The Talk Show With John Gruber 441: ‘Serious Opinionators’, With Adam Engst
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Feb 25, 2026 Adam Engst, longtime TidBITS publisher and Apple commentator, joins to dissect iOS 26 UI changes. He compares the new Unified and Classic Phone views and their tap behaviors. Short takes cover the Filter menu in Phone and Messages, hidden tap-to-call settings, Liquid Glass design critiques, and proposed fixes for usability and accessibility.
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iOS 26 Phone App Offers Classic And Unified Views
- iOS 26 adds two Phone app layouts, Classic and Unified, and Apple surfaces the switch directly in the app so users can try the new layout instantly.
- Adam Engst found Unified often objectively better and praised making the choice prominent with an illustrated toggle in the recents view.
Airplane Mode Testing Sparked Deep Phone App Analysis
- Adam wrote his Unified vs Classic article while stuck on an airplane in airplane mode, using the dead Phone UI to explore behaviors without making calls.
- He switched views, examined every Phone action, and rewrote his intro after finding Unified superior in many ways.
Legacy Tap Anywhere To Call Became A Consistency Problem
- The original Phone recents tapped anywhere to call because phones in 2007 prioritized quick callbacks, a design now inconsistent with other iOS lists.
- Gruber argues that inconsistency caused accidental calls over years as users' muscle memory clashed with modern list behaviors.
