Is there an iOS 26 backlash? Not so fast.
If you're unhappy with iOS 26 and Liquid Glass on your iPhone, you're certainly not alone. It's a controversial upgrade, with many design-conscious users expressing distaste for the new Liquid Glass look (its designer left Apple in a hurry), not to mention the strange new placement of check marks. Others have reported that it drains their battery faster than the previous update, which was confusingly called iOS 18 (Apple has switched to a year-based numbering system).
But does that mean users are refusing to upgrade in large numbers? Despite some reports to the contrary, there's actually a bug in the reporting system, and it's Apple's fault.
An iOS 26 boycott would certainly seem to be what's happening if you take a look at the adoption numbers. The normally reliable Statcounter estimates that fewer than 5 percent of iPhone users are on the latest iOS version, 26.2, with another 10 percent rocking the iOS 26.1 upgrade.
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The vast majority are still on some version of iOS 18, Statcounter says, with around 4 percent of users living dangerously on iOS 16 or iOS 15. (As a rule, the older your OS, the more bad actors are able to take advantage of known cybersecurity flaws in the software.)
But here's the thing: there's a tiny bug in Safari, the Apple browser. First spotted by developer Nick Heer, this bug makes iPhones report that they're on iOS 18.7 — the most popular version of iOS 18 by far, at least, according to Statcounter. (UPDATE: Heer clarifies that it isn't a bug, exactly; for obscure techie reasons, as far as Apple is concerned, it's a feature.)
And if you're a Chrome user like me, you might be surprised to discover just how popular Safari is — more so than Chrome, at least when it comes to phones. The Apple browser shot past one billion users in 2022 and never looked back. Statcounter itself notes that 51 percent of all mobile browser users in the US, Android phone owners included, are on Safari.
In short, this is a case where two things may be true at once. There may, in fact, be an unusual amount of discontent among iOS 26 users (we've certainly seen a lot of Liquid Glass hate online), and people may be upgrading anyway. We'll have to wait for Apple to squash its Safari bug — in iOS 26.3, presumably — before we find out for sure.
Chris is a veteran tech, entertainment and culture journalist, author of 'How Star Wars Conquered the Universe,' and co-host of the Doctor Who podcast 'Pull to Open.' Hailing from the U.K., Chris got his start as a sub editor on national newspapers. He moved to the U.S. in 1996, and became senior news writer for Time.com a year later. In 2000, he was named San Francisco bureau chief for Time magazine. He has served as senior editor for Business 2.0, and West Coast editor for Fortune Small Business and Fast Company. Chris is a graduate of Merton College, Oxford and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He is also a long-time volunteer at 826 Valencia, the nationwide after-school program co-founded by author Dave Eggers. His book on the history of Star Wars is an international bestseller and has been translated into 11 languages.
