iOS 15 may be least exciting version yet

[11235813]

All I want is a multi user experience, or at least a guest mode when I'm handing over my iPad to someone else. Other than that, iPad is perfect for what it's designed for. People wanting iPad to turn into Macbook will keep getting disappointed with each new OS version.

 

[laurieballard]

Rather glad I didn't waste two hours watching WWDC this year. I wonder if they leaked hardware Changes because they knew it might drum up an audience watching the non eventful software changes in the hope hardware was coming at the end

 

[revs]

With iOS 15 they clearly took the time to make this a 'snow leopard' release - Not adding too much, and instead just fixing issues and cleaning up what was already there.

Probably a great year to do it, with everyone working at home and everything a bit crazy.

 

[LFC2020]

With iOS 15 they clearly took the time to make this a 'snow leopard' release - Not adding too much, and instead just fixing issues and cleaning up what was already there.

Honestly like to know why people keep saying this, how do we know if they’ve actually fixed anything at all, people are already reporting the same not great battery life as iOS 14.5 and beyond.

Reckon we won’t know if they’ve fixed anything till 4 or 5 betas in.

 

[one more]

Yes so niche that the entire world switched to group video chatting as the main form of communication last year

This is true, however the percentage of people using FaceTime for their group calls is really “niche”, compared to the likes of Zoom, Teams, Skype, WhatsApp and the lot. Being properly cross-platform has its obvious benefits.

 

[SoYoung]

With iOS 15 they clearly took the time to make this a 'snow leopard' release - Not adding too much, and instead just fixing issues and cleaning up what was already there.

Probably a great year to do it, with everyone working at home and everything a bit crazy.

Cleaning up? The new Safari, especially on iPad is now more cluttered than ever before with more action required to do the same tasks as before.

 

[MozMan68]

Cleaning up? The new Safari, especially on iPad is now more cluttered than ever before with more action required to do the same tasks as before.

Every video I have seen on Safari shows that it is much easier to use...I'm guessing it is just a matter of getting used to the new options. Swiping between tabs alone seems like it will save a ton of time.

 

[SoYoung]

Every video I have seen on Safari shows that it is much easier to use...I'm guessing it is just a matter of getting used to the new options. Swiping between tabs alone seems like it will save a ton of time.

On iPhone maybe, but this gesture don't work on iPad so not only the bar is still on the top, but its cluttered AF when you have many tabs open so its more complicated now to switch tabs on iPad or just refresh a web page if you are on the botton, it takeses now 2 tap just to refresh.

 

[LFC2020]

Every video I have seen on Safari shows that it is much easier to use...I'm guessing it is just a matter of getting used to the new options. Swiping between tabs alone seems like it will save a ton of time.

Not if you swipe to the wrong tab in front of the misses 😬😳

 

[3rik]

Not a single feature that the casual user will be hyped about. All this FaceTime and group sharing is so niche, weird they spent so much time on it

I think its not the most exciting but its definitely not bad

Safari mobile extensions is a massive plus
Notification summary is very useful
Focus has extremely powerful profile customisation, definitely a big plus
Live text is really useful, and it works within safari on images without any extra steps which is awesome.
Ive already found the new photos memories to be great
Private Relay is basically a built in VPN, also a nice addition
Spotlight and Siri both got significantly better
AirPods can be tracked just like airtags! this one is amazing

And then the other stuff like per-app text size & format and other accessibility settings, reordering Home Screen pages, weather, translate and maps got much better, "shared with you", the built in Authenticator with 2fa code autofill, notes & reminders improvements, new widgets etc

Im definitely not disappointed in iOS 15

 

[DomC]

I was happiest with iOS 12

Yes, when Mail actually worked correctly.

 

[laszlo182]

cannot disagree more, you probably haven’t discovered all the things, yeah the keynote maybe was a snoozefest but maybe because i haven’t watched it this year and went into r/iosbeta or twitter next day instead to see posts of people i feel different

was hoping for a bit of redesign though, especially the big sur icons..

 

[ErikGrim]

This is true, however the percentage of people using FaceTime for their group calls is really “niche”, compared to the likes of Zoom, Teams, Skype, WhatsApp and the lot. Being properly cross-platform has its obvious benefits.

Which is exactly why all these new "catch up" features were added, so FT actually has a chance to compete in that space as opposed to be just for family and friends.

 

[!!!]

Honestly like to know why people keep saying this, how do we know if they’ve actually fixed anything at all, people are already reporting the same not great battery life as iOS 14.5 and beyond.

Reckon we won’t know if they’ve fixed anything till 4 or 5 betas in.

Its not that people know Apple is fixing a lot of bugs, it's just that we expect them to do so, since they don't have very many features to implement.

 

[ianrip]

I think the New Facetime features are a combination of Google Meet and Microsoft teams, both of those apps have sharescreen and invite guest link
the Guest link feature is very good, hopefully facetime will be better

So they’re playing catch up really

 

[rwilliams]

If all of this FaceTime sharing stuff had been part of iOS 14, it would have been amazing for people to have had last year during lockdown.

I think others have summed it up perfectly - I’m just no longer in the demographic that drives these things. All of the social aspects of music apps - no interest at all. Watching movies or listening to music over FaceTime? Nope. And that’s okay.

 

[haruhiko]

Do you remember that iOS 12 was a bug fix version of iOS 11? People were very happy that Apple fixed all the problems with iOS 11 instead of introducing a lot of new features. Apple delayed most of the new features to iOS 13.

 

[nortonandreev]

On iPhone maybe, but this gesture don't work on iPad so not only the bar is still on the top, but its cluttered AF when you have many tabs open so its more complicated now to switch tabs on iPad or just refresh a web page if you are on the botton, it takeses now 2 tap just to refresh.

I don’t like it on the iPhone but I enjoy it on the iPad. I guess it comes down to personal preference.

When it comes to the release, it seems more unstable than what iOS 14 Beta 1 is. Furthermore, none of the problems I have been experiencing on iOS 14 have been fixed and, obviously, there’s quite a few new bugs. After the minor update that iOS 14 was, getting another minor one is beyond disappointing.

 

[one more]

Which is exactly why all these new "catch up" features were added, so FT actually has a chance to compete in that space as opposed to be just for family and friends.

A “catch up”? Do you really believe any platform-mixed teams saying: “Hey, guys, enough of our Zoom, Teams, Meets, WhatsApp nonsense, let’s use FaceTime!” 😉 Not happening, IMO.

Why should anyone switch their group video messaging platform they took a while to learn and get used to?

Playing “catch up” is not a compelling new feature to use, making a video chat platform better, it is just an attempt to make it “as good as X”. So while I can imagine a few Apple fans (like ourselves) wanting to give it a try, I really cannot see it having any meaningful impact. 🤷🏻‍♂️

 

[ErikGrim]

A “catch up”? Do you really believe any platform-mixed teams saying: “Hey, guys, enough of our Zoom, Teams, Meets, WhatsApp nonsense, let’s use FaceTime!” 😉 Not happening, IMO.

Why should anyone switch their group video messaging platform they took a while to learn and get used to?

Playing “catch up” is not a compelling new feature to use, making a video chat platform better, it is just an attempt to make it “as good as X”. So while I can imagine a few Apple fans (like ourselves) wanting to give it a try, I really cannot see it having any meaningful impact. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Not sure how you got all of that from "a chance to compete", but FWIW I largely agree.

 

[one more]

Do you remember that iOS 12 was a bug fix version of iOS 11? People were very happy that Apple fixed all the problems with iOS 11 instead of introducing a lot of new features. Apple delayed most of the new features to iOS 13.

Agreed, yet back then Android was still a wild jungle, a lot of things have changed since then and Android 12 is looking more and more compelling for an average “new” user, needing to make a choice between iOS/Android.

I think Apple got too comfortable with measuring their success/popularity by their profits, rather than a market share. Before they used to justify it with being a premium brand with products of exceptional quality. However, I am worried they have lost some of their core vision.

 

[bushman4]

There’s a chance that features like Touch ID or 120hz scrolling may be added which would be a big plus even though they weren’t mentioned at WWDC

 

[haruhiko]

Agreed, yet back then Android was still a wild jungle, a lot of things have changed since then and Android 12 is looking more and more compelling for an average “new” user, needing to make a choice between iOS/Android.

I think Apple got too comfortable with measuring their success/popularity by their profits, rather than a market share. Before they used to justify it with being a premium brand with products of exceptional quality. However, I am worried they have lost some of their core vision.

I still think Apple is still in safe hands with Craig being responsible for the software side. Over these few years, power users' long outstanding wishes have been fulfilled one by one. Using iOS now is already quite different from 4-5 years ago. The Apple ecosystem is much stronger than that time with the success of Apple Watch and AirPods. The biggest complaint I've heard so far this year is iPadOS. True, it is still quite far away from what we wish for the platform, but it's solid, and still miles better than the competition (if there is any meaningful competition), just no surprise.

 

[ErikGrim]

The people complaining about iPadOS are the people who want it to be a laptop. Which I mean, just use a laptop...?

 

[gwhizkids]

No they are lazy, they don’t care about power users anymore it’s all for the kids

I don’t think they really ever cared (or gave particular emphasis) on power users. They are selling to their base: people who like Apple because it just works. Now that may not be as accurate as it used to be, but it really is what they are doing.

They are selling Toyota Corollas, functionally. You buy it, it does what you want it to do. If you want to soup your phone up, you buy one on which you can do so: an Android.

iOS, as mentioned above, is a mature OS now, like MacOS (then OS X) became about 10-12 years ago. There is only so much you can do within the existing computing paradigm. Apple changed that paradigm back in 2007 with the phone and now that ecosystem has seen much of its innovation curve pass by.

We await the next paradigm shift.