If you find yourself unhappy with iOS 26 and Liquid Glass on your iPhone, you are not the only one. It’s a debated upgrade, with numerous design-driven users expressing dissatisfaction with the new Liquid Glass look (its designer departed from Apple promptly), and the odd positioning of check marks. Some users have also noted a quicker battery depletion in comparison to the earlier update, which was perplexingly labeled iOS 18 (Apple has shifted to a year-based versioning scheme).

But does this indicate that users are largely shunning the update? Despite a few reports indicating otherwise, there is indeed a glitch in the reporting system, which is an error on Apple’s part.

A boycott of iOS 26 might appear probable when you observe the adoption figures. The typically dependable Statcounter estimates that less than 5 percent of iPhone users are operating on iOS 26.2, with an additional 10 percent utilizing iOS 26.1.

The majority still remains on some iteration of iOS 18, as per Statcounter, with about 4 percent of users on iOS 16 or iOS 15. (Generally, the older your operating system, the more susceptible it is to established cybersecurity vulnerabilities.)

Nevertheless, there is a minor bug in Safari, Apple’s web browser. First noted by developer Nick Heer, this bug leads iPhones to indicate they are on iOS 18.7 — the most widely used version of iOS 18, according to Statcounter.

And if you’re a Chrome user like I am, you might be astonished to discover Safari’s popularity — more so than Chrome, at least on mobile devices. The Apple browser exceeded one billion users in 2022 and continues to expand. Statcounter highlights that 51 percent of all mobile browser users in the US, including Android smartphone owners, utilize Safari.

In summary, two realities may coexist. There might be considerable discontent among iOS 26 users (we’ve encountered plenty of Liquid Glass criticism online), and individuals may still be making the switch. We’ll need to await Apple’s resolution of the Safari bug — likely in iOS 26.3 — to ascertain the truth.