Some apps like Slack, Grok, Instagram etc. applied new horrible looking iOS 26 icons to my iOS 18. It's clearly not ok - I didn't upgrade the system and still getting icons replaced with certain app updates. Is there a way to force iOS 18 to use icons designed for it instead of icons for the next system version? It's looking inconsistent therefore ugly.
iPhone 15 Pro
No, you did't get iOS 26 looking anything on iOS 18. Every app you refer to is a 3rd party app, not owned by Apple. If the app icons changed, the app developers of these apps changed them. Apple can't change apps not owned by them at all. But chances are they changed their app icons to work better with iOS 26 and you might see that if or when you update to iOS 26.
No, you did't get iOS 26 looking anything on iOS 18. Every app you refer to is a 3rd party app, not owned by Apple. If the app icons changed, the app developers of these apps changed them. Apple can't change apps not owned by them at all. But chances are they changed their app icons to work better with iOS 26 and you might see that if or when you update to iOS 26.
indywidualny wrote:
I know those are 3rd party apps. But why changing icons for iOS 18 - they should do it for iOS 26 only. This is certainly not intended unless Apple didn't provide any way to support existing icons properly so every developer is enforced to upload ios26 icons only even for older systems. That's a design mistake then - system looks inconsistent now. I'm considering it an apple issue then.
It's not an Apple issue. The developers changed their icons to match the latest version of iOS. They don't have two version of the app, one for iOS 18 and one for iOS 26. It's the same app with the same icon. Some developers do include in their apps the ability to change the icon. You should contact the developers of those apps and express your displeasure.
Ok, fine. It's disappointing then there's no feature to target the icon to the right system then. Thx.
Even Apple themselves are struggling with it.
Im pretty sure it has to do with Xcode 26 since it generates a Liquid Glass icon for all iOS versions the app is released on. From what I heard there’s an option that disables it and use the existing regular icon, but it’s a hidden option that’s undocumented, so I guess no one single devs noticing it
This whole thing is a mess, I think Apple should try get it patched with updating Xcode and how iOS handles icons even for older versions, these are crazy inconsistent and I wonder if it’s intentional to make iOS 26 appealing
I know those are 3rd party apps. But why changing icons for iOS 18 - they should do it for iOS 26 only. This is certainly not intended unless Apple didn't provide any way to support existing icons properly so every developer is enforced to upload ios26 icons only even for older systems. That's a design mistake then - system looks inconsistent now. I'm considering it an apple issue then.
Kurtosis12 wrote:
I'm considering it an apple issue then.
Why is it that the less people know about technology, the more they will argue they are right?
It's the age old and will likely never change "something changed, so it has to be Apple's fault." If I've learned anything from my years on this forum, some people cannot handle change at all.
I'm considering it an apple issue then.
Why is it that the less people know about technology, the more they will argue they are right?
Agreed
Take it up with the app developers if you're unhappy about it.
That's not under Apple's control.
iOS 26 icons started to appear in iOS 18
