this has been described as “The Buggest Beta 1 at 12 years”.

However, if you are prepared to take the risk, just follow our guide on how to download iOS 26 developer Beta. And maybe try it on an older phone rather than your daily carry – it works on all models from iPhone 11 onwards.

A Welcome CarPlay Update

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It’s good to see that Apple does not give up its standard CarPlay experience despite the arrival of CarPlay Ultra.

Thanks to iOS 26, CarPlay gets four welcome upgrades-and-Techradar’s EVS correspondent Leon Poultney has rounded off all the new CarPlay tricks, including a practical new compact view that gives you pop-up ranges for incoming calls.

It doesn’t look as fancy as iOS 26, but all the features have to make CarPlay less distracting-what is ultimately the main target of infotainment design in the car.

The case against floating glass

The early reactions to liquid glass have certainly not all been positive. More videos have emerged online showing how translucent widgets and menu overlays can start to look a little messy and confusing on busy backgrounds.

While some of this can undoubtedly be reduced to iOS 26, which is a very early developer beta, noticed former co -founder of Verge Joshua Topolsky (above) that there are some readability problems, even in Apple’s own slides showing the design material in action.

He is certainly not alone in seeing the potential of distraction in the transparent effects in which designer Andreas Storm (below) describes it as “very restless”.

We soon draw our own conclusions from our practicalities, but it is fair to say that floating glass has not drawn universal rose-with-some derived it as the spiritual successor to Aero from Windows 7, and others like Techradar contributor Alex Blake concluded that it is actually a good thing.

The case of liquid glass

If you want to go deep on liquid glass, it’s worth watching Apple’s developer talk about the concept – it dives into the minuties how it should work at least.

When you see it in this context, it looks very beautiful – and many of its early observers are big fans. For example, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman noted that “This Redesign is incredibly cool”, while the early beta testers on X as @sondesix (below) have noticed the “satisfactory” animations and visual effects.

Then it is clearly a challenge to get this effect to work in all scenarios, and a number of videos show some kinks to iron out to the public beta next month.

Finally a simpler camera -App

I’ve been waiting for Apple to streamline and clean up the camera app for years, and it’s finally done in iOS 26.

Instead of a confusing list of photo states and settings at the bottom of the app, Apple removes it down to two: video and photo. You can then just iron to see the relevant ones in each state, such as cinematic and SLO-MO for video.

The confusing series of icons for settings such as photographic styles and aspects have also been improved, with a new floating glass (of course) pane below appears when you stroke up. Having descriptions for each should make it much easier to use.

My only qualification is the lack of a pro photo mode, but I assume Apple would not kill third-party apps as halogenide when it has given them so much praise.

The small-moon-use iOS 26 upgrades

We’ve already rounded off the heading features of iOS 26 – for a summary of them, check out our guide to the 5 largest. But outside the redesigned, new phone app and some Apple Intelligence upgrades, there are also some minor quality of life improvements.

Our Roundup of the best Unalded iOS 26 features highlights battery increases, message filtration, new sleep improvement of background sounds and improved aircraft features that all come to iPhones.

I’ve somehow missed this, but iOS 26 also gives you reminders if your phone has a dirty camera lens. Personally, I think it sounds more useful than AI trying to write my E emails, but we will have to see how well it works in practice.

What is liquid glass?

Before I dive into the reaction of liquid glass, what is it? Instead of being specific to iOS 26, liquid glass is a digital, translucent material that Apple says “reflects and breaks its surroundings while dynamically transformed to help bring greater focus on content”.

In other words, it is a beautiful design language to do iOS 26, iPados 26, MacOS Tahoe 26, Watchos 26 and Tvos 26 all feel fresher, more coherent and (hopefully) more intuitive. That’s at least theory.

The name comes from the idea that it combines the glass’s optical properties (for example, enlarging some elements when you hover over them) with fluidity that sees menus morf and changes as a T-1000. Sometimes it looks good, but in others (at least from the early examples we have seen), it can also look a little confused at a certain background.

Welcome to our iOS 26 LIVEBLOG

Hi, Mark Wilson here (Managing Editor, News), and I lead you through all the reaction and news from yesterday’s announcement of iOS 26.

There is a lot to take in – a new ‘liquid glass’ material for iPhone’s UI, plus a ton of new features across apps such as camera, CarPlay, Apple Music and even the phone app.

We also got an exclusive chat with Apple about liquid glass coming later, plus some practical first impressions. So if you want to know how your iPhone will change in the nearest feature, keep an eye on.