This new iPhone update is trying to kill me
On iOS 26-induced alienation and existential despair.
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Liquid glass? More like liquid ASS!!! —Kate
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Over the summer, I wrote about Apple’s “liquid glass” announcement. This new iOS 26 software design promised to move us away from tabs and into transparent layers, introducing a unified design across products that, I wrote, “suggests we are indeed on that precipice of an entirely new way of interacting with technology.” And then I forgot about it.
You can wake up one morning and find your entire life has changed in an instant (my iPhone finally updated to iOS 26 overnight and now I am in hell): “Bienvenue!” my home screen taunted me as I scrolled through the introductory welcome that greets users following an update. Already, things were looking nuts. My first thought, as it often is, was about Sabrina the Teenage Witch—specifically the season four opening credits, which I wouldn’t be surprised to hear were the direct inspiration for this latest design.
Everything familiar on my screen had been made unrecognizable by transparent bubbles. I needed to figure out how to access my messages so I could send out a warning to my friends. But once I did, it was too late.
