Something is wrong with photos in iOS 26 – especially when they come from Android

There's a new iOS bug in iOS 26 that apparently is a little bit discriminatory towards Android users. Curiously enough, there's a bug that changes the colors of pictures taken on Android devices and shared with an iPhone user.

An iOS 26 bug changes colors on Android pictures 

There are plenty of reports about the bug on Reddit. iPhone users claim that pictures in the iOS Photos app turn red when they zoom in. Of course, we're talking about photos taken on Android and shared with the iPhone. The issue isn't reproduced when the images are viewed on an iPhone running iOS 18. 


What's even stranger, though, is that there's another user who claims the issue is present also on phones taken with an iPhone 15 (when viewed on an iPhone 17). This suggests the issue may not even be limited to Android devices.

On top of that, the affected images turn gray when people try to edit them.

Judging by the reports, the issue has existed for a few weeks. It even persisted for the affected users after installing iOS 26.1. One user also notes the issue remains unresolved even with iOS 26.2. Curiously enough, it's not present on all iPhones running iOS 26.2. 

Bugs on iPhones are not something new, and iOS 26 is quite buggy

iOS 26 hasn't been smooth sailing for everyone. After the initial release and the first update (iOS 26.0.1), users reported a bunch of odd problems including Wi-Fi and Bluetooth dropping on some iPhone 17 and iPhone Air models, unexpected artifacts in photos taken under certain lighting, blank app icons after custom tints, and even issues with VoiceOver accessibility. 

Beyond those, people have taken to Reddit and other forums to share more strange behavior. Some say animations lag or freeze, keyboard suggestions jump around, control panels stick partway up the screen, and certain UI elements glitch when you swipe or open apps. Users have also complained that iOS 26 can drain battery faster than expected, even with normal use.

On the security side, Apple's iOS 26.2 update includes fixes for many underlying vulnerabilities, including WebKit issues that could cause crashes or allow sophisticated attacks if you load bad web content, which shows how serious some problems have been. 

Many of these bugs are still being ironed out as Apple continues refining the software.

This bug is messy, not malicious – but still annoying

In my opinion, this doesn't look like Apple trying to mess with Android users on purpose. It's more like one of those classic software bugs that slips through when things get rushed. Still, when photos suddenly turn red or gray, it's hard not to get frustrated – especially when sharing pictures should be the simplest thing in the world.

What bothers me more is how long some of these issues seem to stick around. The bug apparently survived multiple updates. That has me thinking it's something that just didn't get enough attention. For a company that prides itself on polish, that's far from ideal.

iOS 26 clearly has a lot going on under the hood, and that's fine. Big updates usually come with problems. I just hope Apple slows things down a bit, listens closely to user reports, and cleans this up soon.