iOS 26 seems to be more than a bit of a disaster upon initial rollout

[britechguy]

I post this not to gloat (as I really don't like to see any major rollout be FUBAR) but all indications are that iOS 26 is way more than a little bit problematic in multiple respects. There seem to be multiple issues for those using accessibility features, and VoiceOver in particular, but it's in no way limited to that user demographic.

You might want to warn anyone asking about upgrading to iOS 26 to hold off for a few weeks until these kinks are worked out, as they always are.

 

[timeshifter]

There’s a lot of big UI changes in 26. One important client wanted a new phone about a month ago and I told her to wait for the 17 to come out. Then a day later I realized that a 17 is going to be locked to 26, and she hates any minor OS changes so I know she’d be beyond frustrated with 26. We got her a 16.

 

[britechguy]

@timeshifter

Good additional information to have with regard to the iPhone 17 being locked to iOS 26 (and probably later, once later arrives).

My main purpose for posting is that many people who have done an upgrade from earlier iOS versions on their existing devices to iOS 26 are not experiencing just the normal "growing pains" of UI changes, but significant breakages in functionality that they depend upon.

This is definitely one of those times where what amounts to a not-adequately-tested late beta is being rolled out far too rapidly, and with predictable results. This doesn't happen very often these days, because most companies will pause a rollout as soon as significant issues are identified (and usually via telemetry and log analysis), but sometimes the pause comes too late, and this is one of those times (if a pause has actually been put in place, and I do not know that it has).