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How would you improve iPadOS, from a day-to-day usability perspective, if you had the chance? (Other than make it fully MacOS)

tweaknmod

tweaknmod

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 13, 2012
605
2,190
Ottawa, Ontario
My ideas:

Have the “Enter Passcode” interface appear immediately, rather than waiting 5 seconds (I just timed it) for Face ID to fail.

Again, this is for when it’s laying flat on my desk, and I know I’m going to use the passcode, and not faceid. I don’t want to lean over, or pick it up.

I would love to be able to five-finger-pinch to lock the screen, when the iPad is on the home screen.

When sitting at my desk, I often leave my iPad to the right of my keyboard and mouse, and use it for jotting down notes with the pencil.

When I know I’m not going to use it again for a while, I’d prefer to be able to five-finger-pinch twice to lock the screen, rather than use the button on the top.


Note: I know these are tiny things, but I think the beauty of Apple products and software over the years has been the number of tiny things that add-up to be greater than the sum of their parts.
 
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Umm.. never really had an issue with ”Enter Passcode” not appearing as quickly as I want.. but that’s a good point. I had timed it myself… I actually had 4 seconds instead of 5.

But I’m of the group that does not care to have macOS on the iPad and I think the biggest omission of iPadOS is simultaneously audio streams. Having this amount of screen real estate where multitasking exist it is baffling that Apple hasn’t implemented some type of simultaneously audio feature.

One of my biggest gripes with iPadOS is the notification alerts… so instead of placing macOS on an iPad, I‘d rather Apple use macOS style notifications alerts (coming from left/right side depending on the user). This is one of those stances that will separate it from iOS… since that was the idea behind iPadOS.

And the notification alerts doesn’t necessarily have to be exactly like macOS… I just think the center style that we have currently should be revamped. But I’m sure if Apple decides to change the notifications alerts then the Notification Center would be changed as well…
 
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Currently, when I take a screenshot on my iPad, it defaults to full-screen, then I crop the part I want to keep. I wish there was a way to instantly screenshot a specific part of the screen (sorta like the cmd+shift+4) option on my Mac. It would make it easier to get images to upload into quizizz or nearpod when designing lessons. Unless I am an idiot and this feature has always existed and I am simply not aware of it.

Wish there was also a way to unlock my iPad while wearing a mask or with my Apple Watch, just like on my iPhone.

Just some of my pet peeves as a teacher.
 
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I think the Dock should have more functionality like it does on the Mac. A little icon to show which apps are open, and the ability to close apps from the Dock. Also the ability to put specific folders (like Downloads and Documents) in the dock to quickly open.

And I think a toggle to turn on a Mission Control style multi task interface while in stage manager would really improve the stage manager experience.

Both MacOS features, I understand. But IMO are both very “Apple” features, that are easy to understand and very useful.

A screen saver, especially when connected to an external monitor, would be a nice option.

Lastly, a first party CALCULATOR!
 
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  • Allow more than the 4 x 4 grid of apps to appear in a folder. It's annoying to have, say, 18 apps in a folder and have to swipe to a second internal folder window to see the last two when there's plenty of screen real estate to accommodate a larger grid. I don't mind if I see only 16 apps per folder on the main screen, as long as I can see more when I open the folder.
  • Make Folders more like Finder. I like List view in Finder, where I can see all my folders and files as small icons, expand and collapse nested folders, and drag files and folders from one folder to another. Folders has improved quite a bit, and at least it has a version of List view, but it's still not as friendly as Finder.
All in all, I'm happy with the improvements that have been made in iPadOS from year to year. Extended Desktop mode in Stage Manager, which is coming in 16.2, was one of the biggest items on my wish list.
 
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Off the top of my head…

Have text editing work correctly, like it does on Android.
Allow the EQ to affect the loudspeakers as well as plugged in earphones, like you can on a Samsung device.
Get rid of the flipping awful ‘start page’ on Safari. I want new tabs to open to Google’s search page out of tradition/habit.
Have Safari updates outside of iOS updates.
 
Ludatyk said:
Do you mind elaborating on this?


Yeah, I don’t see this happening... because the next question would be why stop at Safari, what about Notes, Reminders and all the other Apple‘s apps.
Click to expand...
Editing autocorrection errors and sometimes typos too is a PITA in iOS.
 
  • Being able to have more apps in the dock than we currently can (with smaller icons like macOS)
  • Full support for maintaining a video call without your camera going off when you switch to another app
  • Health, full Fitness (with workout data history), Wallet, Calculator, and Phone apps (for Wi-Fi calling and with access to voicemails/synced call logs please!!)
  • All devices being shown in Now Playing (so I can control my iPad from my iPhone, etc)
  • All devices shown in the Battery widget and their sub-devices as well (so I can see the battery of my iPad’s Bluetooth keyboard from my iPhone, etc)
 
For one, I wouldn’t make it macOS or anything close to It. 🤓

For context, I‘m using a 12.9” 2018 iPad Pro with Magic Keyboard and Pencil. Stage Manager is my default window management system and I frequently use Playgrounds, Safari with 1Blocker, Mail, TV, Photos, etc. This is primarily my streaming and puttering with code/photography device.

1. Make the Apple Pencil a genuine navigation device. With my configuration, I rarely touch the screen (plus fingerprints drive me bonkers) so I either use the Magic Keyboard’s trackpad or Apple Pencil, which works well for games like Mini Motorways. However, some apps/games choose to ignore it so it’s an inconsistent/unreliable experience.
2. Make FaceID have feature parity with FaceID on iPhone. There are times where I still need to wear a mask and use my iPad Pro, however, unlike my iPhone, can’t accommodate that scenario and I have to manually enter my long passcode.
3. (Hardware related) Move the camera to the right side (if portrait)/top (if landscape) on the 12.9”. Feel free to keep the IR scanner and other FaceID technology where it is, but it’s a suboptimal experience in its current location. Alternatively, support Continuity Camera.
4. Given the appropriate hardware (which may not yet exist), support virtualization. I could see keeping this to an Ultra line with 13”+ screen and 16GB RAM, but it would be nice to run either seamlessly virtualized applications (for security/privacy reasons) or entirely virtualized operating systems (e.g., macOS/Windows).
5. (Browser related) Support an option to disable all auto playing ads (even ones without audio)
6. Extend iCloud Private Relay to apps (not just Safari)
7. Keep iterating on Playgrounds (e.g., supporting testing, VCS, etc.)
8. Proactive proximity sync. (This would please Austin Mann and me as whenever I’m traveling) Have you ever needed to sync files (say, a large video you just recorded in 4k ProRes) to a nearby device but have lousy Wi-Fi so can’t wait for iCloud? Why not just bring the device near the other one (thanks Ultrawideband!) and have it suggest that you sync (similar to HomePod mini). One could transfer to the other via a local wireless network (similar to hotspot functionality).


I have more on my wishlist, but those are the top items for now.
 
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hoo-man-b-ing said:
For one, I wouldn’t make it macOS or anything close to It. 🤓

For context, I‘m using a 12.9” 2018 iPad Pro with Magic Keyboard and Pencil. Stage Manager is my default window management system and I frequently use Playgrounds, Safari with 1Blocker, Mail, TV, Photos, etc. This is primarily my streaming and puttering with code/photography device.

1. Make the Apple Pencil a genuine navigation device. With my configuration, I rarely touch the screen (plus fingerprints drive me bonkers) so I either use the Magic Keyboard’s trackpad or Apple Pencil, which works well for games like Mini Motorways. However, some apps/games choose to ignore it so it’s an inconsistent/unreliable experience.
2. Make FaceID have feature parity with FaceID on iPhone. There are times where I still need to wear a mask and use my iPad Pro, however, unlike my iPhone, can’t accommodate that scenario and I have to manually enter my long passcode.
3. (Hardware related) Move the camera to the right side (if portrait)/top (if landscape) on the 12.9”. Feel free to keep the IR scanner and other FaceID technology where it is, but it’s a suboptimal experience in its current location. Alternatively, support Continuity Camera.
4. Given the appropriate hardware (which may not yet exist), support virtualization. I could see keeping this to an Ultra line with 13”+ screen and 16GB RAM, but it would be nice to run either seamlessly virtualized applications (for security/privacy reasons) or entirely virtualized operating systems (e.g., macOS/Windows).
5. (Browser related) Support an option to disable all auto playing ads (even ones without audio)
6. Extend iCloud Private Relay to apps (not just Safari)
7. Keep iterating on Playgrounds (e.g., supporting testing, VCS, etc.)
8. Proactive proximity sync. (This would please Austin Mann and me as whenever I’m traveling) Have you ever needed to sync files (say, a large video you just recorded in 4k ProRes) to a nearby device but have lousy Wi-Fi so can’t wait for iCloud? Why not just bring the device near the other one (thanks Ultrawideband!) and have it suggest that you sync (similar to HomePod mini). One could transfer to the other via a local wireless network (similar to hotspot functionality).


I have more on my wishlist, but those are the top items for now.
Click to expand...
Those sound great! None of them are way out of left field, either; they're all fairly realistic, I think.

And thanks for putting so much effort and thought into your response — posts like this make these forums much more interesting.
 
I don't think the iPad needs MacOS as iPadOS sits perfectly well within the user band who buy a $400 and $600 computer.

Anyway:

- Notification management ripped from the Mac. Swiping down on the screen is cumbersome and a waste of screen space. I would have it sat as a LH-side swipe that brings up a list of notifications. These would be extended to be system-wide like on the Mac (or Growl) so it lets me know when something has finished downloading or has been unplugged.

- As a result, the lockscreen gone. It would appear after turning the screen off with the hardware switch but not with a swipe-down anymore.

- Replace the entire Stage Manager interface. Have the desktops appear with a swipe-down from the top of the screen in a 3x3 grid that takes up the whole display. You could then easily move windows from one screen to another in a much larger interface. As it stands the LH-swipe can only display 4 tiny 'stages' even if you have 6-7 open which makes it quite useless.

- Make the swipe-up window switcher 3x3 rather than 2x2.

- With a Pencil, swiping down from a top corner would activate Exposé. Having 4 windows piled on top of each other with no way to tell what they are on an 11" screen is not fun.

- Get rid of the widget dashboard and replace it with the aforementioned notification list instead. Widgets can be plonked on the desktop so this page is redundant.
 
- allow three-fingers drag on trackpad.
- get rid of the terrible two-finger-tap-to-select-entire-paragraph that makes the on screen keyboard unusable for fast typers.
- solve the weird resizing "grid pinning" in stage manager
 
I have very little issue with how the iPad already is, and it’s so hard to think of stuff. I haven’t owned a personal laptop and have used an iPad as my main computing device since iPadOS 13, and since iPadOS 15 my Mac and PC will sometimes go weeks without me touching them, because my iPad does it all. Even my photo and video editing.

That being said I’m able to think of a few things:
- I would really like it to have a more fleshed out Notification Center. Rather than from the top I wish it was like macOS or Windows where it slides in from the side. I would appreciate notifications to come in like they do on the Mac too. When I used to jailbreak, LionCenter and MacNotifications were mandatory on the iPad.

- It would be nice to allow the Home Screen to be more desktop-like. I’d enjoy being able to have actual files and folders from the Files app be on my actual Home Screen.

- Please just let me do the screenshot gesture from the corner without the Apple Pencil! I can already do the quick note shortcut without it!
 
I really really like iPad OS as it is but of course there are things that can be improved.

  1. Stage manager fixes (assuming not replacing with mission control)
    1. Update multitasking switcher and give users the option to organize/group windows by stage instead of by app
    2. Drag and drop between stages while in multitasking switcher
    3. Magnet-like hot corners
      1. drag to each corner to snap to that quarter of the display
      2. drag to left or right to snap to respective half of display
      3. drag to top middle to snap to fill the screen
      4. drag to bottom middle to drag into multitasking switcher
    4. Swipe from right edge to enter Stage-Expose which shows all windows on the current stage so that we can tap on windows at the back of the stack
      1. Since slide-over is no longer a thing in stage manager
    5. Show all app windows more powerful
      1. When showing all windows for the current app or other apps keep the current stage on the right and then show all other windows organized in a vertically scrolling list on the left that shows the app in the context of whatever stage it is a part of
  2. Files should save nearly instantaneously
    1. Often when saving even small PDFs to files from a website it takes 5-10 seconds to save, this is unreasonably slow
  3. Better Print Options
    1. Bring more of the macOS print options to iPad (such as page scaling)
  4. Universal status/menu bar
    1. Make the status bar a fixed colour (adaptive colour breaks when in split view because it doesn't always know which colour to be)
    2. Add a dedicated drag down area for spotlight search
    3. Add a dedicated drag down area for notifications
    4. Add the active app name at the far left - dragging down from that will bring up the apps menu (the same one you get by holding down the command key when a keyboard is attached) this helps people who want the menu when keyboard isn't attached
  5. Folders in the dock (already mentioned but a good idea)
  6. All apps in dock should not take over whole screen but should be some sort of folder like popover that doesn't completely blur the screen
  7. Remap Haptic Touch to be equal to long press
    1. Haptic Touch should be a faster way of getting a long press/right click - this will ensure that long press/right click/Haptic Touch menu options are easier for users to discover and use
  8. Software development improvements
    1. Let me have a sandboxed development environment where I can do things like install PyTorch and TensorFlow and use them via a python to swift interface such as PythonKit
    2. Bring over Xcode and keep Swift Playgrounds as the more education focused app
  9. App Store changes - too many to mention but here are a few
    1. Get rid of the scummy way most games are monetized and provide better monetization schemes to actually incentivize developers (not just game devs) to bring apps with the full power of their desktop versions to iPad OS
  10. Don't bifurcate virtual memory - all iPads that can support it via hardware should (we outsiders don't know which A-series chips can support it but my suspicion is that all of them likely do given that I suspect Apple can use more than the built in memory)
  11. Don't limit external display support or stage manager to M1 iPads and A12X iPads - if connected to an external screen and a keyboard and trackpad an iPad mini with an A15 should get stage manager and good external display support too.

Those are most of the ones I can think of right now ...

I don't like that stage manager is its own discrete mode, a version of mission control for iPad would let resizable windows, fullscreen, split view, and slide-over coexist but I don't think we are going to get that so I'll just advocate for improvements to stage manager.

The iPad is great - when the magic keyboard I can go from tablet to laptop to tablet again so quickly and it is really powerful how flexible it is.

One thing I don't want is macOS or some separate desktop mode - instead Apple should keep pushing the iPad to be the best it can be by continuing to address edge cases in a way suitable for a touch first device - even if many people leave it docked for hours at a time. For people who want macOS on a touch device they really should just make a touchscreen Mac, it doesn't make sense to bring macOS to the iPad when a touchscreen Mac would make so much more sense (since it would always have a keyboard and mouse connected to fall back to where you can't make that guarantee on iPad).
 
Make diacritics easier to enter with external keyboard. Why doesn't press and hold bring up character variants like it will on macOS and the virtual keyboard, for that matter? Some can be entered using dead keys but that doesn't support as many variants and requires some memory skills.
 
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For both iPadOS and iOS, I would like to be able to turn off the so-called 'Home affordance', the line that appears at the bottom of the screen (on devices that lack a physical Home button) to remind you that you can swipe left-right to switch tasks, swipe up to return to Home, or invoke task switcher. If you've used iOS for more than a week or two, there's no need to be 'reminded' and it is just a distraction.

As things stand, app developers have explicitly write code to make it go away whenever they judge it to be too distracting (watching video, reading a book). And sometimes they don't bother (e.g. Apple News app).

Perhaps it served some transitional purpose when user migrate from devices with Home buttons, but at this point it is more like a UI 'appendix': serves no known purpose.
 
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