- StatCounter says iOS 26 traffic is being miscounted as iOS 18.6/18.7 in Safari, skewing version-share charts
- Apple’s Safari team has “frozen” the OS version in its browser ID string, a technical change that can trip analytics
- Users remain split on iOS 26’s Liquid Glass look, with complaints ranging from readability to menus and battery life
Web analytics firm StatCounter on Thursday posted a notice saying Apple devices on iOS 26 are being logged as older iOS 18 releases in Safari, a glitch that has clouded widely shared claims of unusually slow adoption. “Apple are incorrectly declaring iOS 26 as 18.7 and 18.6 in their safari browser on iOS. We’re working on a fix for this,” the firm said on its iOS version market share page. (Statcounter)
Why it matters is simple: iOS uptake is one of the few public signals of how quickly iPhone owners move onto new software. A real slowdown can keep more devices on older versions, forcing app developers to support more combinations and stretching security patch coverage.
The debate has landed in a sensitive spot for Apple, which has pitched iOS 26 as a visual reset for the iPhone. In a September release post, Apple said a new translucent material called Liquid Glass “reflects and refracts its surroundings” across controls, icons and navigation. (Apple)
The measurement problem is tied to the “user agent” string — a short line of text the browser sends to websites to identify itself. In Safari 26.0 notes, Apple’s WebKit team said “the user agent string no longer lists the current version of the operating system,” and showed examples where Safari 26.0 still reports an iPhone OS 18_6 token. (Webkit)
Other trackers point to much higher iOS 26 usage than the low double-digit figures that ricocheted online earlier this month. TelemetryDeck, which publishes an opt-in sample from apps using its analytics tools, said iOS 26’s share “has risen to 54.87%” at the end of December, noting its chart also rolls iPadOS into the iOS total and collapses overlapping version identifiers. (Telemetrydeck)
That has not stopped criticism of iOS 26 itself, especially the Liquid Glass look and feel. Macworld columnist David Price called iOS 26 a “failure” and warned: “Release bad software often enough and even the most loyal users will lose patience.” (Macworld)
A Tom’s Guide opinion piece published on Jan. 15 cited StatCounter data claiming iOS 26 sat at 15.4% of iPhone users in January, and tied holdouts to design and usability complaints. Writer Josh Render said, “Liquid Glass makes my iPhone screen harder to read,” pointing to see-through elements, blur effects, and disputes over icon tinting, plus frustration with menus and battery drain. (Tomsguide)
Ars Technica, in a Jan. 15 report, framed the question of whether iPhone owners are avoiding iOS 26 as “complicated,” arguing that the adoption picture can shift sharply depending on what is being measured and how. (Arstechnica)
Elsewhere, Mashable said the “adoption numbers are wrong” due to a bug it said Apple has not fixed, while a Forbes column urged users weighing the update to move sooner rather than later. (Mashable Forbes)
But even if StatCounter’s fix lifts iOS 26’s apparent share, the argument is unlikely to go away. Different data sets sample different slices of iPhone owners — and if users really are hesitating because of Liquid Glass or day-to-day glitches, Apple may face a longer tail of older iOS versions than it is used to, even as Android rivals keep pushing updates and AI features of their own.
