iOS 12 wishlist

iCloud notifications. I'm so sick of my iPhone and iPad getting the same notifications if they're in the same room.

 

That's in for half of eternity already. The thing is devs have to do the heavy lifting and add it themselves. There are quite a few apps that clear notifications and keep them in sync already but most simply don't bother.

 

Yes apps like Twitter will clear them automatically. I still get dinged on multiple devices. I want iOS to recognize when two devices are in close proximity (either via bluetooth or WiFi network) and only alert me on one device.

 

Nowadays?

I'm still bugged by restaurant wifi popping up and taking over my screen when I walk nearby. (Thanks, Taco Bell! Sure do love seeing your logo cover up the app I was using.) I'm still bugged by public wifi that's slower than AT&T. I still have a fitbit that sometimes tells me it has low battery so I kill my bluetooth to keep it from vibrating every time I get a text message.

All of these are temporary things which is why I really do like the new default. I can turn stuff off and know it'll fix itself later.

What makes any of that pointless?

 

A few things:

• A music app that lets you easily play the music that's on your device, without all the cloud clutter, but then I guess I could still use Cesium.
• An updated podcast app, including updating the sleep mode to allow play the next X podcasts, not just up to an hour or finish the current podcast.
• Mail updates, including the ability to configure, say GMAIL, but use a different email address (alias) and login (actual gmail address).
• in "MyAlbums" of Photos, add a "not in any other of my albums" album, so I can easily go through and file stuff without wondering if I already put that picture in an album.
• Ability to define default maps app other than Apple Maps.
• More features on control center, such as adjust ringer volume, 3d touch on do not disturb to configure do not disturb, and blank entries to place icons where you want them.
• Better spam call filtering to phone app.

 

Setting aspect ratio in the camera app. I download my pictures and will print a fair amount of them. Having to constantly manually crop them for the standard 4X6 format is getting old.

 

That‘s why the current behavior was added. And you should maybe start managing your wifi connections better (disable auto-join for public slow ones or turning off the suggest networks feature), that‘s not something Apple can help you with.

 

What?

That's something no one can help me with. No matter if I leave "ask to join networks" on or off I will get pop-ups bothering me. It just changes the type of pop-up that it is.

I don't really care whether it's an iOS pop-up or a custom-ad pop-up. I'm more interested in not seeing any at all which can only be accomplished by turning off wifi.

 

- Dark Mode iPhone X
- AirPlay 2.0: way more setup stuff: use the Apple TV for center channel and two HomePods as stereo to create 2.1 and stuff. Loaaaaaaaaaaaads of room for improvement there.
- HomeKit 2.0: HomePod & Apple TV integration in scenes.
- Expanded DND-functionality: different settings for weekdays & weekends, more auto-reply functions, settings depending on location, ...
- Siri 2.0: it's time they take her to the next level!
- Better communication between all the devices when it comes to Hey Siri, notifications, ...

 

I would love the ability to edit song metadata within the Music app. Not sure if that would ever happen, but it's really the only feature I still want.

 

I don't have much:

An ability to close all apps at once

More improvements for Apple Music (genres, years, decades, etc....)

True dark mode for iOS (would be handy for me on the iPad)

 

Just one wish for iOS 12: that we don’t have to spend 4 months with missing features, showstopper bugs, and slop, and wait until February 2019 to have an OS that actually works properly.

Don’t care if literally nothing else changes. Hopefully it’s the most boring, but most solid major iOS update ever.

 

Apple Mail being one where they haven't bothered to sort it out! It annoys me that using mail the lockscreen and app badge wouldn't go away without physically opening the app on each device (iPad and iPhone). Yet it works perfectly well for the likes of Spark, Airmail, Outlook etc.

 

1. Dark/Night mode
2. Better stability + performance
3. Better, or at worst, same battery life as iOS11.

 

For me, my hopes but not expectations are:

- Ability to set apps to replace inbuilt options. Eg: I'd prefer to use Chrome as my default iPhone browser. I use Chrome on the desktop but not on the iPhone as clicking any links etc always opens Safari. I'd like a way to be able to customise default applications for the browser, mail client, calendar apps etc.

- A Night mode would be great. Wish it was set up sort of like Night Shift is so it is toggled on and off on a schedule.

- The ability to choose a wi-fi network or bluetooth device to connect to directly from Control Centre. Having to go into Settings to change network or connect to a different device is frustrating. Even a 3d touch option to go to those lists in settings would suffice.

 

Don't outsource it to Bethesda to do?

 

Good list! I agree with greater Camera controls and Files
being an actual file browser....

 

Leave the default the way it is - only turns off until tomorrow.
But put a switch in the settings to turn them back to hard on/off for users who know/understand how to to use it and who want it that way. (or 3 switches, to turn them into hard vs daily on/off individually)

Here is an example. On a 2/3/4 week driving vaca around the country, I would want to turn off my bluetooth for the whole time. Why? Because otherwise, it is always a cap-shoot if my or my wife's phone is going to get close to the car/rv and connect first. We want to know that one phone is always the one with hands-free connection, contact list, and audio play capabilities without worrying to remember to check the setup every morning or every time we go to a meal.

--- Post Merged, Feb 21, 2018 ---

The ability to setup and configure groups in Contacts.
I don't want to have to go to my computer to do that.

 

I don’t think iOS 12 will even matter to me as I’ll still be on my mini 2 and I doubt it will be still supported.

 

Apple goes to great lengths to ensure that their operating systems (Mac, iOS) are never close to perfect. A near flawless OS is a disaster for them. They learned their lesson with Snow Leopard 10.6.8 that if you make something as nice as that (the best Mac OS ever) people will refuse to upgrade in the future and "progress" stops.

iOS will forever be frustrating, limited, dissapointing and buggy by design. But it will always have a little candy (new features) thrown in to entice people to upgrade - only to realize too late that it was a downgrade.

iOS (or the Mac) will forever be a work in progress. Will always be a bit irritating.

 

I'd like them to fix the hot mess that is notifications, control center and widgets. But that's wishful thinking.

 

One important thing is the ability to exclude certain apps from the "auto offload apps" feature.
For instance, authenticators would be aweful if they got offloaded...

 

That is an ignorant statement if I ever read one. No software (greater than 1 line) is ever perfect. NO company wants bugs and errors but with millions of people using software on a bunch of different machines and each usage is different from every one else - it is impossible to take every possible situation in to account.
Sorry that reality doesn't interest you or that you can understand that

 

I don’t really have much.
-Apple Music handoff. So my music can continue on my iPad or Apple TV or HomePod.
- improved Siri
- In the battery widget I’d like to see the battery on my other Apple devices. For example I can see my MacBook battery percent on my iPhone or iPad. Or on the iPad I can see my Apple Watch and iPhone battery percentage.
-Weather and calculator apps for iPad
-dark mode