Even if you hate Liquid Glass, you shouldn't skip updating to iOS 26 for the sake of your iPhone

At this point, almost no one has updated to iOS 26. The numbers vary some – StatCounter has estimates that show adoption rates of 16% of users, while TelemetryDeck shows that adoption rates are over the 50% range. However, the general consensus is that the upgrade rate is much slower than normal.

Opinions vary on why that is: Hatred for the Liquid Glass aesthetic, complaints about battery life, changes to the menus or just a general human reluctance about change.

Now, the Liquid Glass look is no doubt a giant issue for a lot of people, which is why when you type “iOS 26 Liquid Glass” into Google it autofills “turn off” for you and then provides a list of results with instructions on how to kill the feature. And I’m not going to argue with anyone that Liquid Glass is a win. Personally I have a dozen Cilian Murphy faced memes about how I feel about the interface.

But I will also point out that you can make adjustments to it (Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size > Reduce Transparency), and, that within a week or so I had largely adjusted to seeing it on my phone. Some people have had luck using the Tint tool to adjust or color the glass as well. To do that you can tap and hold your home screen background, then tap the Edit button in the top left corner.

Also, humans are more remarkably adaptable creatures and while it may be a temporary inconvenience to relearn where certain menus are, we used to have to punch the number buttons to spell out each letter of our text messages, so I’m pretty sure we can adjust to figuring out where commands have been hidden.

When it comes to the reported battery life concerns, after an update a device may take some time to perform tasks that require more memory and processing power. Once apps have been updated, files have been indexed and settings have been appropriately put in place, battery life should improve.

Upgrade for the patches, not the features

Nothing is more important than the 25 security patches that are included in iOS 26.2 though; particularly the two that fix zero-day flaws that are being actively exploited in the wild. This new update addresses a number of vulnerabilities, but the two that are most critical could allow attackers to achieve arbitrary code execution or even gain full control over your device.

These two zero-day flaws affect WebKit, the browser engine behind Safari. The flaws could allow malicious apps to gain root privileges which threat actors could then use to bypass sandboxes, read messages or logins and even hijack banking sessions. This is a big area to leave exposed, because it isn't limited to risky behavior – it covers all types actions you perform on a mobile device.

And the update isn't limited to these two flaws: iOS 26 has patches for 25 different bugs that affect everything from Messages to FaceTime, Photos and the App Store and more.

If you're running an earlier version of iOS you're missing out on critical security updates: 26.0.1 fixed a flaw in the FontParser framework that could have corrupted memory or crashed an app; while 26.1 resolved more than 51 security flaws that could be exploited by hackers.

There are some other additional benefits to iOS 26 as well. One of those is increased security for AirDrop where you can now use a one time code for transfers with people who are not in your contacts. Likewise, this code is only good for 10 minutes. This makes it easier to safely use AirDrop without sacrificing your security.

iOS 26 also resolves some bugs that affect Apple Music pre-release albums and incorrect Privacy and Security settings. It also includes more safety alerts, enhancements to podcasts, offline lyrics for Apple Music, reminder alarms, sleep score revisions and live translation for AirPods (EU).

While these fixes likely won't convince 40-90% of people to update their iPhone, the one reason that should – again, and again – are the security patches. Liquid Glass may not be great, but it's going to seem a lot better than having your phone hacked if worse comes to worst.

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