iOS 16 wishlist: Top 10 features we hope to see

WWDC is just a couple of months away. Except there’s a dramatic break from custom, Apple will preview its new working methods—iOS 16, iPadOS 16, macOS 13, tvOS 16, and watchOS 9—whereas highlighting all the most important options and design modifications they bring about throughout the keynote occasion on June 6 at 10am PT. Whereas these of us who observe Apple carefully all the time get enthusiastic about new {hardware}, these main working system updates are an enormous deal—the digital lives of over a billion folks can shift dramatically by what Apple chooses to do with its software program.

As we do yearly, we’re going to spotlight a few of the areas we hope to see Apple deal with in its subsequent massive yearly replace. (See our iOS 15 wishlist from last year.) It’s not as if Apple makes its choices based mostly on what we are saying, or would have time to implement these options earlier than its massive developer convention, however the discussions that brew from these ideas are a productive a part of bettering the gadgets that so profoundly affect our lives. With that in thoughts, listed below are a few of our prime needs for iOS 16.

With iOS 14, Apple utterly overhauled widgets. They give the impression of being nice, really feel extra standardized, and might now seem on your own home display, combined in with app icons.

However they misplaced one thing essential on the identical time: interactivity. Widgets can visually replace with new data, however when you faucet on it, you open the related app. Gone is the flexibility to faucet a button or slider on a widget and really do one thing.

That is particularly irritating within the case of apps like Apple Music, whose controls work proper from the widget on Android and don’t do something however open up the app on iOS.

Clearly, some safeguards have to be in place. The framework for interactive widgets should be sure you don’t do one thing like flip off your own home alarm with an unintended faucet. However there’s loads of room for widgets with easy controls to do helpful issues with out leaping into apps on a regular basis.

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All the time-on show

We’re going to maintain asking for this till Apple relents. There’s no cause that each iPhone with an OLED show (which is a number of fashions during the last a number of years) couldn’t have some helpful data displayed always. Android telephones have had them endlessly.

No less than, it must be an possibility. Customers who’re particularly involved about battery life or burn-in may disable it, although a smartly-designed always-on show wouldn’t deliver a lot danger of both. Simply ask Apple, who carried out an always-on show on Apple Watch, possibly its most battery-sensitive system.

I simply need to have the ability to see the time, date, and climate, and get some sense of what essential notifications are ready for me by glancing over on the telephone at my desk with out even choosing it up. That’s not an excessive amount of to ask for in 2022.

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Lock display enhancements

With iOS 15, Apple tried to fight notification overload on the lock display by condensing them right into a “scheduled abstract.” Mixed with the brand new Focus modes that cover notifications throughout sure actions, the objective is to assist hold you from getting overwhelmed by attention-seeking apps so usually.

It’s a pleasant thought, nevertheless it’s nearly nugatory as a result of it requires too much work to set up. Every little thing is opt-in, and customers should determine which apps belong within the abstract, what their focus modes must be and the way they need to act, and so forth. We’ve all the time been in a position to handle our notifications, however everybody simply makes use of the defaults for all the pieces.

I’d wish to see Apple take a special strategy to cleansing up the lock display. Let customers pull down the notification shade in the event that they wish to see notifications, and provides the lock display a easy notification rely (tapping on it might additionally open the notification shade). Unencumber all that area for different helpful knowledge just like the climate, battery ranges for linked gadgets (your Apple Watch is under 20%!), or different easy data icons.

There are many potential methods to make the lock display extra helpful, however the easy clock and notification record feels a bit like a relic of the previous. Notifications have grow to be weapons in an escalating battle for our consideration, and I would like Apple to provide me a bulletproof vest.

Oh, and it wouldn’t be a foul thought to provide us the choice to vary the flashlight and digital camera shortcuts to a curated record of different capabilities.

App Library redesign

The App Library is a good thought. Launched in iOS 14, it enables you to take away your less-used apps out of your varied house screens while not having to bodily take away them out of your iPhone. However it’s type of an unintuitive mess. It’s organized into inflexible robotically managed folders by software sort, and it doesn’t all the time put apps into the group you assume it ought to.

Worse, the folders are displayed as giant four-icon “quads” the place three apps are icons (with out labels) that open the app when tapped, however the fourth spot reveals as much as 4 different apps as tiny icons, and opens the folder when tapped. None of that is clear from the design.

Frankly, a easy alphabetical record, much like what you get when tapping the search bar on the prime of the App Library, can be a greater view. No less than give us the choice to make an alphabetical record the default view, as was performed on Apple Watch.

Past that, the complete auto-folder schema wants rethinking. It strikes and shifts, which defies muscle reminiscence about the place issues are. It’s bought no labels. And it’s not clear what is going to open an app and what is going to develop the folder. The App Library tries so exhausting to be easy that it turns into complicated.

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HomeKit overhaul / new House app

The House app has type of an antiquated look and lacks any sense of knowledge hierarchy. The fast data and controls on the prime are robotically chosen and might’t be edited, and each system, no matter sort, is represented by an an identical sq..

It’s not instantly clear, with out experimentation, what occurs whenever you faucet on one in all these squares and what you get whenever you long-press on it.

The House app wants a rethinking, with completely different management sorts for various sorts of gadgets. A easy plug shouldn’t be represented and managed the identical method as your good lighting, which shouldn’t be the identical as a thermostat, which shouldn’t be the identical as your HomePod.

And whereas it’s not an iOS 16 factor particularly, Apple must make a a lot greater push with producers so as to add HomeKit help, even outright paying them to take action if needed. There are far too many good house gadgets that solely help Alexa or Google Assistant however aren’t suitable with HomeKit. Even when Apple satisfied each new good house gadget to help HomeKit, it might take a number of years for the taking part in discipline to stage out.

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Extra default app choices

You possibly can set a default e mail app or net browser on iPhone, and have been in a position to since iOS 14. That’s a very good begin, nevertheless it’s simply that, a begin.

We must always have the ability to set default music and podcast apps, so once we ask Siri to play one thing we don’t should specify the app title each time (or hope that it’ll bear in mind). The identical goes with messaging—let messaging apps have a framework to affiliate their consumer IDs with our system contacts so after I say “Hey Siri, message mother” it is aware of to make use of WhatsApp or no matter as an alternative of Messages, if I’ve made the choice to vary my default.

Apple may do extra to supply default app choices past simply net browser and e mail apps whereas staying away from those who may compromise safety. Calendar, Maps, and Climate are all good candidates.

Sideloading (ha!)

The talk over Apple’s App Retailer insurance policies has been happening for years, and it’s not going to finish any time quickly.

On the Mac, Apple makes use of Gatekeeper and certificates signing to make sure apps don’t comprise malicious code. Builders submit apps to Apple to be notarized, after which they are often distributed on the net in no matter method the developer desires.

One thing like this might work on iOS, too. Customers must choose into putting in apps from exterior the app retailer, and would get applicable warnings, in fact. And apps would in all probability have to leap by means of extra technical hurdles to be notarized than they do on the Mac—making certain they use the correct frameworks for issues like location entry and such to make sure your iPhone privateness settings aren’t compromised.

In different phrases, Apple ought to notarize and permit the set up of any iPhone app that meets its technical, security, and safety guidelines, however hold that separate from the content material guidelines that outline App Retailer distribution.

In fact, none of this may ever occur till our legal guidelines demand it, so in fact, there’s zero likelihood that Apple will enable any type of sideloading, even with restrictive notarization necessities, in iOS 16. However it is a wishlist, not a likely-to-happen record.

Siri enhancements (once more!)

To be truthful, Apple made some very nice enhancements to Siri in iOS 15. It lastly bought offline processing, which speeds issues up rather a lot and improves privateness. It additionally bought a bit smarter and extra dependable and is rather a lot higher about understanding what’s on the display and reacting to it.

However it’s nonetheless bought so far to go. Not a day goes by that I don’t ask my Google Assistant one thing to which I get a very good reply, after which—simply out of curiosity—I ask Siri as properly. Siri fails far too usually.

Siri’s undoubtedly getting higher, it’s simply not getting higher quick sufficient.

2FA app integration

While you’re signing in to an app or an internet site and also you get despatched a two-factor authentication (2FA) code through textual content message, it populates the keyboard suggestion bar with the code. Simply faucet it to robotically sort the code into your app/web site, and away you go!

It’s an excellent function, one which saves time from hopping backwards and forwards between the Messages app and attempting to recollect a string of numbers. However it’s restricted to SMS-based codes, and that’s not all the time probably the most safe possibility. SIM-jacking, quantity rerouting companies, and different assaults can compromise your SMS-based textual content messages.

I’d love for Apple to supply a framework for one-time-password code technology apps resembling Authy, Google Authenticator, Step Two, and others to allow them to securely populate that very same spot on the keyboard ideas bar when an app or website requests a code.

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Battery share within the standing bar

It’s the smallest factor. After we bought Face ID, we misplaced an enormous chunk of the standing bar, and Apple took away our capacity to see our battery share. Certain, you may see it whenever you swipe down on Management Middle, however who desires to do that?

I do know it’s crowded up there with the TrueDepth module, however there’s bought to be a easy solution to allow us to see our battery share once more, particularly with rumors that the notch goes away with the iPhone 14 Professional.

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Name screening

Right here’s one last item from a reader: On Pixel telephones, Google Assistant can be utilized to display unknown calls and discover out who’s calling earlier than you choose up or ship it to voicemail. With the rise in robocalls, it’s a unbelievable function and it might a terrific if Apple may get Siri to do the identical.

Apple presents a function in iOS 15 that allows you to silence unknown numbers, however there are many instances once we miss precise calls as an alternative. With Siri and a Name Display screen-like function, we wouldn’t have to fret about that anymore.