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iOS 19: What to Expect From Apple's Dramatic Design Overhaul?
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Let’s see, since the update my computer will never lock the screen no matter how long I wait or settings I change. Yet if I manually lock it from the menu, my watch won’t unlock it anymore, even though it’s set up. And worst of all, Apple blocked Google drive. I used to have it as a program. If you go into App Store it says it’s not compatible with my computer. Yet it was and worked fine till Sequoia.
I don't really see circular icons on a squared machine like the iPhone
New emojis on day one with useful features buggy and pushed back until after the following year’s WWDC.
iOS 7 was "a little different"?
We got Airdrop, the Control Center, Carplay, the app switcher, automatic background software updates, and several completely redone apps (like Photos). Not to mention completely overhauling the UI.
If you don't think that was "massive", I'm not sure any OS update would ever qualify.
Because if it is square make it round? If it’s huge make it mini, if is is shiny, make it matte, etc etc etc. change for change sake.
They may look better or worse (opinions vary), but what they definitely do is provide less potential for imparting information - you're lopping off the corners - if you had two icons that looked similar except for something in or or more corners, they'll now look near identical.
And what does this do to widgets? Previously they have appeared as essentially large (e.g. 2x2) icons - if you make them round to keep up the design aesthetic, then they can hold much less useful information.
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Not gonna happen, but you can have a circular mouse.
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Seriously? What is sinking? $4T is not enough for you?
Personally I love the VisionOS, and IMO moving the other OSs in that direction makes sense.
Note: all those folks here commenting negatively that have not spent a few hours with visionOS simply don't know what they are talking about.
What is "dramatic" about using the same user-unfriendly flat design that Apple copied from Microsoft and has been using since 2013? A truly "dramatic overhaul" would be rehiring Apple's most Steve Jobs-like visionary, Scott Forstall, and going back to the exact same skeuomorphic design as iOS 6.
Tim Cook is such a dimwit that he allowed Jony Ive to completely discard the most user-friendly smartphone GUI based on over three deacades of prior personal computer GUI research. Dim Tim is clearly not a product person.
Circular app icons? Wtf?! Nobody is asking for this. If we wanted circular app icons we’d go buy Android phones.
C’mon Apple, you can do better.
C’mon Apple, you can do better.
I think you make a great point about how apple has introduced complexity.
Case in point - the focus modes, trying to work out what each of them do and how they are triggered is confusing.
And connected to that is how you track sleep, set alarms etc. you need to go to the clock app, settings and the health app - and understand how focus modes work. Needless to say, this is confusing and needlessly complicated.
Agreed, along with the update that introduced iCloud (iOS 5 I think & sadly Jobs’ last key note) & iOS 9 (if you had a iPhone X), I don’t think that there’s been a bigger iOS update.
Welcome to Marketing 101. No company ever brings something new to market and says "Meh, it's pretty much just like the last one, buy it if you want to but there's no real reason".
Yes I also think that going with circular app icons for iOS will be a mistake. But guys this is just a red herring.
The real disaster I feel coming up is hinted in the Invites app.
See how there’s no bottom bar with icons to switch between app screens, like there is in every other app, for example in Music? They’ve hidden them under a button. What was previously accessible and easy to see is now hidden and requires an extra tap in the top left corner of the screen.
You might think it’s a good idea because now they can add more app screens, right? But invites only has 5 options… just like the bottom bar in Music has 5 options. So nothing is gained. It’s just forcing that stupid design language on us, the same one that we saw in the Safari redesign they later rolled back, where all icons and options were hidden and required extra taps to access. Except this time we’re getting this all over iOS.
The real disaster I feel coming up is hinted in the Invites app.
See how there’s no bottom bar with icons to switch between app screens, like there is in every other app, for example in Music? They’ve hidden them under a button. What was previously accessible and easy to see is now hidden and requires an extra tap in the top left corner of the screen.
You might think it’s a good idea because now they can add more app screens, right? But invites only has 5 options… just like the bottom bar in Music has 5 options. So nothing is gained. It’s just forcing that stupid design language on us, the same one that we saw in the Safari redesign they later rolled back, where all icons and options were hidden and required extra taps to access. Except this time we’re getting this all over iOS.
Whatever new visual stuff they add, they'd better have a way to turn it off, or older devices are going to get slower trying to handle it. Won't matter so much on my iPad 9, which already doesn't get Apple Intelligence and is mostly used for media consumption and games, but for people with older phones, having that more sluggish interface when you're trying to answer a call would suck.
apple needs a year introducing no new features and work on all the bugs in their OS
we did
but how did any of those functions materially change the way the phone fundamentally worked?
Still page after page of static app icons. Menus very similar despite the complete strip out of skeuomorphism.
New functions don't mean all new.
You could apply the same argument to many many other things such as the App Library, multiple ofter Photos app updates, the removal of iTunes replacing it with TV and Music etc etc.
Again, none of these things have fundamentally changed how you *use* the phone and nor will iOS19. Its going to be a fresh coat of paint nothing more.
Hmm, I don't really like circular icons. I mean, it's been an option via jailbreaking since the OG iPhone, and without jailbreaking these days if you want to go through all that hassle with Apple's UI scripting app, I forget the name, so we've had plenty opportunities to try this out. I generally use square icon sets on my Linux DEs too.
I think circular icons work on WatchOS because they appear to the left of the app names in a long, scrolling list, so they function like bullet points. They work in the old view too because it's laid out on a hex grid and circles are closer to hexagons than squares are. On a square grid, though, or in a flat dock, I think they look unnatural.
I think circular icons work on WatchOS because they appear to the left of the app names in a long, scrolling list, so they function like bullet points. They work in the old view too because it's laid out on a hex grid and circles are closer to hexagons than squares are. On a square grid, though, or in a flat dock, I think they look unnatural.
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