Bizarre iOS 26 optical illusion leaves iPhone users feeling ‘drunk’,
iOS 26, Apple’s hotly-anticipated new update for iPhones, was finally made widely available last week.
Released to coincide with the new iPhone 17, iOS 26 includes a slick new visual redesign called ‘Liquid Glass’.
The ‘delightful and elegant’ new software design brings translucent, glass-like effects to app icons, the lock screen and the home screen, Apple claims.
However, Liquid Glass seems to be having an unintended side effect.
Users are complaining that the visual redesign is making them ‘feel drunk’ because the app icons appear slightly slanted.
On Reddit, one user said: ‘I hadn’t noticed it at the first glance, but now I can’t unsee the tilted app icons.’
Another posted: ‘this update is making me feel drunk.’
While a third said: ‘All of iOS 26 is an optical nightmare. It’s horrible.’
In actual fact, the app icons in iOS 26 are not physically tilted, but an unintended optical illusion makes them appear so.
The illusion is being caused by subtle glowing effects added by Apple designers to the top left and lower right corners of the icons.
However, it’s not thought engineers intended for the effect, which gives the impression the icons are hanging slightly skewed in a 3D space.
As one Reddit user put it, the ‘really weird’ design flaw makes it look like the ‘crooked’ icons are ‘falling over’.
Another user said: ‘Wow, no I can’t unsee it. The clock icon is moving and falling over at the same time. My eyes hurt.’
Yet another added: ‘The app icons look fine but the outlines are ruining everything imo.’
The tilting effect is most pronounced when icons are set to ‘Dark’, ‘Clear’ or ‘Tinted’ modes against dark or black backgrounds, MacRumors reports.
So one way to reduce the effect is using colourful wallpapers, which help draw the eye’s gaze away from the corners.
Alternatively, users can go to their iPhone’s Settings and heading to ‘Accessibility’ followed by ‘Motion’ and then ‘Reduce Motion’ at the top.
‘Reduce Motion’ lessens the motion of the user interface, including the ‘parallax’ effect of icons – the perceived shift of a object even when it’s stationary.
One Reddit user advised others: ‘Turn off the parallax effect of apps and it goes away.’
However, one person replied: ‘It doesn’t go away. You still have that ugly white outline around icons, and apparently many app icons are being updated with new ugly, blurry images. Horrible.’
Apple has been contacted by the Daily Mail for comment.
The tech giant’s new iOS update, revealed back in June, is optimized for its new iPhone 17 range, although the update does work with older iPhone models as well.
iOS 26 introduces custom chat backgrounds in the Messages app, a new Games app, and a tool called Live Translation which translates calls in real time.
But surely the biggest change with iOS 26 is the Liquid Glass redesign, which ‘makes apps and system experiences more expressive and delightful’, according to Apple.
It brings ‘greater focus to content and deliver a new level of vitality across controls, navigation, app icons, widgets, and more’, the tech giant said.
However, Liquid Glass has not been met with enthusiasm by all of Apple’s dedicated fans, with one calling it ‘the ugliest thing Apple has ever done’.
Another person said on social media that Apple co-founder Steve Jobs ‘would’ve fired everyone at Apple’ for coming up with Liquid Glass.
Liquid Glass isn’t the only iOS 26 features fans are struggling with – with many also reporting battery drain following the software update.
Some users are also not happy with the new iPhone 17, which according to users has an aluminium frame particularly prone to scratching.
iPhone 17 starts at £799/$799 and gets to £1,199/$1,199 for the ‘Pro Max’ version, although this figure reaches even higher if you want more device storage.
