Apple Tweaks Mail Toolbar Once Again in iOS 13.4 Beta 2, Replacing Flag Button With Compose Button

[MacRumors]

With the first beta of iOS 13.4, Apple introduced a redesigned Mail toolbar that moves the reply icon away from the delete icon, a design that people had complained about since the release of iOS 13 because it made it easy to accidentally delete an email by tapping the wrong button.

The first beta featured the delete button on the far left, the reply button on the far right, and folder and flag buttons in the middle, but with the second beta that was released this morning, Apple has once again tweaked the design.

As seen in the image above, the new toolbar features a compose icon on the far right, a reply button next to it, a folder icon, and then the delete icon, still on the far left.

The updated design eliminates the dedicated flag icon, which is presumably not a feature that most people use on a regular basis. The inclusion of a compose button makes more sense and offers more utility than the prior flag icon. For those who do often use the flag icon, it can be accessed after tapping the reply button.

We may see more tweaks to the Mail toolbar in upcoming betas, but this at least seems like a much more logical design that should satisfy people who have been unhappy with the iOS 13 Mail app toolbar.

Article Link: Apple Tweaks Mail Toolbar Once Again in iOS 13.4 Beta 2, Replacing Flag Button With Compose Button

 

[IMPOSSIBLEMAN]

"The inclusion of a compose button makes more sense and offers more utility than the prior flag icon "

No it is not. I can compose by hitting the reply button. Flagging is good for Follow-up and highlighting important emails.

And it bugs me we are at iOS 13.4 still without a dedicated number row at the top of the keyboard!

 

[fmcshan]

A much needed change but I really wish Apple would just go back to the same toolbar we had in iOS 12.

 

[ghostface147]

I guess I forgot how it looked in iOS 12.

 

[zachdog]

Is it too much to ask to go back to the iOS 12 version, which had a flag, folder, trash, reply, and compose icons?

Apple, this is DUMB. Mail in iOS 13 has been three steps back.

 

[itsmilo]

Why can’t we just pick what we want there ourselves. Choices are good sometimes, Apple

 

[Razeus]

Looks like there's still a lot of white space for a flag button. Jesus.

 

[ghanwani]

Somebody got paid a lot of money to create the mess. Now somebody else will get paid a lot of money to "fix" it. We could have just stayed where we were without these two glorious innovations.

 

[EvilEvil]

Somebody got paid a lot of money to create the mess. Now somebody else will get paid a lot of money to "fix" it. We could have just stayed where we were without these two glorious innovations.

Yep. I have friends who work at Apple and they say they often have too many cooks with egos in the kitchen.

 

[cmaier]

Why can’t we just pick what we want there ourselves. Choices are good sometimes, Apple

Until you have to provide I.T. Support to your family members who accidentally replaced the buttons and can’t figure out how to reply to an email anymore.

 

[SeattleMoose]

If we are messing with iOS, can we FINALLY put in an alarm time limit choice? As it stands the alarm will sound for around 15 minutes or until you physically shut it off. I would like to be able to set max alarm time to 30 seconds.

 

[Jaylay14]

Watch in the iOS 13.4 Beta 3 update, they end up updating the mail toolbar again and add a 5th icon. Which will then add the flag button back. 😂

 

[cmaier]

If we are messing with iOS, can we FINALLY put in an alarm time limit choice? As it stands the alarm will sound for around 15 minutes or until you physically shut it off. I would like to be able to set max alarm time to 30 seconds.

Ah, so you are one of “those people” who sets an alarm, then leaves your device somewhere where it can annoy people when the alarm goes off and nobody is there to shut it off?

 

[WiseAJ]

I wish the Trash and Compose icon were swapped

 

[profets]

Come on, with the sizes of the displays we have can they really not put the flag button on the toolbar? What a joke.

 

[dernhelm]

If you have time to tweak button locations, you have time to fix the most annoying bug I've ever encountered - please stop mail from randomly popping up over what I'm working on, or popping up split screen when I'm watching a movie!

Edit: I know this is a mail on iOS thread. But it just happened again while I was reading this thread, and I just couldn't help myself...

 

[adammusic]

Just use Spark and completely customize the bottom tab bar.
Maybe is ios 46.

stock mail app is terrible

also my stock mail app has trouble sending chunks of pictures through email. They just sit in the sent folder & never send. Fix that **** apple.

 

[now i see it]

clearly a sign that they can't make up their minds in Cupertino. I wonder how many meetings and ECNs need to be drawn up for this indecision. Email was figured out more than 20 years ago and yet they're still trying to figure it out

 

[cmaier]

clearly a sign that they can't make up their minds in Cupertino. I wonder how many meetings and ECNs need to be drawn up for this indecision. Email was figured out more than 20 years ago and yet they're still trying to figure it out

If your point is that pine was the pinnacle of email client design, nobody here is disagreeing with you.

 

[konqerror]

clearly a sign that they can't make up their minds in Cupertino. I wonder how many meetings and ECNs need to be drawn up for this indecision. Email was figured out more than 20 years ago and yet they're still trying to figure it out

I was going to comment along those lines that they should be spending money and doing user studies, with people and hidden cameras testing various prototypes. This seems like they're throwing poop against the wall and seeing what sticks.

 

[bluecoast]

A huge company like Apple should not be making these sorts of mistakes.

Mind you, neither should they be releasing laptops with keyboards that easily break.

Anyway, I agree with many others on this thread - can we just regress iOS Mail back to its iOS 12 version? I can’t think of a single thing that iOS 13 Mail does that’s better.

And this is from someone who thinks that iOS mail is a stagnant pool of an app (ditto Mac Mail).

 

[itsbennyfuchs]

Why not just simply let users customize their toolbars 🤔

I hope Apple will establish a more user dedicated software design approach for iOS 14.

 

[cmaier]

Why not just simply let users customize their toolbars 🤔

There are always trade-offs. As a user it’s easy to say “why not just let me customize x, y, z” but a large part of the reason Apple software has traditionally been better than the competition is that Apple makes these decisions instead of delegating them to users.

 

[bluecoast]

Why not just simply let users customize their toolbars 🤔

I hope Apple will establish a more user dedicated software design approach for iOS 14.

I hope they have a switch control in iOS 14 Mail settings called:

Label text:
‘Put controls in the reply menu which are nothing to do with replying to an email’
On/off (default set to off)

 

[GregJohn]

I hope they have a switch control in iOS 14 Mail settings called:

Label text:
‘Put controls in the reply menu which are nothing to do with replying to an email’
On/off (default set to off)

OMG 😆
iOS 14 seems like it will be very boring... but Apple does surprise us... sometimes