First of all, thank you for the 26.1 release — I really appreciate all the work that went into it.
I’d like to make one small suggestion about the review screen. The top bar is the part of the interface I look at most, so it matters a lot to me. I understand the reasoning behind the new glass capsule style, but I’d love to have an option to switch back to the previous glass plate style.
The reason is that the capsule reads as a floating island, and it draws more attention than I’d like — it feels a bit too prominent for something I see on every single card. If it could be an optional switch rather than a change to the default, people who like the new look could keep it, and those of us who prefer the older, flatter style could go back.
I hope this doesn’t come across as nitpicking — I just wanted to put it on the radar. Thanks again for all your effort on the app.
How could one possibly make the top bar look so much worse with an update?
If you have an own background color for the cards, it’s really only bearable in dark mode—no matter which template you choose.
Is there any way to change the font and background color of the top bar itself?
I’m truly shocked at how poorly thought out such a drastic change seems to be.
Even if you try to adjust the CSS to the new “Light & Translucent” background so you can actually use at least one of the themes, you suddenly run into the bottom bar, which has been recolored in a completely different way.
And as if that weren’t enough, on the back page in “size small,” there’s also a strip in the CSS background color above the bottom bar that covers the card text at the bottom.
I don’t know what to say—I’m totally shocked and frustrated.
Yes, please—this thing is a real nuisance. I’m truly shocked at how poorly thought out such a drastic change seems to be.
Even if you try to adjust the CSS to the new “Light & Translucent” background so you can actually use at least one of the themes, you suddenly run into the bottom bar, which has been recolored in a completely different way.
And as if that weren’t enough, on the back page in “size small,” there’s also a strip in the CSS background color above the bottom bar that covers the card text at the bottom.
I don’t know what to say—I’m totally shocked and frustrated.
I agree with this comment. This is a wonderful app. However, the design of the new version has to be updated as soon as possible to improve legibility and avoid wasted space. Review is the most important screen and the top bar must be unobtrusive. I mostly use gestures, so I could hide the top bar, but then the front of the card starts at the very bottom of the screen, which is ugly and bad for legibility. Please make this new version, at least through options, as user-friendly and clean as possible!
According to the commit history, basically all changes to the review screen were actually done last December when Liquid Glass was beginning to be introduced, and then never released at that time. My apologies for just assuming what was in main prior to my starting at the company was good to go. None of our beta testers, internal or external, flagged this either (not an excuse, just an explanation: it just wasn’t on our radar.)
I’ll try and replicate what you’re saying from text, but if you can include screenshots I’ll likely be able to trace the issues faster. The way the liquid glass displays on the different versions of iOS has been tricky from a QA perspective.
EDIT: Oof I just ran through all the visuals on a simulator, and you are so right. We didn’t have a full QA matrix for this because it was part of the unreleased 25.12 code plus Apple’s liquid glass defaults.
I’ll run this by our designer but my instinct is to just… minimize the theming and make everything as unobtrusive as possible.
Edit (leaving previous for transparency): OK it looks like some of the December / January code did ship, but also, the way Xcode v26 builds those bars now in the Liquid Glass theme different on iOS 26/27. Working on next steps.
Thanks for this! In the review screen, the top bar of the new glass-capsule style looks like a floating island. I hope there’s an optional switch to revert to the original style (a full glass panel).
