iOS 16 is pretty meh. But they finally fixed the horrible Contacts app interface

[SW3029]

I installed the public beta of iOS 16 for the first time yesterday. Honestly, I was shocked at just how small of an update it feels like.

Apple spends so much time marketing the redesigned lock screen - but in reality, it's a pretty small improvement. Multiple lock screens. Widgets on lock screen. And that's it.

Other major features like unsending messages is very welcome, but again these are minor improvement tweaks to existing apps that shouldn't require a major iOS release.

But I guess that's what you get when an operating system is mature and on its 16th version already. Just how much can you really radically improve it each year?

One thing I haven't seen mentioned anywhere – that I'm ecstatic over – is Apple FINALLY fixed the Contacts app. Gone is the baffling UI where you needed to pull up a sheet and then tap to check what Contacts groups you want to display in the app. In its place is the logical column-view UI again, where you can simply tap into any group you want without having to pull up a sheet to select the groups you want to display.

I have no idea why Apple ever ditched the column view interface in the first place, but glad it's finally back after all these years.

 

[Kyriakosss4]

I hope apple improves the dialer as well, so that we could move the cursor when typing a number for example.

 

[jd369]

Does anyone know how to merge two lists? I inadvertently made two and would prefer to only have one.

 

[Chevyman29]

Here's a novel idea,, how about a T9 dialer .. instead of the ridiculous mess ios has now .

 

[NoGood@Usernames]

I hope apple improves the dialer as well, so that we could move the cursor when typing a number for example.

Also, including the stir/shaken “carrier verified” checkmark on the incoming call screen where it might actually be useful would be nice!

 

[gigapocket1]

I agree… I updated this morning. And other than the lock screen. It’s pretty meh.

 

[addamas]

I hope apple improves the dialer as well, so that we could move the cursor when typing a number for example.

You mean this one?

 

[17fox]

I installed the public beta of iOS 16 for the first time yesterday. Honestly, I was shocked at just how small of an update it feels like.

Apple spends so much time marketing the redesigned lock screen - but in reality, it's a pretty small improvement. Multiple lock screens. Widgets on lock screen. And that's it.

Other major features like unsending messages is very welcome, but again these are minor improvement tweaks to existing apps that shouldn't require a major iOS release.

But I guess that's what you get when an operating system is mature and on its 16th version already. Just how much can you really radically improve it each year?

One thing I haven't seen mentioned anywhere – that I'm ecstatic over – is Apple FINALLY fixed the Contacts app. Gone is the baffling UI where you needed to pull up a sheet and then tap to check what Contacts groups you want to display in the app. In its place is the logical column-view UI again, where you can simply tap into any group you want without having to pull up a sheet to select the groups you want to display.

I have no idea why Apple ever ditched the column view interface in the first place, but glad it's finally back after all these years.

I fully agree with you, that iOS 16 feels like a small update, they haven't even updated icons to match MacOS style. There is new lockscreen, new features to Messages and that's it, nothing really special. I do hope for iOS 17 to have some bigger changes
This is also the main reason, why I am probably staying on the current version of iOS 15 this year.

 

[Black Magic]

Does anyone know how to merge two lists? I inadvertently made two and would prefer to only have one.

I had to use a Mac to move contacts from one Group to another.

 

[Kyriakosss4]

You mean this one?
View attachment 2052097

Haha good one ☝️ But I mean a pure “Edit and call” option in the dialer

 

[Vlad Soare]

That no major changes were made could be a good thing. It could mean that iOS 16 will be stable right off the shelf, rather than being a buggy piece of crap that would then take five or six minor releases and half a year to fix to an acceptable degree - like it happened with iOS 13 and later.
Personally, I feel that iOS is quite mature already and doesn't need major yearly overhauls anymore.

As for the locks screen... it's nice to see that Apple is finally capable of things that the competition could do five years ago. But let's gloss over that... 😊

 

[BBDDVV]

Hmmm, for me the new lists UI is lacking a key ability the old UI did have: it doesn't allow me to show all contacts minus contacts in a specific list(s): I have multiple accounts including a exchange account that has 4 folders/lists, of which I only want to include one with all the other accounts' lists. With the old UI I could just uncheck these unwanted folders and all was good. Not so anymore, or am I missing something?

Also,
The Edit button at the top off all accounts also doesn't seem to do anything?
The Add list only adds a new list in an existing account, would be nice if it could also let me create an overarching list where I could select individual lists to be included (i.e. or more importantly to not include some lists).

What I do like is that it's easier to add a new contact to a specific account. In the past I new of only two ways to do so:
- Change the default account in Settings -> Contacts
- Uncheck all but one folder. In that case adding a new contact would add it to the one folder showing, even if this wasn't the default one. I used this method the most as I didn't have to go to Settings to temporarily change the default, add the contact(s) and then go back to revert the temporary change.

Looking forward to any insight anyone might have ;-)

 

[sgtaylor5]

Hmmm, for me the new lists UI is lacking a key ability the old UI did have: it doesn't allow me to show all contacts minus contacts in a specific list(s): I have multiple accounts including a exchange account that has 4 folders/lists, of which I only want to include one with all the other accounts' lists. With the old UI I could just uncheck these unwanted folders and all was good. Not so anymore, or am I missing something?

Also,
The Edit button at the top off all accounts also doesn't seem to do anything?
The Add list only adds a new list in an existing account, would be nice if it could also let me create an overarching list where I could select individual lists to be included (i.e. or more importantly to not include some lists).

What I do like is that it's easier to add a new contact to a specific account. In the past I new of only two ways to do so:
- Change the default account in Settings -> Contacts
- Uncheck all but one folder. In that case adding a new contact would add it to the one folder showing, even if this wasn't the default one. I used this method the most as I didn't have to go to Settings to temporarily change the default, add the contact(s) and then go back to revert the temporary change.

Looking forward to any insight anyone might have ;-)

I have had to resort to using my iCloud contacts list as default for adding contacts, then move them to the proper account in the Mac Contacts app. It is a hassle and not an obvious solution.

 

[jd369]

A google search shows that both lists *should* show up when you log into icloud.com, but when I log in I just have the icloud contacts list. Very confusing.

 

[carriebeary]

I installed the public beta of iOS 16 for the first time yesterday. Honestly, I was shocked at just how small of an update it feels like.

Apple spends so much time marketing the redesigned lock screen - but in reality, it's a pretty small improvement. Multiple lock screens. Widgets on lock screen. And that's it.

Other major features like unsending messages is very welcome, but again these are minor improvement tweaks to existing apps that shouldn't require a major iOS release.

But I guess that's what you get when an operating system is mature and on its 16th version already. Just how much can you really radically improve it each year?

One thing I haven't seen mentioned anywhere – that I'm ecstatic over – is Apple FINALLY fixed the Contacts app. Gone is the baffling UI where you needed to pull up a sheet and then tap to check what Contacts groups you want to display in the app. In its place is the logical column-view UI again, where you can simply tap into any group you want without having to pull up a sheet to select the groups you want to display.

I have no idea why Apple ever ditched the column view interface in the first place, but glad it's finally back after all these years.

I'd like to see the ability to move things around on the screen to where ever I want them instead of having them snap to a grid. And the ability to assign different icons as I wish. That and the checkbook app is the only thing I miss about my android lol

 

[zkap]

I am pleasantly surprised by iOS16. The home screen changes aren't huge, but they are more significant than I initially thought reading posts on this forum. I think we have enough ways to customize, as you can fiddle with fonts and colors and effects against any wallpaper so I think there are enough options to start with. The obvious limitation is the number of widgets and their forced placement, but I expect that to be changed in the future and Apple will tout that as a significant improvement, something to boast about.

But overall, I am happy with this as it does indeed refresh the screen, it's not bad at all and now we need third party apps to implement widgets and Apple to increase the number of widgets you can have on the screen. Clearly the lock screen is more limited than the home screen and this is deliberate because it's something that is easily "improved" upon later, but still, it's coming and this change isn't "meh" to me. They Apple-d this thing hard, it's their signature through and through, everything about this is all Apple, from the limitations to the uniqueness of the implementation, and I like it.

What I appreciate most is the smoothness of the UI, there is no lag or stutter, iOS 16 is well polished out of the gate (I skipped iOS 15, came to 16 from 14.7). I don't need massive changes, just overall performance improvements, stability, smoothness and a refresher here or there in the form of a new feature that is nicely implemented. I got all of that from iOS16, at least from what I can see so far.