Not Really Loving iOS 14

[ddsdude]

Remember that iOS 14 is more of a "catch-up" release like iOS 12 was. Not much in the way of groundbreaking features and more about subtle improvements and solving problems.

After the mess that was iOS 13, we need one of these. Look to iOS 15 for the "wow!" stuff.

Catch-up? Are you serious? This release is about as groundbreaking as any iOS release has ever been. Widgets on homescreen and App Library are a big deal. PiP is a big deal. This is iOS we're talking about. I've been dying of boredom for YEARS waiting for features Android has offered forever. In terms of UI changes, I can't remember when I was more excited for an iOS release.

The OP is proof that no matter what you do, you just can't please everyone. This is beta 1 dude. There will still be lots and lots and lots of refinement and enhancement. I'm sure your minor quibbles will be addressed at some point of the iOS 14.x life cycle. The breakthrough here is that Apple is now committed to some great features we could have only dreamed of a year ago on an iPhone. Appreciate it, provide feedback and you'll form new muscle memory in no time.

 

[Lucid_Icarus]

I agree that the widgets aren’t exactly as smart as they could be, but I keep telling myself that as the betas get closer to a GM release, they’ll improve. I find that Siri Suggestions as a whole are pretty solid, they seem to know what I want before I even think to do it. The Widgets just don’t seem to be fully integrated yet, see the Maps widget never loading for me except once when I was already using Maps.

As for the App Drawer, I had all my apps organized into folders prior to iOS 14, then removed them all from the folders and threw them into the App Drawer. Why? I used Spotlight almost exclusively because it was faster for me to get the exact app I need that way. This was I don’t need any apps on my home screen, just the widgets I want and spotlight.

 

[itsmilo]

Interesting... I knew that pressing on the spacebar would allow you to move the cursor... is the whole keyboard thing new or was it always that way?

On iPhones with 3D Touch it works all over, on devices like the iPhone 11 without force touch, you need to use the space bar

 

[TantalizedMind]

iOS 6 is the best. Change my mind.

 

[Hyperchaotic]

I'm going to take issue with this statement too: every individual has their own workflow preferences. Some like well organized folders, others use search, others just know where everything is (I fall in a mix of the latter 2 categories). There's no one right way. That's why this is a nice add by Apple: it gives people yet one more way to find and open apps.

Agreed. There are a number of "IAmVerySmart and people doing it differently are not" type comments in this thread about the app library (not to be confused with "I like it this way" comments), how sad. In reality we're getting more options and that's all good.

I am looking forward to try it out. If it useful is that's great if not I can still do my own thing

 

[Dammit Cubs]

i haven't been excited for ios since the beginning of ios. Widgets are not going to change that. Ios is and the iphone is now a utility which i used every single day, i'm not looking for change like i'm not looking to change my cup when i poor my coffee.

Oh there's widgets, cool.

But don't let it do the things which I need to well taken away from me. that's all i ask.

 

[Feyl]

Yeah I don't get the point of App Library too, it's just another homescreen with folders. Not feeling Widgets either. I mean, I added weather and calendar but I realized that I don't really look at them and open them instead everytime. But they're great if you want to have your apps lower on the screen. I hope I feel better about Widgets after the official release when 3rd party apps will support it. I would rather get Apple Watch like complications on the lock screen though.

 

[ZachNathan]

I don’t understand the App library at all, or its appeal. Instead of scrolling horizontally through pages of App folders, we now get to scroll vertically through app folders which we are not able to customize. I can search for any one of my apps with the search bar, and it appears you can do the same with the App library. Like I said, I do not see the appeal at all. Maybe when I have it in my hands I may feel differently?

My understanding is that it's a counterbalance to widgets on the Home Screen. Now that Apple has allowed that to be a bit more cluttered, there needed to be somewhere all your apps could go that was easy to access but out the immediate way.

It only made sense to me after I eliminated most of my pages of apps in favor of an essential first page, and a second page with only a large music widget and the Smart Stacks widget.

 

[7149041]

For those with anal-retentive tendencies among us (my hand is up), the Siri Suggestion widget is totally unusable. Sure, it appears to be based on recent activity or what Siri 'thinks' you may be thinking at the moment, but aside from having 8 app icons displayed, there is no rhyme or reason to the order of those icons. It's like someone at Apple said "muscle memory? we don't need no steenkeen muscle memory!".

it kinda works for me, you can put 3 of these on one screen, and it basically builds an automatic homescreen for you

 

[Marlon DLTH :)]

iOS 6 is the best. Change my mind.

iOS 6 was too restrictive and boring, that’s why jailbreak was so popular in that moment.

 

[dmccloud]

Sheesh dude: one’s ability or willingness to organize apps reflects in no way on their technological savviness.

I see quite a few people every day I'm at work who can't even figure out how to update their apps, let alone organize them. For those users, the App Library could help them locate their apps in a more efficient manner. Also, I never made a connection between organizing apps and technological savvy - that argument was entirely your own fabrication.

 

[spinedoc77]

Seems like everyone is excited for widgets and the app library and I am just not that thrilled......

Widgets - I get the appeal of them, but the issue I have is spacing, the small widget doesn’t give enough info and the big widgets take up to 8 apps spots... While it is nice to have glanceable information, I’m not sure its that big of a improvement from just the ordinary today view which is an all widget page. I saw some interesting ideas with smart widget at the top and then 2x Siri suggestions widget below that, would make a always changing home screen with intelligence. I was like wow that will be awesome, but when I tried it same thing happened just like Siri Watch Face. In the end I am searching for where things are when the “intelligence” doesn’t display the app I want to use at the time.

App Library - I hate this idea, the reason is because I have already organized my apps I know where they are and muscle memory I could almost go to apps with my eyes closed. To have apple then basically do another way to organize and search for them without you being able to customize it, to me seems like a step backwards.

iOS 14 - Some people are saying this is for power users, but I almost feel like its for the non-power user that doesn’t organize anything on their homescreens and they are just a mess. This will auto-cleanup and organize that space, but for Power Users I am really not sure this is for them.

Summary - Now I know I don’t have to use these things, and right now I am probably not going to, but it just sucks when most of the big features are kinda of letdown, and I know they can’t please everyone, and this gives options which is great, but I would have rather see them do a total re-design to iOS home screen instead of just adding some android features like grabbing widgets, and an modified app drawer.

AddOn - I will say though, I am not just crapping all over iOS 14. The animations are really well done and buttery, for a first beta it is extremely smooth and not a ton of bugs which is impressive.

I'm just not sold on widgets and the app library.

I can see your complaint about widgets being valid. I used to love Android widgets that I could place anywhere, but have grown to much prefer the iOS widget page where they are all organized and share the same UI. Does anyone know if in iOS14 we will have the option to keep the widget page? Or are we all being forced to use the new widget system?

App library: I agree with you as well, I've spent a lot of time making and organizing folders. But I think I can adapt depending on how good Apple does at categorizing my apps. I'm assuming we can change apps and folders in the app library? If we can't change which apps go into which folders then I would definitely be peeved.

 

[jonas.bern1303]

Same!!! I really thought I am the only one. Cant wait for IOS15

 

[Jack Neill]

iOS 6 is the best. Change my mind.

When compared to Jelly bean, iOS 6 was a nice refined experience but 2012 isn't coming back.

 

[dz5b609]

I can see your complaint about widgets being valid. I used to love Android widgets that I could place anywhere, but have grown to much prefer the iOS widget page where they are all organized and share the same UI. Does anyone know if in iOS14 we will have the option to keep the widget page? Or are we all being forced to use the new widget system?

App library: I agree with you as well, I've spent a lot of time making and organizing folders. But I think I can adapt depending on how good Apple does at categorizing my apps. I'm assuming we can change apps and folders in the app library? If we can't change which apps go into which folders then I would definitely be peeved.

Widget page is still there, just better because it uses the new widgets so you can put 2 smaller ones side by side.

 

[spinedoc77]

Widget page is still there, just better because it uses the new widgets so you can put 2 smaller ones side by side.

Phew, that's a huge relief. The more I think about it the more I realize I really prefer widgets on the widget page. I may use an occasional widget on a home screen, but would prefer to just be able to scroll through them all.

 

[7149041]

I can see your complaint about widgets being valid. I used to love Android widgets that I could place anywhere, but have grown to much prefer the iOS widget page where they are all organized and share the same UI. Does anyone know if in iOS14 we will have the option to keep the widget page? Or are we all being forced to use the new widget system?

App library: I agree with you as well, I've spent a lot of time making and organizing folders. But I think I can adapt depending on how good Apple does at categorizing my apps. I'm assuming we can change apps and folders in the app library? If we can't change which apps go into which folders then I would definitely be peeved.

You dont have to use neither App Library nor new widget placement - the old widget page is still there, and the App Library is hidden on the last (right side) screen.

I prefer the new widget logic - I can scroll horizontally (or within a widget stack) while still being able to access the Dock. What needs to happen now is app developers delivering new widgets - the old ones don’t move out of the legacy screen. I’d also like to see big widget stacks (these seem to be limited to 2x2 and 2x4) and full-home-screen widgets and stacks (ie ones taking the entire grid sans dock).

 

[one more]

For me the most useful iOS/iPadOS 14 features will be seamless AirPods switching between the connected devices and Scribble in iPadOS, converting the hand-written text to typing. The rest is just a tune-up, IMO. Considering everything works well for me under iOS 13, this will be the first year since iOS 7 when I won’t be running a beta.

 

[7149041]

Automatic switching is epic, works great on the beta (I daren’t getting MacOS beta, so I only experience it on the iPhone-iPad-AppleWatch). For example, I was listening to Spotify on my iPhone but had a timer running on the Watch (I do unguided meditation after a run). Once the timer ended, Spotify paused, Watch took over the AirPods to ring the timer, and once I stopped the timer, iPhone took the AirPods back and continued with the music. It’s something I didn’t know I wanted 🤭


Scribble is pretty great too, especially with all the extra “gestures” they added to the Pencil. I use mine with the keyboard attached most of the time anyway, tho.

 

[NufSaid]

I love the looks of the new widgets. You get widgets like android but better.

 

[nortonandreev]

Automatic switching is epic, works great on the beta (I daren’t getting MacOS beta, so I only experience it on the iPhone-iPad-AppleWatch). For example, I was listening to Spotify on my iPhone but had a timer running on the Watch (I do unguided meditation after a run). Once the timer ended, Spotify paused, Watch took over the AirPods to ring the timer, and once I stopped the timer, iPhone took the AirPods back and continued with the music. It’s something I didn’t know I wanted 🤭


Scribble is pretty great too, especially with all the extra “gestures” they added to the Pencil. I use mine with the keyboard attached most of the time anyway, tho.

I could never get the automatic switching working between iPhone, iPad and MacBook in any combination.

 

[heretiq]

The App Library is set up the way it is, so that the search feature can be properly implemented and executed. The App Library is not currently meant for what you are wanting, which is to turn it into another home screen layout Of your own creation.

Well said. The App Library is brilliant in its simplicity — no configuration or fiddling .. it just works. Prior to App Library I had multiple home screens with carefully configured folders that worked for me. I decided to give App Library a look, and 5 minutes later I had one home screen with a weather widget and my most used apps, plus App Library to organize everything else. I was pleasantly surprised by the improved utility and experience — I now locate apps faster and my iPhone feels less cluttered. For me, App Library was a bonafide sleeper feature. Loving it!

 

[7149041]

I could never get the automatic switching working between iPhone, iPad and MacBook in any combination.

Are your AirPods Pro on the latest software? And the devices on the new Beta? All under one iCloud account? It kinda just started working for me after updating, that’s all.

 

[Premium1]

Seems like everyone is excited for widgets and the app library and I am just not that thrilled......

Widgets - I get the appeal of them, but the issue I have is spacing, the small widget doesn’t give enough info and the big widgets take up to 8 apps spots... While it is nice to have glanceable information, I’m not sure its that big of a improvement from just the ordinary today view which is an all widget page. I saw some interesting ideas with smart widget at the top and then 2x Siri suggestions widget below that, would make a always changing home screen with intelligence. I was like wow that will be awesome, but when I tried it same thing happened just like Siri Watch Face. In the end I am searching for where things are when the “intelligence” doesn’t display the app I want to use at the time.

App Library - I hate this idea, the reason is because I have already organized my apps I know where they are and muscle memory I could almost go to apps with my eyes closed. To have apple then basically do another way to organize and search for them without you being able to customize it, to me seems like a step backwards.

iOS 14 - Some people are saying this is for power users, but I almost feel like its for the non-power user that doesn’t organize anything on their homescreens and they are just a mess. This will auto-cleanup and organize that space, but for Power Users I am really not sure this is for them.

Summary - Now I know I don’t have to use these things, and right now I am probably not going to, but it just sucks when most of the big features are kinda of letdown, and I know they can’t please everyone, and this gives options which is great, but I would have rather see them do a total re-design to iOS home screen instead of just adding some android features like grabbing widgets, and an modified app drawer.

AddOn - I will say though, I am not just crapping all over iOS 14. The animations are really well done and buttery, for a first beta it is extremely smooth and not a ton of bugs which is impressive.

I'm just not sold on widgets and the app library.

I for one and pumped for the widgets and app library. More so the widgets so we can finally get the icons more on the bottom instead of all of the way to the top (because apple refuses to let us place icons bottom to top).

 

[gwhizkids]

Interesting... I knew that pressing on the spacebar would allow you to move the cursor... is the whole keyboard thing new or was it always that way?

No. iOS 12