macOS 26, iPadOS 26, and iOS 26 with Liquid Glass Design: A User and Developer Review ✍🏻

Having updated all my devices (Mac, iPad, and iPhone) to their respective new OS 26 versions with Liquid Glass design, I’m ready to offer a qualified review from both a user and developer perspective.

The good

Apple’s developers and design team have truly outdone themselves. The Liquid Glass design is marvelous, yet it doesn’t seem to drain battery life excessively. The level of detail and effects is truly exceptional. Apple has, once again, delivered. Bravo!

Significant progress has been made towards what Apple refers to as “Apple Intelligence.” While AI is still in its nascent stages, it’s difficult to predict the next breakthrough. Apple appears to be taking a cautious “wait and see” approach, perhaps lacking a clear long-term vision. They’ve essentially revitalized Siri, integrated some OpenAI features, and branded the result as Apple Intelligence. While not groundbreaking, it should satisfy the marketing team.

Spotlight has received a welcome update, now allowing searches within your clipboard history in addition to actions, files, and apps. This is a very useful feature. Thanks, Apple!

From a developer standpoint, the new Xcode now includes LLM integration. While OpenAI is the default, users can import their own API keys for services like Claude, or utilize local LLMs such as Qwen or Deepseek. Other prominent editors have offered similar features for some time, and some are even more advanced in terms of features and bug fixes. Nonetheless, it’s great to finally have these capabilities in Xcode, reducing the need to juggle multiple IDEs and improving focus.

Create ML now allows viewing of neural network structures, which is beneficial for debugging and reverse engineering.

The bad

This is where things get a bit problematic…Classic Design

A significant issue is the prevalence of classic design elements in third-party apps. While recompilation and framework updates seem to be required, what happens to unsupported apps? They will retain the old aesthetic, feeling alien to the new ecosystem and eventually facing delisting from the store. Shame…

The standard sidebar, with its elevated, darker background and window control buttons, looks out of place compared to other widgets. This feels like another unfortunate design compromise.

We’re still stuck with Clang 17, the same version found in macOS 15, despite Clang 20.1 being available at the time of writing.

Apple clang version 17.0.0 (clang-1700.3.9.908)
Target: arm64-apple-darwin25.0.0
Thread model: posix

Apple clang version 17.0.0 (clang-1700.3.9.908)
Target: arm64-apple-darwin25.0.0
Thread model: posix

Animations can be unexpectedly laggy or delayed. Hopefully, this is a beta issue that will be resolved by the final release.

The Liquid design can be challenging to read, especially when using a dark theme with light content. Everything tends to blend and blur, straining the eyes. This is particularly noticeable on the iPhone, where the design system struggles to handle such cases.

And the ugly

BUGS

This appears sometimes when you close an app on MacOS system. it’s python but can be any other app.

Not polished and unlikely will be

It’s understandable that this is a new concept built upon a substantial legacy codebase. Apple cannot simply discard its existing operating system with an enormous user base; iterative development is necessary. However, taking Windows 11 as an example, which prioritized backward compatibility, it sometimes feels as though these systems are de-evolving while remaining practical for the average user. Given the sheer volume of new features, updating them all at once is impossible, suggesting a continuous cycle of updates until a new vision emerges.

Noise

The system has become noisier, with an increased number of permissions, restrictions, and seemingly random notification windows appearing.

Conclusion

The Liquid Design lives up to its name, offering an impressive and engaging visual experience. Despite some trade-offs, the ecosystem continues to evolve and remain relevant. Beyond design, developer tools like Swift, Xcode, and ML tools have all received timely and significant updates, fostering developer loyalty.

My overall sentiment is: “It’s cool, but not practical!” Let’s elaborate on why.

From an average user’s perspective for each platform:

1. macOS is primarily for professional use. Distractions are unwelcome, and visual noise can hinder focus on daily tasks.
2. iPad is predominantly used for video streaming services (let’s be honest!). For this purpose, the design is less critical. As long as it’s not laggy or noisy, it works. Multitasking features are rarely used.
3. On the iPhone, the Liquid Glass design truly shines, but at the cost of eye strain.

Cheers!

Your VR.