(Watch|mac|iPad|i)OS 26: The Enpludgening

[CommanderJameson]

Every time I turn a rock over, a bug runs out.

So I like the new “unknown callers” feature. Anyone not in my contacts is silently ignored, and the call record goes into the “Unknown Callers” section. In this list, each entry has a “Mark as Known” button. Also in this list is every fuckin’ Teams call I’ve received, but whatever. I tapped “mark as known” on one Teams call, and all the other entries from that caller disappeared. Huzzah! That’s exactly correct. They’re in the recent calls list, with everything else.

But that was the last time that functionality worked. Now you tap “mark as known”, the button goes away, the list is otherwise unchanged. Clearly I’ve worn out the function, and now it needs extracting, rebuilding, re-greasing, and replacing.

In Music on macOS, if you open the miniplayer, you get a three-dot menu at the bottom left, next to the AirPlay icon. Sometimes this menu shows you things, like entries for “Show playing next”, and “Show Lyrics”. Sometimes it doesn’t. Hey ho. Life’s a mystery.

 

[ant1pathy]

When I close the window for Photos, it's now quitting the app in Tahoe. I don't think it was doing that in previous versions, but I could be wrong. Anyone else experiencing this behavior?

That's been the behavior for a while. I try and "Hide" it when I remember to, although the background sync seems to work reliably without the app being "open".

 

[kefkafloyd]

Again, I'm actually OK with most of the visual stuff, but it's crap like this that drives me insane. I don't want iCloud Drive on the top of the list! And network shares don't show up? Ugh.

edit: Network shares can be added, but my previously saved ones weren't brought over to Locations. I had to re-drag them over.

 

[Kerensky]

That's been the behavior for a while. I try and "Hide" it when I remember to, although the background sync seems to work reliably without the app being "open".

Ah, okay. Weird, but it wouldn't be the first time Apple hasn't followed their own guidelines. Thanks!

 

[CommanderJameson]

Again, I'm actually OK with most of the visual stuff, but it's crap like this that drives me insane. I don't want iCloud Drive on the top of the list! And network shares don't show up? Ugh.

edit: Network shares can be added, but my previously saved ones weren't brought over to Locations. I had to re-drag them over.

View attachment 118128

rofl react because the alternative is

 

[hanser]

This is where I am right now too. Pludged on iPhone 15 Pro and M4 MacBook Pro. Haven’t had time to use MacBook but from what I’ve experienced on the phone, I’m not really liking iOS 26 and am considering downgrading back to 18.

26 is a mess with too much visual clutter getting in the way. Everything feels so large and bulbous. Even Safari seems harder to use with more button clicks just to do simple things like switch tabs.

If you pull up from the bubble/address bar, it displays the other tabs. I had to google this last night too because the extra taps was driving me crazy.

 

[hanser]

This UI is definitely a choice

 

[Mhorydyn]

Everything feels so large and bulbous. Even Safari seems harder to use with more button clicks just to do simple things like switch tabs.

In addition to the gesture mentioned earlier, you can also choose from a few other bar styles for Safari in Settings. I use bookmarks quite regularly, so even the gesture doesn't help -- as such, I switched from 'compact' to 'bottom' and like it much more.

 

[Jonathon]

If you pull up from the bubble/address bar, it displays the other tabs. I had to google this last night too because the extra taps was driving me crazy.

Swiping up brings up the tab view, swiping left and right switches tabs, and swiping left again after you reach your rightmost tab creates a new one.

Bookmarks don't have a convenient gesture-- best shortcut I have there (aside from switching to the other address bar style) is to add your most frequent bookmarks to the start page (you can pick which bookmarks folder this is in settings, and you can add subfolders). That shows up when you tap the address bar, or create a new tab.

 

[Mhorydyn]

Impressions after less than a day: I like it (on average). I like the change to Photos, I love what they've done with the iPad, adding a clipboard manager to the Mac is fantastic, folder customization on the Mac is super nice, Preview on iOS is a welcome addition, etc, etc. Even ignoring the UI changes, there's a bunch of changes in here. Liquid Glass clearly needs more time in the oven, but I like the general direction. They went a bit overboard on all the flourishes and animations, but I bet by iOS 27, looking back on iOS 18 is going to feel super dated (if not sooner).

 

[Ouroborus]

In addition to the gesture mentioned earlier, you can also choose from a few other bar styles for Safari in Settings. I use bookmarks quite regularly, so even the gesture doesn't help -- as such, I switched from 'compact' to 'bottom' and like it much more.

View attachment 118138

Gracias! This doesn’t feel very discoverable but at least it solves a problem. Now I can just rant about all of the wasted space

 

[Ouroborus]

If you pull up from the bubble/address bar, it displays the other tabs. I had to google this last night too because the extra taps was driving me crazy.

Nice. It works, but feels like I can’t trust it. If I’m too far off the bubble it takes me to app switching mode or directly to close Safari and return to the Home Screen

 

[Mhorydyn]

Nice. It works, but feels like I can’t trust it. If I’m too far off the bubble it takes me to app switching mode or directly to close Safari and return to the Home Screen

That's my issue with it too. 'Swipe from bottom' is already overloaded enough without adding more gestures in that area.

 

[MrElbbiw]

Anyone with a user profile on an external drive pludged yet?

 

[ant1pathy]

You can tap&slide on the "..." button in Safari to access the functions. Going to take a few days to train myself to the muscle memory, but all tabs / new tabs / bookmarks are accessible without multiple taps.

And the "bookmarks" portion is customizable if you'd prefer to have Reading List surfaced higher in the stack.

 

[Chris FOM]

Favorite underrated change: getting rid of the permanent app bar at the bottom of the screen in iOS/iPadOS.

That's my issue with it too. 'Swipe from bottom' is already overloaded enough without adding more gestures in that area.

FWIW the whole tab UI works a lot better if you move the address bar back to the top of the screen.

 

[omniron]

seeing a major issue with VSCode. if the laptop goes to sleep the UI on vscode only glitches out-- have to restart. it's problematic if there's a terminal program running since it kills the program.

 

[dal20402]

I hadn't grasped it from screenshots, but after a few hours actually using my MBP with Tahoe it seems crystal-clear to me that the goal of all the curved edges and embiggening is to make targets easier to touch in preparation for touchscreen Macs. I didn't believe it would happen; now I do.

 

[Genome]

Well, there is a lot of (glass) polish needed. Messages really wants me to create a new contact poster and picture.

Parts of that UI hasn’t been translated from English. I mean…

 

[wrylachlan]

With the “magazine effect” from last year’s update, the time on my Lock Screen sits in front of the photo’s background, but behind the head of my kids which is slightly occluding it. So going by the logic of Liquid Glass, the time should lens what’s behind it. Right now the background of the photo is blue sky but it’s lensing the brown hair of my son whose head is in front of it!

Christ on a bike! If they can’t even get their own design ideas right on the Lock Screen, what on earth is happening in Cupertino?

 

[Unamuseumed]

I'm fine with Liquid Glass so far, but I did love the welcome visual matched with my background of an old iMac

 

[Jonathon]

I like the new Terminal theme (Clear Dark-- which is kind of weirdly named given that it's actually less transparent than the old Pro theme). Between the not-pure-black background and the new default ANSI colors, it's way more legible than any of the old dark themes:

(This has actually been tweaked a bit further for legibility: I turned Dynamic Foreground Colors on, which brightens up the text a bit further, and turned on "Use bright colors for bold text" as well. Even at the defaults, it's more legible than what Terminal.app did before, though-- no more fully-saturated ANSI blue.)

 

[Mhorydyn]

Oh ho, the menu bar customization on the Mac is nice!

 

[japtor]

Bookmarks don't have a convenient gesture-- best shortcut I have there (aside from switching to the other address bar style) is to add your most frequent bookmarks to the start page (you can pick which bookmarks folder this is in settings, and you can add subfolders). That shows up when you tap the address bar, or create a new tab.

I've had my bookmarks set up as favorites as long as I can remember...forgot there's other higher folder levels available. Works the same on the Mac, barring possible OS 26 changes/bugs.

 

[basic pleasure model]

Anyone pludge on a slightly more...mature...iPhone? Like, to take a totally random example, a 12?

 

[designmerc]

Pludged on my 16 Pro Max. Haven’t really deep dived on it but I tried tinted home screen icons; didn’t like it but maybe I just need to dial it in better. The new phone interface is weirding me out at the moment but I suppose I can adjust.

Only real issue I’ve come across is google voice now doesn’t appear to recognize I have my airpods in and goes right to playing through the speaker and I can’t find a way to fix it

 

[jacs]

AppleTV 4K 2nd Gen (I think?), OG HomePods, HomePod minis (only things I've upgraded to 26)

A few minor changes noticed

The 'new' AirPlay option for Audio output no longer allows you to set the volume on a device basis from the AppleTV. Only way to change volume is to go to each HomePod/device and do it there. Which if you have multiple HomePods in different rooms... not ideal.

Is the System-> Sleep change to System-> Power Off new? Or did I just miss it in previous versions?

Something fixed:

For the past few versions (since tvOS 14? or so) any non-Apple purchased media accessed thru my "iTunes Library" on my Mac "media server" (a 2018 macMini running Sonoma) the audio only played thru the paired HomePods my AppleTV had designated as default audio. Before that the sound played thru ALL selected HomePods.

Now the audio from my media server plays thru ALL selected AIrPlay devices again. (Mainly relevant when listening to music - all the music I DIDN'T purchase thru Apple )

Hopefully the next update doesn't break it again.

 

[analogika]

Anyone pludge on a slightly more...mature...iPhone? Like, to take a totally random example, a 12?

Liking it a lot on this 13 mini.

 

[sconan]

Liking it a lot on this 13 mini.

Working pretty well on my 12 mini too.

 

[Oddabe19]

Anyone pludge on a slightly more...mature...iPhone? Like, to take a totally random example, a 12?

Yes, my work phone is a 12 and did 26 this afternoon. No issues.

I had to turn off (dial down) transparency in accessibility, but I still can't read the lock screen clock very well. If anyone has a fix for that, I'd love to hear it.

 

[dal20402]

Yes, my work phone is a 12 and did 26 this afternoon. No issues.

I had to turn off (dial down) transparency in accessibility, but I still can't read the lock screen clock very well. If anyone has a fix for that, I'd love to hear it.

When you are in Customize mode for the lock screen (go to the lock screen and hold down a finger), you can click on the clock and then change the font from Glass to Solid. I've done this, along with making it the lightest possible weight.

 

[mark r]

Liking it a lot on this 13 mini.

Same here

 

[BlueSandbar]

Pludged on my 15 Pro Max and OG Watch Ultra.

No issues on my phone so far. Maybe I'm just a sucker for new and shiny but I like how liquid glass looks and am even messing around with the all translucent home screen. Haven't personally seen any changes that affect my daily usage yet. Feels mostly like a fresh coat of paint.

My Watch on the other hand feels...slow? The animation for when I hit the side button is surprisingly sluggish and looks bad. This is not ancient hardware so wondering if it's just me or if this is actually how it's gonna be now. Other than that it's fine I guess. I haven't spent much time in the new workout app yet and everything else basically feels the same.

 

[japtor]

Got my iPad mini updated first. Missing slide over as expected, but making use of the chaos of multi window on a small screen. Wish spaces were a thing so help group things better a bit, but in lieu of that been using Stage Manager as pseudo spaces...and been a bit confused/frustrated by it. Not so much the multitasking in general but the Stage Manager specificities, I'll screw around in the regular multi window mode to see how that works.

In any case for now I chose violence and made a messaging/social media overload space with Messages, Messenger, Instagram, Gmail, Mail, and Threads, organized in a sorta 2x 3up layout. Everything is like 4/5 height, 3 aligned along the top, 3 along the bottom. Guess I could just put them towards a side third like slipover...but why do that when I can see them all at once!

Oh and seen oddities of course. The different keyboards are...just weird. Got the old one, then new one? I guess a matter of new API usage or something, but weird considering it's never been like that before afaik. One amusing one was when I was editing the color shade on my Lock Screen, tapping a RGB value it popped up a little numpad only keyboard which was neat...then tapping the next RGB value it popped up the full keyboard. And when screwing around highlighting text in Safari earlier, the popup menu had a temporary drop shadow. Don't think it was a choppy animation thing , like it was there for a fraction of a second and just disappears. Not sure it's supposed to be there or not, but it seems like it'd help with menu visibility.

 

[CommanderJameson]

My Watch on the other hand feels...slow? The animation for when I hit the side button is surprisingly sluggish and looks bad. This is not ancient hardware so wondering if it's just me or if this is actually how it's gonna be now. Other than that it's fine I guess. I haven't spent much time in the new workout app yet and everything else basically feels the same.

It’s usually imprudent to judge the performance of a new Apple software release before 24 hours uptime has elapsed.

 

[dspariI]

Qt5 in MacPorts is broken right now so hold off if that's a dependency for you. The software I need is moving off of 5 to 6 next month since non-commercial official support for 5 ended a few months ago.

 

[deviantintegral]

I upgraded my iPad Air 5th generation. The windowing improvements seem like a clear upgrade. Liquid Glass is OK... but it's a total mess if you turn on "Reduce Transparency". For example, in dark mode you can't see the labels on text fields in Messages.

I'd hoped to test things out more on the iPad by using Universal Control to pass my keyboard and mouse to it, but it's very broken. It will connect for a few seconds and then drop. The usual disable / reboot / enable dance doesn't help. This may be because I've left the Mac on 15... I should upgrade to 15.7 and see if that fixes things.

 

[dmsilev]

Anyone tried in on an iPhone 11 (or Pro)? I'm wondering whether this will finally be the year to trade in. If the new OS is starting to get sluggish on something that old, it might be time. I certainly can't complain about the longevity; I've put in a replacement battery a few years ago, and that's the only maintenance/repair it's needed.

 

[ecotone]

Wow the animation on Solitaire+ (an Apple Arcade Game) is super janky on my iPad 10th gen.

 

[Schpyder]

Pludged on Monday on M4 Mini/16 ProMax/ATV 4Kg2/Watch S8, all of which were already on the RC builds. No significant problems so far, except...

I'd really like to update the firmware on my APP2s to try out some of their new features, but despite having spent 6+ hours in the case, plugged in, within literal inches of both the Mini and iPhone (both on wifi, and the Mini also hardwired), they steadfastly refuse to update. Just give us a fucking update firmware button already, Apple. There's no reason for this process to be so infuriatingly inscrutable.