Since the "What do you want to see from Apple in 2017" thread responses seemed to focus mostly on hardware (Mac Pros, Mac Minis, USB iPhones, ...), I thought the new year might be a good occasion to post another iOS 11 wishlist thread (it's been a few months since the last one
).
So, as the title says, what do you want to see from iOS in 2017?
My own ever-growing list, most of it copied from the previous thread:
Overall
- Customisable control center
- Ability to change default apps for Mail, Calendar, Contacts, ...
- Widgets on lock screen (so I can see my Runkeeper progress without unlocking, use my iPhone in nightstand mode like the Watch, use my old iPad as a wall-mounted thermostat with HomeKit controls, ...)
- Multiple user accounts on iPad
- Force Touch controls in control center for e.g. Wifi, Bluetooth, ...
- Multi-tasking multiple instances of same app (Safari split screen is a hack, why is this not available for all apps??)
- Password protection at lower levels (specific apps, specific documents, …)
- Missing iPad apps (Weather, Calculator, Voice Memos, Phone, …)
- Some type of file manager or easier way of letting one app access another app’s files
- Ability to control device management / syncing features directly from iOS instead of through iTunes
User Interface
- Dark mode
- Merge long press & 3D touch
- Introduce an "edit" sheet separate from the "share" sheet (it is so confusing to find certain functions hidden under "share")
Siri
- On-device Siri
- Textual input for Siri
- Fully merge Siri with Spotlight - why are there 2 separate search interfaces?
iOS Home Screen
- Rethink the overall combination of Lock Screen, Home Screen, Notification Center, Control Center. Do we still need “apps” to be the main thing on the “home” screen, or can we have a home screen that shows notifications & top apps?
- Ability to add other things than apps to the home screen, e.g. contact persons (especially for older users)
- Smarter method for rearranging icons (e.g. move multiple icons at once, or auto-sort most used to 1st screen)
- Live icons. Apple's own icons (Calendar, Clock, Weather) have been allowed some type of interactivity since iOS 1, why hasn't some API for this been made public?
- Widgets, especially for iPad. The way Android often has the clock and weather right on the home screen seems to work pretty well.
Continuity
- Handoff of ongoing media: transfer an in-progress phone call, transfer a playing movie (not AirPlay, but really transfer), …
- Native support for screen sharing, especially AirPlay from e.g. iPhone to iPad, or using an iPad as secondary display for a Mac like Duet Display
- Use iPhone / iPad as drawing pad for macOS
- A “push” form of continuity (send a user activity to the target device from the source device, rather than the current “pull” form where you start from the target device)
- Allow iPad to access files shared from macOS
Photos
- Sync faces across devices!
- Better user interface for face detection adjustments: A multi-picture "click all pictures of person X" view would work much much faster than the single-picture "is this X? Yes / No" screen that they have now
- Streamlining some interface choices, e.g. why on earth is "not this person" under the "share" sheet? Why are the markup options hidden behind the "more" button? Seriously, has anyone from usability looked at these apps recently?
- Allow albums from the "Albums" tab to also be shared under the "Shared" tab rather than requiring 2 completely seperate albums for private collection vs. sharing
- Tweak the Memories feature to be more targeted at automatic album creation, less at video creation
Contacts
- Manage contact groups on iOS
- System-wide VIP contacts (for Mail, priority Do Not Disturb, …)
- Default app to reach a contact (FaceTime, Phone, WhatsApp, …)
Mail
- Attachments please!!
- Rules for which mails trigger a notification and which not
Music
- Make it more usable for people who only use their local downloaded library, no Apple Music
- Merge the iTunes Store app into the seperate apps for Music, iBooks, Videos, Podcasts, ...
- Some type of light subscription to Apple Music, for those of us who don't listen to Music enough to pony up the full price but still would enjoy the benefit of not having to curate our own library. For example a 2.99$ subscription with only access to a limited library, 6 month delay on recent releases, and only a limited amount of hours per month.
Podcasts
- Support for subscription podcasts
- Better access to older episodes (for podcasts running 10+ seasons you can only access the last 100 episodes or so)
- Better annotation (e.g. automatic transcription, ability to display certain links at certain timestamps within the episode, …)
- Some features for better monetisation (e.g. ads, in-podcast purchase links to apps, …)
Maps
- Offline Maps
- Dynamic re-routing in case of traffic
- Street view
Calendar & Reminders
- Just start paying some active attention to these apps rather than keeping them so basic
- As an aside, I don’t understand what the philosophy is behind having a bare-bones Calendar app and Reminders app (leaving a market for Todoist and Fantastical), but aggressively upgrading Notes every single release.
Facetime
- Group chat
- Screen sharing
- Facetime voicemail
- Sync favourites across devices
Health
- Sync from iPhone to iPad. I know they wouldn't want to sync over iCloud due to privacy concerns, but I would imagine some type of local sync from iPhone to iPad should be possible, just like how the Watch syncs to iPhone
-Allow entry of non-quantitive info, like listing when I sprained my ankle, had a cold, got a flu vaccine, ...
-Multiple profiles - specifically, allow me to enter info for my kids as well. Fevers, childhood diseases, growth, how much milk the baby drank, ...
Settings
- Reshuffle the settings menu.
- Make "Accessibility" a top-level item (so many cool things in there)
- Allow access to settings both from within the app and from within the Settings screen. It's confusing now that many apps require some settings to be handled via "settings" and some via "options" inside the app.
(Specific example of this - why can't I edit the Notifications screen from within the "Notifications" page of the Settings app? Why do I need to scroll down on notifications and press edit?)
