iOS 26 Released with ‘Liquid Glass’ Design, Sparks User Debate
Apple’s iOS 26 launched today, October 12, 2025, introducing a significant visual overhaul dubbed “Liquid Glass” and immediately prompting a wave of reactions from users.
The update features elastic animations and semi-translucent app designs, alongside a revised dark mode aesthetic, but the changes haven’t been universally welcomed. Many users have reported difficulties toggling dark mode on and off, while others have expressed concerns about text readability and screen clutter. Despite the initial backlash, the update offers expanded customization options for home screens and group chats.
A particularly contentious change is the relocation of the device’s search bar to the bottom of the screen, a departure from its traditional top-of-screen placement. This shift has proven disorienting for long-time Apple users relying on established muscle memory. While users can adjust Safari’s search bar location to the top within Safari settings – accessible through Settings > Safari > Search Bar – the system-wide search bar remains fixed at the bottom. Learn how to customize your Safari search bar.
Apple’s robust accessibility settings allow users to adjust transparency and movement to mitigate some of the visual changes, but a fix for the search bar location has not yet been provided. This update arrives as Apple continues to compete in the increasingly crowded smartphone market, where user experience is a key differentiator. For more information on Apple’s accessibility features, visit Apple’s Accessibility website.
Apple has not yet commented on the user feedback regarding the search bar placement, but is expected to address concerns in a future software update.
Apple’s iOS 26 is here, complete with a new and divisive Liquid Glass design. Users — as usually happens when Apple drops a major visual overhaul — have a lot of thoughts.
Mixed opinions flooded the internet on Liquid Glasses’ new elastic animations and semi-translucent app designs, as well as the new dark mode look (which many also struggled to toggle on and off). Some have complained about the readability of text or feeling like screens look overcrowded, while others have leaned fully into new customization options for home screens and group chats.
Almost immediately, users took issue with a new UX choice that made using Apple’s line of products (which many of us have been doing for decades now) less than intuitive: the new location of the device’s search bar, which is now squarely at the bottom of the screen instead of the more intuitive top design. Muscle memory be damned.
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You can customize a lot on iOS 26. Users have also come up with quick fixes for some of its other quirks — including taking advantage of Apple’s robust accessibility settings to adjust the transparency and movement of apps and unlocking home screens. Unfortunately, the search bar isn’t one of them.
Users can choose the location of the address bar in their Safari settings or completely turn off the iPhone’s home screen Spotlight Search if they can’t bear to look at the iPhone’s lower third. But for now, that search bar is stuck on the bottom everywhere else.
How to move the Safari search bar in iOS 26
Step 2:
Scroll (or search) for Safari
Step 4:
Select “Top”
You should see three options for Safari’s search bar: Compact (a smaller, centered search bar), Bottom, and Top (the traditional location).
