iOS 26 launch live: all the new features plus reaction to the polarizing Liquid Glass redesign

Will Liquid Glass need some polish?

iOS 26 is only at an early developer beta stage, so there are naturally many rough edges. But some commentators, like the YouTube MKBHD (above), are also pointing out some potential issues that are evident even in Apple's official photos for the OS update.

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

There's plenty of time for Apple to make tweaks to the transparency around some menus, but that could also dilute the new experience it was so keen to provide in iOS 26. I'm looking forward to trying out the beta soon and seeing how Apple refines it ahead of the public beta next month.

Backlashes do (sometimes) work

Apple made the rare admission that it got something wrong at WWDC 2025, by bringing back a feature 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 using tabs in the Photos app", so it was bringing them back in the form of Library and Collections (above).

The former is for finding more recent snaps, while the latter is home to your albums, favorites and more. That certainly wasn't the only criticism of the new Photos app in iOS 18, but it'll be a welcome change for many.

The 'all-clear look' isn't for me

While I do like many aspects of Liquid Glass on iOS 26, one option that has baffled me a bit is the "all-clear look" above.

At WWDC 2025, Apple talked about app icons are now made from Liquid Glass (the difference looks minor to me) and can adapt to different modes like Dark Mode. But one of the new options is the "all-clear look" above, which I'm not fully convinced by.

As some have noted, it looks a bit like you've used a budget third-party app launcher and makes it tricky to tell the apps apart at a glance. I liked the new ability to hide app names in IOS 18 last year, but this one just feels a bit gimmicky.

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How to try the iOS 26 developer beta

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

Naturally, this is aimed at developers, so we wouldn't exactly recommend it. But it is also possible to enroll and try it as an 'individual'. A word of warning though: early developer betas have lots of issues and this one has been described as "the buggiest beta 1 in 12 years".

If you're prepared to take the risk, though, then just follow our guide on how to download the iOS 26 developer beta. And maybe try it on an older phone rather than your daily carry – it works on all models from the iPhone 11 onwards.

A welcome CarPlay refresh

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It's good to see that Apple isn't abandoning its standard CarPlay experience, despite the arrival of CarPlay Ultra.

Thanks to iOS 26, CarPlay is getting four welcome upgrades – and TechRadar's EVs correspondent Leon Poultney has rounded up all of the new CarPlay tricks, including a handy new compact view that gives you pop-up overlays for incoming calls.

It doesn't look quite as fancy as iOS 26, but all of the features should make CarPlay less distracting – which is ultimately the main aim of in-car infotainment design.

• Read more: Apple CarPlay just got 4 big free upgrades with iOS 26 – here's what you need to know

The case against Liquid Glass

The early reactions to Liquid Glass certainly haven't all been positive. Several videos have popped up online showing how translucent widgets and menu overlays can start to look a bit messy and confusing on busy backgrounds.

While some of this can no doubt be put down to iOS 26 being a very early developer beta, former co-founder of The Verge Joshua Topolsky(above) noted that there are some legibility issues even in Apple's own slides that show the design material in action.

He's certainly not alone in seeing the potential for distraction in the transparent effects, with designer Andreas Storm (below) describing it as "very restless".

We'll be drawing our own conclusions from our hands-on soon, but it's fair to say that Liquid Glass hasn't drawn universal praise – with some deriding it as the spiritual successor to Aero from Windows 7, and others like TechRadar contributor Alex Blake concluding that that's actually a good thing.

The case for Liquid Glass

If you want to go deep on Liquid Glass, then it's worth watching Apple's developer talk on the concept– it delves into the minutiae of how it should work, in theory at least.

When you see it in this context, it does look very pretty – and a lot of its early observers are big fans. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, for example, noted that "this redesign is unbelievably cool", while early beta testers on X like @Sondesix(below) have noted the "satisfying" animations and visual effects.

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

Finally, a simpler Camera app

I've been waiting for Apple to streamline and tidy up its Camera app for years, and it's finally done it in iOS 26.

Rather than a confusing list of photo modes and settings at the base of the app, Apple is stripping it down to two: Video and Photo. You can then just swipe to see the relevant ones in each mode, like Cinematic and Slo-Mo for video.

The confusing row of icons for settings like Photographic Styles and Aspect Ratios has also been improved, with a new Liquid Glass (of course) pane below appearing when you swipe up. Having descriptions for each should make it far easier to use, too.

My only qualm is the lack of a Pro photo mode, but I guess Apple didn't want to kill third-party apps like Halide when it's given them so much praise.

The small-but-useful iOS 26 upgrades

We've already rounded up the headline features of iOS 26 – for a recap on those, check out our guide to the 5 biggest ones. But outside the redesign, new Phone app and some Apple Intelligence upgrades, there are also some smaller quality-of-life improvements.

Our roundup of the best unheralded iOS 26 features highlights the battery boosts, message filtering, new sleep-improving background sounds and improved flight features that are all coming to iPhones.

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

What is Liquid Glass?

Before I dive into the reaction to Liquid Glass, what is it? Rather than being specific to iOS 26, Liquid Glass is a digital, translucent material that Apple says "reflects and refracts its surroundings, while dynamically transforming to help bring greater focus to content".

In other words, it's a pretty design language that should make iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS Tahoe 26, watchOS 26 and tvOS 26 all feel fresher, more cohesive and (hopefully) more intuitive. That's the theory, at least.

The name comes from the idea that it combines the optical qualities of glass (for example, magnifying some elements when you hover over them) with fluidity that sees menus morph and change like a T-1000. Sometimes, that looks great, but at others (at least from the early examples we've seen), it can also look a little muddled on certain background.

Welcome to our iOS 26 liveblog

Hello, Mark Wilson here (Managing Editor, News) and I'll be taking you through all of the reaction and news from yesterday's announcement of iOS 26.

There's a lot to take in – a new 'Liquid Glass' material for the iPhone's UI, plus a ton of new features across apps like Camera, CarPlay, Apple Music and even the Phone app.

We've also got an exclusive chat with Apple about Liquid Glass coming later, plus some hands-on first impressions. So if you want to know how your iPhone's going to change in the near feature, stay tuned.