We hope Apple “borrows” features of Android and Windows for iOS 8
Apple's first major keynote of the year is just over a week away, and it's all but certain to give us our first official look at the next versions of OS X and iOS. We've already outlined some changes we'd like to see in Apple's desktop operating system, but the new version of iOS is going to affect far more people.
All of the major mobile operating systems borrow heavily from each other these days, so we looked at our Android and Windows phones to find features that we hope will "inspire" Apple's software designers. We'd honestly be surprised to see Apple implement all of these—the company takes a very careful approach to new features, and it tends not to add new features for the sake of adding new features. In any case, this is a list of the things we miss most when we jump back to iOS after spending time with Android or Windows Phone 8.1, and we think Apple would be able to find a way to implement them without making iOS needlessly confusing or complex for users.
Customizable quick settings (Windows Phone 8.1)
Control Center is one of our favorite additions to iOS 7. It gives you instant access to a handful of hardware and playback settings, and even if it didn't change at all in iOS 8 it would still do most of what you'd need it to do.
There's always room for improvement. Take Windows Phone 8.1's new "Quick Actions" feature, which puts a row of quick settings across the top of the screen when you pull down the Notification Center shade. Windows Phone actually fits fewer shortcuts than iOS does—four, instead of the 13 or so things you'll find on Apple's version—but those four shortcuts are fully customizable by the user. iOS' defaults are going to be perfectly fine for most people, but being able to tweak those settings to incorporate the ones you use the most often will make it even more useful.
Intents (Android)
One of iOS' longstanding limitations is that third-party applications can only interact with one another in limited ways. Certain services that have been blessed by Apple (Facebook, Twitter) can do a little more now that they're integrated into the operating system. Most applications still live in their own little sandboxes.
Android's "intents" system seems like an elegant way to solve this problem without introducing too much extra insecurity or complexity. In case you're not familiar: in Android, third-party applications can tell the OS that they're capable of certain things—uploading an image, for example, or opening a webpage. When you tap the "share" button on an image or click a link, the operating system can then present you with a full list of all first- and third-party applications that are capable of doing what you want.
iOS currently offers a very limited version of this for certain files via the "Open In" menu—I can take a document from Dropbox and open it in Office Mobile or Pages. But I can't then send that file back to Dropbox. It either needs to live in Microsoft's or Apple's cloud until I can get back to a computer with more robust file management capabilities.
Rumors indicate that something not unlike Intents is coming to iOS 8, and we'd be glad to see it. It's a logical extension of the existing Share menu that would make iPhones and iPads more flexible.
A more useful Home screen (Android and Windows Phone 8.1)
iOS 7 was a big design overhaul, but one thing hasn't changed at all: the Home screen is still a static grid of icons. It's a hub you use to jump from app to app, but aside from those little red notification badges it doesn't really do much by itself. This is in contrast to both Android and Windows Phone, which use widgets and Live Tiles (respectively) to offer up snippets of information at a glance. Apple's line has always been that putting any kind of widget or Live Tile equivalent on iOS would be too much of a drain on the battery, and while we think this argument is a little facile, the company hasn't budged on the issue in seven years.
That doesn't mean we're going to stop asking, though. Microsoft's Live Tile model could be adopted without drastically disrupting iOS' icons-on-a-grid design approach. We even know that icons can be designed to be more dynamic—Apple's Calendar and Clock icons always show the current date and time, respectively. Let third parties get in on the fun.
iOS 7 did introduce the "Today" view in the notification center, which offers some information at-a-glance—the weather, some data on how long it would take you to get home from where you are, the day's appointments and reminders, and information about your stocks if you have them. Like so many other things about iOS, the Today view is made less useful than it could be by its inability to incorporate information from apps other than Apple's.
Gesture typing (Android and Windows Phone 8.1)
It may have started life as a niche feature, but Swype-style gesture typing has invaded the default keyboards for both Android and Windows phones. On Android it's been a part of Google's stock keyboard since version 4.2 and it's a default feature in most OEM handsets, and Microsoft introduces the feature to its stock Windows Phone keyboard in the 8.1 update. It takes some getting used to, but gesture typing is quite a bit faster than the traditional two-thumbed tapping that iOS has always used and continues to use.
iOS' keyboard in general is an area where Apple is lagging behind Google and Microsoft (though the company would probably argue that it's opting to keep things simple, not lagging behind), and the list of inadequacies is getting pretty long. It lacks good predictive typing, gesture typing, and even an unambiguous Shift key. Apple may have contributed a lot to the modern software keyboard, but it's starting to feel a little behind the times.
A more capable Siri (Android and Windows Phone 8.1)
Here's another area where Apple sparked interest in a feature but then fell behind its competitors. Using Siri today is basically the same as using Siri in iOS 5 three years ago. Press the Home button, talk to your phone, and your phone will do what you want.
Both Google Now and Microsoft's Cortana outdo Siri by trying to give you information before you ask for it. You can tell Cortana all kinds of things about yourself that helps hone its recommendations. Google Now looks at your e-mails and seamlessly delivers information about flights, packages, movies, and directions. Siri isn't bad when I know what I want, but I'd like a personal assistant that can tell me what I want before I even have to ask.
All of the major mobile operating systems borrow heavily from each other these days, so we looked at our Android and Windows phones to find features that we hope will "inspire" Apple's software designers. We'd honestly be surprised to see Apple implement all of these—the company takes a very careful approach to new features, and it tends not to add new features for the sake of adding new features. In any case, this is a list of the things we miss most when we jump back to iOS after spending time with Android or Windows Phone 8.1, and we think Apple would be able to find a way to implement them without making iOS needlessly confusing or complex for users.
Customizable quick settings (Windows Phone 8.1)
Control Center is one of our favorite additions to iOS 7. It gives you instant access to a handful of hardware and playback settings, and even if it didn't change at all in iOS 8 it would still do most of what you'd need it to do.
There's always room for improvement. Take Windows Phone 8.1's new "Quick Actions" feature, which puts a row of quick settings across the top of the screen when you pull down the Notification Center shade. Windows Phone actually fits fewer shortcuts than iOS does—four, instead of the 13 or so things you'll find on Apple's version—but those four shortcuts are fully customizable by the user. iOS' defaults are going to be perfectly fine for most people, but being able to tweak those settings to incorporate the ones you use the most often will make it even more useful.
Intents (Android)
One of iOS' longstanding limitations is that third-party applications can only interact with one another in limited ways. Certain services that have been blessed by Apple (Facebook, Twitter) can do a little more now that they're integrated into the operating system. Most applications still live in their own little sandboxes.
Android's "intents" system seems like an elegant way to solve this problem without introducing too much extra insecurity or complexity. In case you're not familiar: in Android, third-party applications can tell the OS that they're capable of certain things—uploading an image, for example, or opening a webpage. When you tap the "share" button on an image or click a link, the operating system can then present you with a full list of all first- and third-party applications that are capable of doing what you want.
iOS currently offers a very limited version of this for certain files via the "Open In" menu—I can take a document from Dropbox and open it in Office Mobile or Pages. But I can't then send that file back to Dropbox. It either needs to live in Microsoft's or Apple's cloud until I can get back to a computer with more robust file management capabilities.
Rumors indicate that something not unlike Intents is coming to iOS 8, and we'd be glad to see it. It's a logical extension of the existing Share menu that would make iPhones and iPads more flexible.
A more useful Home screen (Android and Windows Phone 8.1)
iOS 7 was a big design overhaul, but one thing hasn't changed at all: the Home screen is still a static grid of icons. It's a hub you use to jump from app to app, but aside from those little red notification badges it doesn't really do much by itself. This is in contrast to both Android and Windows Phone, which use widgets and Live Tiles (respectively) to offer up snippets of information at a glance. Apple's line has always been that putting any kind of widget or Live Tile equivalent on iOS would be too much of a drain on the battery, and while we think this argument is a little facile, the company hasn't budged on the issue in seven years.
That doesn't mean we're going to stop asking, though. Microsoft's Live Tile model could be adopted without drastically disrupting iOS' icons-on-a-grid design approach. We even know that icons can be designed to be more dynamic—Apple's Calendar and Clock icons always show the current date and time, respectively. Let third parties get in on the fun.
iOS 7 did introduce the "Today" view in the notification center, which offers some information at-a-glance—the weather, some data on how long it would take you to get home from where you are, the day's appointments and reminders, and information about your stocks if you have them. Like so many other things about iOS, the Today view is made less useful than it could be by its inability to incorporate information from apps other than Apple's.
Gesture typing (Android and Windows Phone 8.1)
It may have started life as a niche feature, but Swype-style gesture typing has invaded the default keyboards for both Android and Windows phones. On Android it's been a part of Google's stock keyboard since version 4.2 and it's a default feature in most OEM handsets, and Microsoft introduces the feature to its stock Windows Phone keyboard in the 8.1 update. It takes some getting used to, but gesture typing is quite a bit faster than the traditional two-thumbed tapping that iOS has always used and continues to use.
iOS' keyboard in general is an area where Apple is lagging behind Google and Microsoft (though the company would probably argue that it's opting to keep things simple, not lagging behind), and the list of inadequacies is getting pretty long. It lacks good predictive typing, gesture typing, and even an unambiguous Shift key. Apple may have contributed a lot to the modern software keyboard, but it's starting to feel a little behind the times.
A more capable Siri (Android and Windows Phone 8.1)
Here's another area where Apple sparked interest in a feature but then fell behind its competitors. Using Siri today is basically the same as using Siri in iOS 5 three years ago. Press the Home button, talk to your phone, and your phone will do what you want.
Both Google Now and Microsoft's Cortana outdo Siri by trying to give you information before you ask for it. You can tell Cortana all kinds of things about yourself that helps hone its recommendations. Google Now looks at your e-mails and seamlessly delivers information about flights, packages, movies, and directions. Siri isn't bad when I know what I want, but I'd like a personal assistant that can tell me what I want before I even have to ask.
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