iOS 18 vs. iOS 26: How A lot Does Liquid Glass Change the Look of Your iPhone?

With new iPhones being introduced tomorrow, individuals who did not choose to put in the iOS 26 beta are in all probability curious to see simply how totally different it’s in comparison with what’s at present on their iPhone proper now. iOS 18 introduced a great deal of new options to the desk, and so does iOS 26, however Apple’s new design language, Liquid Glass, will take heart stage, making it really feel like an enormous overhaul. 

However, beneath all of it, Liquid Glass would not reinvent the wheel, and that is a very good factor. Several facets of the consumer interface have noticeably modified, however not in ways in which would forestall somebody who simply up to date to iOS 26 or picked up a brand new iPhone 17 would really feel misplaced when navigating their cellphone. 

If you wish to see simply how totally different Liquid Glass is in comparison with iOS 18, I’ve highlighted just a few notable modifications you possibly can count on to see when iOS 26 rolls out. And do not forget to take a look at our iPhone 17 rumor roundup whilst you’re at it. 

Home display screen

Looking on the house screens, the first distinction you will discover is that in iOS 26, the dock background and the search possibility that sits between the dock and the house display screen icons are extra clear and have a sheen to the perimeters, whereas in iOS 18, these are barely darker. 

Other smaller modifications are that the icons on iOS 26 look barely bigger, and a few app icons appear to have been extra influenced by the redesign than others, most notably (from the screenshots) Settings, Camera and Mail. 

For Liquid Glass to essentially shine on the house display screen, you will wish to go for the “All Clear” mode, which is able to create essentially the most dramatic change to your icons and widgets. Going this route might doubtlessly introduce some viewability points, however the “reduce transparency” setting treatments this fairly effectively.

Control Center

Things listed below are largely unchanged. Outside of the brand new glassy look in iOS 26, the 1×2 and 2×1 controls are extra rounded than these of iOS 18. 

Lock display screen

It’s straightforward to see the variations that Liquid Glass brings to the iPhone lock display screen. The digital clock in iOS 26 dynamically resizes relying on the wallpaper and the variety of notifications you’ve at any given second, which is fairly cool. The clock itself on iOS 18 may be modified, but it surely will not change in dimension in response to content material displayed on the lock display screen. 

The background on notifications is clearly totally different between the 2 OS variations, with iOS 18 offering extra opacity and black textual content versus iOS 26’s near-transparent background on white textual content. The controls on the backside in iOS 26 additionally seem extra like bodily buttons with depth and extra of a see-through background. 

The new unlock impact in iOS 26 is that the movement of unlocking your iPhone will seem as if you are lifting a sheet of glass, highlighted by a shiny edge to offer it type once you start to slip your finger up. 

Menus and dynamic tab bars

A brand new addition in iOS 26 is the introduction of dynamic tab bars in apps that may change relying on whether or not you are scrolling or making an attempt to carry out a particular motion. Apple says this can create a extra intuitive expertise whereas liberating up area in your content material. If you have been to switch the glass impact with closely saturated colours, nobody would blame you for mistaking this new tab bar with what Google’s doing in Android 16 in a few of its apps — they give the impression of being so much alike. But in comparison with iOS 18, this new dynamic tab bar mustn’t solely cut back sifting by means of a number of menus, but it surely seems to be fairly good within the course of. 

iOS 26 will dynamically adapt to gentle and darkish backgrounds

While it is more durable to match Liquid Glass to iOS 18 right here, an upcoming function is that buttons and menus will adapt relying on the content material’s background shade. For occasion, once you’re scrolling by means of an app with a light-weight background, the floating menu choices will seem with black textual content for simpler viewing and can robotically change to white upon scrolling to a darkish background.

iOS has had such a function present up in a much less dramatic vogue earlier than, as you possibly can inform from the photographs app screenshots above. Comparing these to what’s on the horizon, it is arduous to not get excited in regards to the small tweaks Liquid Glass has in retailer, too. 

Those are just some of our preliminary findings, and we’ll probably add extra as soon as we floor them. If you need extra about iOS 26, take a look at three upcoming options which are a much bigger deal than Liquid Glass.

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