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If Apple’s Liquid Glass experiment isn’t your favorite design choice, you're not alone.
According to StatCounter data, only a small percentage of iPhone users worldwide have made the jump to iOS 26, at just over 15%.
At roughly the same time in its release cycle in January 2025, 63% of iPhone users had made the jump to iOS 18. This means users are adopting iOS 26 about four times slower than its predecessor. As of January 2024, 54% of users had upgraded to iOS 17, Cult of Mac notes.
Apple doesn't release official OS installation figures, so these are just estimates from StatCounter, compiled using data from App Store apps. For worldwide mobile and tablet share, StatCounter has iOS 18.7 at 33.%, followed by iOS 18.6 at 25.17%, and iOS 26.1 at 10.55%. Another 4.68% are running iOS 26.2.
StatCounter doesn't break out people's reasons for not upgrading to iOS 26. It's supported on phones going back to the iPhone 11 and second-gen iPhone SE. However, the design, dubbed Liquid Glass, is a polarizing change. It adds a translucent, glass-like quality to the entire UI, impacting everything from the Home Screen icons to Apple Music and Safari. One poster on Reddit went as far as to call it an "embarrassment," although it received plenty of praise in Mac communities and from fellow designers.
You can’t turn off Liquid Glass entirely, but there are plenty of ways to adjust it, such as reducing your phone’s transparency, enabling Dark Mode, or customizing your Home Screen.
In November, Apple rolled out iOS 26.1, which brought the Clear and Tinted options from the home screen to the full OS. Clear is the original design, while Tinted is an opaque option that adds contrast to the design.
If you have a compatible iPhone and you’d like to buck the trend and upgrade to iOS 26, you can do so by going to Settings > General > Software Update.