What is the difference between ios 18.6 and ios 26

This article explains the differences very nicely. Hope it helps.

https://www.macworld.com/article/2808143/ios-26-vs-18-whats-different-whats-new-update.html

kakuna_ wrote:

i dont know if its too late but NO, DONT DO IT

too late for several hundred million happy users, and any stragglers will find it increasingly difficult to avoid it.

The decision to upgrade is yours.

MANY are running it worldwide w/o issue.

There IS a “normal” learning curve as there is with any major OS upgrade.

Keep in-mind that any major OS upgrade also incurs risks of “growing-pain” problems w/ 3rd party apps.

If you have apps which are critical to you, recommend ensuring that those apps are “26-ready” before upgrading.

Also note that iOS 18.7.1 is now “current” …

… if you choose to delay moving to iOS 26 for now, you should definitely be on 18.7.1

Although I will try to remain objective and fair, my experience of iOS 26 is making me incensed. Without being too dramatic, I am absolutely and totally [insert expletive] off.

I have an iPhone 13. Obviously not the latest iPhone, but certainly not a relic either. Perfectly functional. Suits my needs.

Importantly, iOS 18.7.1 was working perfectly. I had no need to upgrade, except for one factor => it seems that Apple decided to make iOS 26 a prerequisite for upgrading the WatchOS on my Watch Ultra. A message along the lines of "To use the Watch App you must upgrade to iOS 26" was displayed several times when I tried to initiate the process. It's 'never' a good idea to force customers along a path that don't wish to take, but if you do you'd better make sure that the experience is positive.

In my experience, apart from the Watch App now working fully, there is nothing (absolutely nothing), about iOS 26 which I would describe as a positive experience.

My phone is now noticeably slow and battery life is much reduced. As 26 was installed several days ago I'd be surprised if these problems are related to indexing, which has been reported as only lasting a handful of days.

Frequently I can literally see each screen being 'built' in front of my eyes : swipe to a different screen => icon borders appear but are blank => then icons are 'filled in' => icons appear as a 'ripple effect' across the screen as they are populated onto each screen. Opening a native App, i.e. Phone, elements of the UI and content are constructed in a very noticeable way. Yes, this only takes a moment, but users should never see real-time visual processing like this. It's shockingly bad.

When viewing all open Apps (the carousel effect) swipe up rotates Apps to the right rather than returning me to the background screen (it seems that swipe up has been omitted).

Phone calls can take 20-40 seconds to initiate, whereas they used to be pretty much instantaneous.

Swiping left-right/right-left between screens results in a stuttering/juddering transition rather than the smooth visual effect that we are all used to seeing.

To use an analogy it seems that iOS 26 has been developed using an entirely different code, and is relying on outdated middleware to translate it into a format that an Apple processor can understand. Or perhaps an A15 chip simply doesn't have the processing power for 26.

iOS 26 is, without any exaggeration, the worst iOS that I've ever used. It really is that bad. The Liquid Glass UI looks, to my eyes, appalling. Totally unnecessary, and certainly not a justification for the problems that users are now experiencing.

Of course, Apple does not have a rollback option, which means that I'm stuck with 26.

Or could it be that it's a deliberate means of forcing a hardware upgrade/purchase through software-derived hardware obsolescence ?

In its current state I wouldn't recommend 26 to anyone. According to Apple Support, it is receiving a lot of feedback relating to iOS 26.

Make your decision very carefully...

I expect this post will be deleted.

YanW wrote:

1. An update to my previous reply.

iOS 26 has been so bad on my iPhone that I called Apple Support again yesterday.

Their guidance/instructions were :

Make sure I have a local backup (yes, on my Mac Studio)

2. Using a different Mac (in my case, my MBP Pro M3) restore the iPhone - this will ensure that a completely clean version of iOS 26 is installed

3. After iOS 26 has installed, unmount and disconnect the iPhone from the MBP and restore the phone from the local backup on the Studio

This process failed.

My MBP is now displaying the message "The iPhone "iPhone": could not be updated. An unknown error has occurred (75). 067E.004B"

I called Support - they instructed that I perform a hardware reset (+ volume, - volume, press/hold power), and then re-run the Restore process to install iOS 26 again.

This process failed and the same error message is displayed again.

My phone is completely unable to be used - in effect it's been bricked.

Support is now stating that my phone has to be sent in for repair. Support has stated that the phone is, as of now, completely unusable.

Support is now advising that I either have to go to an Apple Store or to send the phone via postal mail for a repair.

EXACTLY the same thing happened when I bought an iPhone 14 for my mother about a month ago. Bought an iPhone 14 directly from Apple; followed the setup instructions to update the phone using my Mac; the update failed; called Support; Support advised that the phone was no longer able to be used and had to be returned; the phone was replaced with a new like-for-like handset.

It seems to me that there are fundamental problems with iOS 26. It's bricking phones. Simple as that.

The only recommendation I can make is to avoid iOS 26 for as long as possible.

I'm sorry your experience hasn't been great. But to advise everyone to avoid updating to iOS 26 because you have experienced issues isn't good advice. There are millions upon millions upon millions of people roaming around with iOS 26, iPad OS 26, WatchOS 26, MacOS 26, with ZERO issues. I have updated every device in our home to the current 26.1 update and there have been NO issues at all. No one I know personally is having issues.

So again, I'm sorry you've had issues, but it's just not good advice to advise others to avoid using the new update because you have had issues.