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Comment by ano-ther | Hacker News Reader

Some of it (like hiding the Safari tab button in a menu) feels like Windows-11-stupid.

Luckily, Apple is ok at supporting older phones, so I just have to be careful to not accidentally upgrade my SE to iOS 26.

Makes me nostalgic for Apple's interface guidelines, which were very well thought through, based on evidence, and with clear principles. https://vintageapple.org/inside_r/pdf/Human_Interface_Guidel...

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You can actually swipe up from the search field at the bottom and that will show all tabs. (If anyone is reading this from apple, that animation should be sped up).

However, this doesn't work if you've scrolled down already and the bar is minimized. It literally flashes as if to acknowledge your swipe and does nothing.

Also if you miss by moving your thumb just slightly lower, you'll close the app haha.

They thought about it a bit, but definitely not enough.

You can also swipe left and right to switch tabs, in any state.

But, as you suggest, you have to tap the url to "bring it up" so it can be safely dragged upward, which is annoying. If they polish this a bit, I think it will be very nice.

Just because it took me a second to figure out: swiping left or right works when done on the search bar, not anywhere on the screen

Swiping left or right on the screen is the special “please misinterpret my attempt to scroll as a ‘forward’ or ‘back’ command, eliciting a curse” gesture. I have searched for a way to disable this many times.

So many changes over the years and some of them might actually be decent but I wouldn’t have known about this had I not read this comment or accidentally triggered it in the future. Has Apple experimented with “micro” tutorials that can pop up if they detect the user is performing an action in an inefficient/deprecated pattern? I.e. if in Safari I navigate to all tabs by tapping at the bottom —> hamburger icon —> all tabs a one time modal pops up showing the ux pattern they recommend

I hate micro tutorials so much, I really don't like when things have an invisible language that you have to just know to be able to use them.

If you have to have an invisible language, put it in a man page somewhere or something. I really don't like having my train of thought interrupted by "HEY, learn something new RIGHT NOW"

There's a "Tips" app that comes with iOS that covers big changes, like home screen navigation, and some default app changes, like Photos app.

Safari isn't in there, but that would be the place to put it.

That swipe sucks because it’s almost identical to the “swipe up from bottom” home screen swipe. You have to be precise, and the initial UI feedback looks very similar between the two.

I gave up on the swipe for the same reason, but if you double tap the triple dot menu it hits the 'all tabs' thing.

As a long time Android user, I find these magical gestures frustrating difficult to discover. How on earth is someone supposed to guess such a gesture exists, and how am I supposed to guess the rules for when certain gestures work and certain gestures don’t?

Even long time friends who are iOS fanatics, and who have used iOS since the beginning are often surprised when I show them a new gesture I’ve learnt. Am I missing something? I’m really grateful to learn this now but I can’t imagine the “Apple way” is to stumble upon these by forum comments?

> Luckily, Apple is ok at supporting older phones, so I just have to be careful to not accidentally upgrade my SE to iOS 26.

You won’t be receiving any updates for iOS 18 after December or so, if your device supports iOS 26. Only the iPhone XR and XS will be receiving further iOS 18 updates, because they don’t support iOS 26. That has been Apple’s policy for many years now. Only devices that dropped out of major iOS updates receive minor updates to older iOS versions. The same minor updates are not made available to iPhone models that support a newer major version.

Safari and the lock screen clock were my biggest issues.

The lock screen clock went from "can read in a split second" to "wait what number is this?".

Luckily there was a setting for that one.

Oh, so it’s hidden? I gave up several times without realizing. That is incredibly stupid

Just swipe up from the address bar.

thank you!

> Too often, however, the computer acts and the user merely reacts within a limited set of options. In other instances, the computer “takes care” of the user, offering only those alternatives that are judged “good” for the user or that “protect” the user from having to make detailed decisions. This approach mistakenly puts the computer, not the user, in control.

This actually perfectly describes my frustration with Apple products. They make a lot of decisions I don't like and provide no way to control them.

I initially balked at this change but realized they placed the 'all tabs' button right where the ellipsis menu is, so you can just double tap to get to your tabs. Takes the same amount of time.

Pinch gesture works as well.

I was thinking of changing my iOS browser because of the safari tab change.

>Fortunately, the software capability to handle different text sizes can make it easier to support people with a vision disability. You can design your software with a “zoom” feature that increases the size of characters or graphics on the screen.

If only the iPhone "menu bar" designers took that to heart. It is insane that I have to put on glasses to read the time when there is plenty of room to increase the damn font, but no option to do so.

I am gonna be LMAO when all these youngster UI designers age up to the point where they have to wear readers to use their crap UI.

You can just set it to show the tab button

Why isn’t the better option the default?

because if you use the swipe gestures the buttons aren’t necessary

Regrettably, humans come along and need to prove themselves, so here we are. Being human: it's a feature, not a bug. (shrugs)

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