tech
Are people avoiding iOS 26 because of Liquid Glass? It’s complicated.
Liquid Glass is controversial, but adoption rates aren’t as low as they seem.
TL;DR
- Initial reports claimed drastically low adoption rates for iOS 26, with Statcounter data showing only 16.6% of devices running the new OS.
- This low rate was initially attributed to user aversion to the redesigned Liquid Glass user interface.
- However, an examination of internal traffic numbers suggests Statcounter is undercounting iOS 26 devices.
- A change in iOS 26 causes Safari to report its version as iOS 18.x to reduce fingerprinting, throwing off analytics like Statcounter's.
- Only third-party browsers like Chrome and Edge correctly report iOS 26 in their user agent strings.
- Internal data shows iOS 26 adoption is slower than iOS 18, with 45.3% of devices on iOS 26 in December 2025 compared to 75.9% on iOS 18 in December 2024.
- This slower adoption is not as severe as initially reported, but still a notable trend.
- Apple has stopped providing security patches for iOS 18 on devices capable of running iOS 26, making the upgrade necessary for security.
- Options like a 'tinted' Liquid Glass interface and opacity controls for the lock screen clock were added in iOS 26.1 and 26.2 to address legibility concerns.