We're 15 years into iPhone, and Apple still hasn't given us much more—outwardly—than what we were doing with our flip phones. Sure, internet-based vs garbage SMS… end-to-end encryption… fancy emoji and screen effects… but the core task of messaging, and even contacts, is about as "dumb" as it was 15 years ago. The one improvement—which IIRC the iPhone shipped with—is that contacts can have multiple named endpoints (numbers, email addresses)… whereas 15 years ago most people had "Mom & Dad", "Mom Cell", "Dad Cell", "Mom Work", "Dad Work", etc, all as separate contacts. But that's its. We can't even "group" on iOS (the Contacts list
uses Groups, if they've been created and managed on a Mac… but… that's it.)
There is SO much that could be better… Apple has simply not done much work in this space. And it isn't like there aren't plenty of examples from history to look at, things like Now Contacts, ACT!, and Palm Desktop. All were FAR superior "CRM"-like tools that iOS pales in comparison to.
- should be able to create Conversations setting our sending address (email or phone number). This way conversations for "work" could be isolated from "personal" conversations with co-workers.
- should be able to organize and group contacts.
- should be able to have contacts that do no show up in the main "All Contacts" list; or have a setting that allows user to choose the name of the "main" contact list. (I have contacts for people I want to know WHO they are if they call, or to block… but I really have no interest in seeing them show up in my list every time I want to make a call.)
- should be able to archive contact information, by date, so that if a contact changes a phone number or email address, the messages older than the archive date aren't orphaned (loses Contact name in the list), while at the same time we're not sending messages to the number's new owner (this is a privacy leakage issue too).
- should be able to bring up all the communications with a contact, "at a glance"… messages, calls, emails.
- should not use "home" and "work", but instead "personal" and work" for contact labels; "home" hasn't made any sense since the land-line era!
- should be able to send messages "quietly", without auditory notification… if it is 11:37pm, I don't want to worry if a co-worker knows how to turn on DND or Focus… I just want them to have the message by the next morning.
- should be able to better manage storage space consumed by Messages… 30 days, 1 Year, Forever?? WTF???
- should be able to be better groom media and attachments in the Messages store, Conversation-by-Conversation and Person-by-Person (and perhaps Group)
- would be GREAT if I could have separate Personal Messages and Work Messages "apps", so there is NEVER a chance I accidentally send a personal message to a co-worker and my personal messages aren't within the MDM "space" of my employer.
None of that stuff should be difficult. And I'm not even getting into how those PDA/PIM/CRM apps helped collate Notes, Calendars, and Reminders… but again, a LOT of room for improvement! Just so much that could be much, much better… DELIGHTFULLY better… one of those things Apple used to be insanely great at.
Not anymore.
