Intro
I’ve been using the iPhone since the 3G came out back in 2008 and the Apple Watch since it came out in 2015. Both OSes have come a long way in that time, but I’ve noted a bunch of ways that they can be improved.
My vain hope is that someone at Apple will see this and implement my suggestions… 🤞
Index
Overview of and links to sections:
iOS
Photos: Store favourites locally
The iPhone’s maximum storage capacity currently maxes out at 1 TB, but I have 1.4 TB of photos.
iCloud Photos has the following 2 options:
“Optimise iPhone Storage”, described as:
”If your iPhone is low on space, full-resolution photos and videos are automatically replaced with smaller, device-sized versions. Full-resolution versions can be downloaded from iCloud at any time.““Download and Keep Originals”
Option #1 is useful, but (1) the downloading speeds are surprisingly slow and (2) it seems to only keep recent photos and videos.
What I’d like to see is favourited items to always be downloaded at full quality, if possible
Photos: Screenshot source
Photos and videos can have special metadata describing where the media came from. For example, sent from a certain person via iMessage.
I’d love to see this kind of thing to display which app a screenshot came from.
Photos: Manual people tagging
Recognition of people is getting better and better, but sometimes someone is clearly in a photo or video, but the system hasn’t recognised them for whatever reason.
It’d be nice to be able to manually tag the person, for a complete and reliable collection.
Reminders: Default list bug
For the past couple of versions of iOS, when using the Reminders app with an Exchange account that has multiple to-do lists, there’s a bug where the default list resets every now and again. This seems like an easy fix.
Battery: Additional filters
In Settings, the battery usage report is useful, but the only filters are “Last 24 Hours” and “Last 10 Days”.
I’d like to see additional filters “Today” (as in, since midnight) and “Since Last Charge” to make it easier to figure out what is draining the battery so much.
Widgets: Other device batteries
The batteries widget allows you to display the status of the current device (e.g., iPhone) and any connected devices (e.g., AirPods), but it cannot do so for other Apple devices of yours that aren’t directly connected (e.g., iPad).
It’d be nice to be able to see the status of all batteries on all devices.
Battery: Show charging rate
It’d be great if the iPhone, iPad, etc would report the current Wattage that it’s charging at, like Android does.
Mail: Create calendar item from email
Sometimes, I’d like to be able to add an event to my calendar with the contents of an email (e.g., a concert from a Ticketmaster email with the details of our seats), but this is currently two separate processes - create event, copy and paste email contents. Another quick win.
Contacts: Match to key photo
In the Photos app, you’re able to choose a key photo for a person, but even what the person is linked to a contact profile, their contact photo will not be synced to this, which seems like an obvious quick win.
Mail: Keep selection
In the Mail app, I often select multiple emails and then (1) mark them as read and (2) move them to a folder.
The issue is that performing either of these actions removes the selection, when it could so easily be kept.
Mail: Copy email
In the Mail app, I sometimes like to store the same email in two different folders, but to do that you need to be able to copy - not move - an email, like you can in Microsoft Outlook.
FaceTime: Landscape mode
When on a FaceTime video call and holding the iPhone in landscape orientation, the UI doesn’t rotate to match. This seems like a quick and easy fix…
Siri Shortcuts: Run without unlock
Some Siri Shortcuts I want to be able to run without my input at all, so it’d be nice to have the option to allow this.
Photos: Remember last tagged locations
I recently undertook a mini project to import all of my old (we’re talking 2000s here) photos into iCloud. As part of that, I manually added locations to all of the photos, and the process would have been significantly easier if iOS remembered and offered my recently used locations, but I had to type them in every single time.
iPadOS
System: Profiles
I probably don’t need to spend a lot of time on this because practically everyone has been asking for it since day 1, but the ability for multiple people to use a single iPad with their own individual profiles.
watchOS
System: Customise Double Tap
The double tap gesture was added in 2023, but I actually often find it less useful than the old version that was available as an accessibility option. For example, you can’t customise what UI element it triggers (I never want to reply to a WhatsApp notification on my watch - I always want to dismiss it), and it’s a lot slower to actually complete the action like dismissing.
System: Customise vibration pattern
I’d love the ability to set up a custom vibration pattern for different apps and contacts so I know what it is without even looking at it.
Workout: Step counter
It seems rather bizarre to me that if you’re doing a walking or running workout, the active statistics / metrics don’t show your step count. It’d be nice to at least have the option of including this.
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😊