Apple unveiled a number of improvements coming in iOS 26, including a new Water Glass layout that will be compatible with all of its operating systems next week. Liquid Glass, an invention from VisionOS for the Vision Pro helmet, adds luster to various elements of the user interface, bright glass-like edges on icons, and improved responsiveness. &nbsp,

Although the interface is modern, the update from iOS 18 isn’t as serious as it might first appear. ( An Apple is left out of 19 and the other relevant numbers. ) With iOS 26’s another, less common characteristics hidden beneath, consider it a touch-up rather than reconstructive procedure.

The house screen’s Water Glass requires a small change, which is a great thing. However, the new OS and style is only the first designer alpha, and Apple will definitely make adjustments from there until its final release.

We’ll examine both iphone 26 and apps 18 more closely to see what’s unique between the two. Here’s why you might want to hold off on installing the iphone 26 designer beta for more information.

Home camera

The main difference between iOS 26 and apps 18 is that the search option that appears between the port and the home screen icons is more open and has a sheen to the edges, whereas iOS 18’s are significantly darker. &nbsp,

Other minor changes include the slightly larger icons on iOS 26, and some app icons that appear to be more affected by the redesign than others, most notably Settings, Camera, and Mail ( from the screenshots ). &nbsp,

You’ll want to choose the” All Obvious” style, which will make the most dramatic changes to your graphics and plugins, for Liquid Glass to truly shine on the house camera. The “reduce accountability” setting makes some of these things work out quite well, but going down this route might lead to some issues with visibility.

Control Center

Points are essentially unchanged below. The 1×2 and 2×1 settings are more balanced than those of iOS 18 besides the new crystal appearance of iOS 26. &nbsp,

Lock display

The differences between Wet Glass and the iPhone’s lock display are obvious. The modern clock in iOS 26 automatically resizes in response to the wall and number of notifications you have at any given time, which is quite amazing. On iOS 18, the clock itself can be changed, but it didn’t change in size in response to content displayed on the switch screen. &nbsp,

The history on notifications is obviously different between the two operating systems, with iOS 18 offering more opacity and a dark text while apps 26 has a nearly transparent background on light text. In iOS 26, the controls have a level that is higher than the see-through background of a real button. &nbsp,

The new acquire feature of iOS 26 is that when you start sliding your thumb up, the motion of the opening process may seem as though you’re lifting a sheet of glass, highlighted by a beautiful edge. &nbsp,

Powerful page bars and menus

The introduction of energetic tab pubs in apps that may change depending on whether you’re scrolling or trying to perform a particular action is a new addition to iOS 26. According to Apple, this will make your content more accessible and also allowing you to store more space. No one would chastise you for misinterpreting this new page table with what Google’s doing in Android 16 in some of its applications because it looks a lot like if you were replacing the glass influence with strongly saturated colors. However, this new dynamic page bar in iOS 18 may make it less difficult to sift through numerous menus and look pretty good as a result. &nbsp,

iphone 26 can automatically adjust to both bright and dark backgrounds.

Although it’s more difficult to compare Liquid Glass to iphone 18 below, a new feature is the ability to change the video’s background color. But buttons and menus can also change. For example, when you scroll through an application with a light history, the floating selection options will show up with black text for easier viewing and will instantly turn pale when you scroll to a black background.

As you can tell from the pictures of the iOS app above, this kind of function has previously been shown in a less dramatic way. It’s difficult not to get excited about the minor adjustments Liquid Glass will make when compared to what’s on the ocean. &nbsp,

Those are just a few of our first studies, and we’ll probably add more as we come across them in our next article. Test out three approaching features that are more significant than Liquid Glass if you want to learn more about iphone 26.