iPhone X - iOS is now fragmented

[QquegChristian]

Time for a huge shakeup with the iOS team. After a day with the X and reading all of the nitpicks of others... it’s become clear to me that the iOS team is letting the hardware team down. There are so many small quality of life improvements that could have made the X a better experience.

The notch... you get used to it and it is not as big a deal as people first thought, but there’s no good reason the status bar isn’t blacked out with white icons. At least within all apps, allowing Apple to still use the notch as a marketing shape on the home/lock screens.

The home bar at the bottom of the screen. It’s entirely useless. We didn’t need a thick line to tell us we could swipe up to get to Control Center, we don’t need the bar now. It’s distracting in apps like kindle and it covers content in apps that haven’t been updated. From a design perspective, it is far more bold than the system fonts/other design elements, so it’s hard to ignore. Is more distracting that the notch somehow?! Disappears on home screens, which is proof the notch could have been seen in home screens and blacked out in apps to keep it purely for marketing.

No haptic feedback for home gesture. This is so obvious to me that I almost think it is a bug that the home gesture gives no feedback from the Taptic Engine. If you swipe up on the home bar from within Control Center and only within Control Center, it DOES give haptic feedback! Should be like that system wide. It feels far more satisfying and would be an easier transition after losing the click of the home button.

Swipe to unlock undermines the work that went into FaceID. It should absolutely be optional, especially for those of us that have an Apple Watch and don’t even need notifications on our phone.

All the white of iOS is exasperating the color shifts inherent in OLED screens. It’s also not taking advantage of any of the power savings that could be had with more black. The WatchOS team designed with OLED in mind, but iOS is currently an OLED torture test.

Status bar icons. These are a mess. They swap positions when going into Control Center. There’s plenty of room to move one over to the time to balance the two sides out/make room for battery percentage/make them consistent when going into Control Center. The time is on the opposite side (left) to where it is on the Apple Watch (right).

Default settings - This is the first iPhone where I felt like all of the default settings were all wrong out of the box and hunting down where to change them took time. I turned TrueTone off (way too yellow), auto brightness off (way too aggressive), 3D Touch lighter pressure (too much force needed on default), Reachability to ON (no reason for this to not be on by default), Attention awareness for FaceID OFF (for speed), hidden notifications when locked to OFF, HEIF image compression to OFF (for better image quality), and all SOS settings to off... because...

Both my wife and I were 1 second away from accidentally calling 911 only 1 minute apart from each other for totally different reasons?! I was trying to figure out which combo of buttons turns the phone off and it started counting down to call 911. The X to cancel was under my thumb at first too and I didn’t see it. But I cancelled and my wife and I laughed about it. Then she goes to squeeze her phone into her case and it starts counting down because the case was squeezing buttons as she put it on. We immediately turned that off. It’s cool to have but I’m too afraid of doing it accidentally now and don’t even know which combo of buttons made it happen. I don’t feel like either of our scenarios were because of 5 rapid clicks. I swear I was holding power and volume up when mine happened which is supposed to be power?!

Button mapping is wonky in general.

Closing apps is unnecessarily complicated compared to all other iPhones, and seemingly for no reason. It actually hinders the great new gesture of flipping between apps. Why should we close apps when there’s no benefits? Because it makes it easier to use the app flipping gesture between the apps you actually want to jump to.

What’s with the new camera/flashlight buttons on the lock screen being the only 3D Touch buttons in the whole OS? I like them, but it’s really strange that swiping to the side still brings up the camera as well. Or you can pull down Control Center to choose the camera. It’s all sloppy.

I know the joke around here is that, say, a Surface Pro is a nice device, but too bad it runs Windows. Or too bad a Note 8 runs Android. I’m not going that far with the iPhone X, but iOS is not doing the hardware improvements/changes any favors.

The X is far and away Apple’s best phone ever. The hardware team has done a terrific job, but the software team is dropping the ball.

 

[x-evil-x]

where you not around when the 5 came out?

 

[Vermifuge]

It is iterative. I wouldn't be too worried about these design choices. look at the ver 1 apple watch watchOS. It's come a long way.

 

[jacmeister]

Time for a huge shakeup with the iOS team. After a day with the X and reading all of the nitpicks of others... it’s become clear to me that the iOS team is letting the hardware team down. There are so many small quality of life improvements that could have made the X a better experience.

The notch... you get used to it and it is not as big a deal as people first thought, but there’s no good reason the status bar isn’t blacked out with white icons. At least within all apps, allowing Apple to still use the notch as a marketing shape on the home/lock screens.

The home bar at the bottom of the screen. It’s entirely useless. We didn’t need a thick line to tell us we could swipe up to get to Control Center, we don’t need the bar now. It’s distracting in apps like kindle and it covers content in apps that haven’t been updated. From a design perspective, it is far more bold than the system fonts/other design elements, so it’s hard to ignore. Is more distracting that the notch somehow?! Disappears on home screens, which is proof the notch could have been seen in home screens and blacked out in apps to keep it purely for marketing.

No haptic feedback for home gesture. This is so obvious to me that I almost think it is a bug that the home gesture gives no feedback from the Taptic Engine. If you swipe up on the home bar from within Control Center and only within Control Center, it DOES give haptic feedback! Should be like that system wide. It feels far more satisfying and would be an easier transition after losing the click of the home button.

Swipe to unlock undermines the work that went into FaceID. It should absolutely be optional, especially for those of us that have an Apple Watch and don’t even need notifications on our phone.

All the white of iOS is exasperating the color shifts inherent in OLED screens. It’s also not taking advantage of any of the power savings that could be had with more black. The WatchOS team designed with OLED in mind, but iOS is currently an OLED torture test.

Status bar icons. These are a mess. They swap positions when going into Control Center. There’s plenty of room to move one over to the time to balance the two sides out/make room for battery percentage/make them consistent when going into Control Center. The time is on the opposite side (left) to where it is on the Apple Watch (right).

Default settings - This is the first iPhone where I felt like all of the default settings were all wrong out of the box and hunting down where to change them took time. I turned TrueTone off (way too yellow), auto brightness off (way too aggressive), 3D Touch lighter pressure (too much force needed on default), Reachability to ON (no reason for this to not be on by default), Attention awareness for FaceID OFF (for speed), hidden notifications when locked to OFF, HEIF image compression to OFF (for better image quality), and all SOS settings to off... because...

Both my wife and I were 1 second away from accidentally calling 911 only 1 minute apart from each other for totally different reasons?! I was trying to figure out which combo of buttons turns the phone off and it started counting down to call 911. The X to cancel was under my thumb at first too and I didn’t see it. But I cancelled and my wife and I laughed about it. Then she goes to squeeze her phone into her case and it starts counting down because the case was squeezing buttons as she put it on. We immediately turned that off. It’s cool to have but I’m too afraid of doing it accidentally now and don’t even know which combo of buttons made it happen. I don’t feel like either of our scenarios were because of 5 rapid clicks. I swear I was holding power and volume up when mine happened which is supposed to be power?!

Button mapping is wonky in general.

Closing apps is unnecessarily complicated compared to all other iPhones, and seemingly for no reason. It actually hinders the great new gesture of flipping between apps. Why should we close apps when there’s no benefits? Because it makes it easier to use the app flipping gesture between the apps you actually want to jump to.

What’s with the new camera/flashlight buttons on the lock screen being the only 3D Touch buttons in the whole OS? I like them, but it’s really strange that swiping to the side still brings up the camera as well. Or you can pull down Control Center to choose the camera. It’s all sloppy.

I know the joke around here is that, say, a Surface Pro is a nice device, but too bad it runs Windows. Or too bad a Note 8 runs Android. I’m not going that far with the iPhone X, but iOS is not doing the hardware improvements/changes any favors.

The X is far and away Apple’s best phone ever. The hardware team has done a terrific job, but the software team is dropping the ball.

I am with you on the software gripes. A lot of it needs work but then I feel like the whole software team needs a kick up the pants at the moment. Been using Apple products since the start and this version of iOS is the first one for a while that feels unfinished and glitchy

Different company from years ago and understand the need to change and innovate more into mobile but feel that iOS 11 needs a lot more polish and battery optimization. Guys I know on the 11.2 beta claim that battery is much improved so hoping that this will be fixed soon as it’s a problem for me at present.

 

[QquegChristian]

its traditional. i wouldn't be too worried about these design choices. look at the ver 1 apple watch watchOS.

I don’t know, I’ve had the Watch since the beginning and the current WatchOS is maybe the worst it has been as far as glitches/random behavior. It no longer makes a ding when I put it on the charger and it sometimes doesn’t seat right on my dock so it is almost dead in the morning. The Watch is almost ALWAYS on the now playing screen when I look at it, regardless of whether I am currently listening to something. I am constantly having to press the home button to go back to my face. Now playing screen sometimes lets me control my AirPod volume with crown, other times not. I think that’s just different apps having the exact same now playing screen but different button options. So it looks consistent but isn’t the system’s music player. Sometimes it just goes silent and only notifies with haptics even though it isn’t on silent mode. Other times it doesn’t get notifications at all until a reboot.

And much like iOS on the X, they keep changing around the buttons/dock/features to the point that I don’t even bother with 75% of the functionality. It’s a Watch with notifications for me and that’s okay.

 

[mrklaw]

Similarly across Iphone/ipad

Ipad - swipe up to dock, swipe fully up to multitasking switcher
IPhone X - swipe up to multitask switcher, swipe fully up to go home


I have mixed feelings about the home bar. For swiping to go home I agree they could get rid of it, its a very easy to remember gesture. But they also use that area for quick task switching. And that means you’re swiping directly on the screen so you can’t have active content there. Personally I’d be ok losing that task switching shortcut and giving me back the entire screen.

I hate the 3D Touch buttons for torch and camera on the lock screen. This is a touchscreen - we’re conditioned to tap things, but you have to hard press to activate camera or torch. Why? That makes no sense at all - you’re just making it harder to get to those from the lock screen - the old swipe left gesture for camera was fine.

 

[Vermifuge]

I don’t know, I’ve had the Watch since the beginning and the current WatchOS is maybe the worst it has been as far as glitches/random behavior. It no longer makes a ding when I put it on the charger and it sometimes doesn’t seat right on my dock so it is almost dead in the morning. The Watch is almost ALWAYS on the now playing screen when I look at it, regardless of whether I am currently listening to something. I am constantly having to press the home button to go back to my face. Now playing screen sometimes lets me control my AirPod volume with crown, other times not. I think that’s just different apps having the exact same now playing screen but different button options. So it looks consistent but isn’t the system’s music player. Sometimes it just goes silent and only notifies with haptics even though it isn’t on silent mode. Other times it doesn’t get notifications at all until a reboot.

And much like iOS on the X, they keep changing around the buttons/dock/features to the point that I don’t even bother with 75% of the functionality. It’s a Watch with notifications for me and that’s okay.

sounds like your watch has bigger problems. I have a launch day S0 and the ONLY trouble i have in common is it occasionally is on the now playing screen.

 

[QquegChristian]

sounds like your watch has bigger problems. I have a launch day S0 and the ONLY trouble i have in common is it occasionally is on the now playing screen.

Does yours ding when you put it on the charger? Because that’s the problem that is most repeatable for me, by most, I mean it just hasn’t done that since OS4.

I think Now Playing screen is really annoying to me because I use 4 different audio apps and listen to a ton of stuff as I work. But I also use the timer on my watch a ton too because I am cooking (as I do food photography). So whenever I look at my watch to see my timer it’s the Now Playing screen, or when I go to skip a podcast commercial it’s no longer the Now Playing screen and I have no idea how to get back to that (it used to be a double click to switch apps right? And at some point Now Playing was a logical swipe up I think.)

Also annoying that a timer hitting 0 sounds the alarm but when you dismiss it your audio has been paused and I can’t figure out how to get Now Playing back. But like I said, I’m pretty sure I’m talking about multiple apps here that all look the same, not a true Now Playing.

Muted day and no notification day were two isolated days thankfully and eventually fixed by reboots. It’s definitely not broken but it feels buggier than it has in a long while.

 

[Vermifuge]

Does yours ding when you put it on the charger? Because that’s the problem that is most repeatable for me, by most, I mean it just hasn’t done that since OS4.

i haven't noticed but like my phone, my watch is always in silent mode

 

[x-evil-x]

Similarly across Iphone/ipad

Ipad - swipe up to dock, swipe fully up to multitasking switcher
IPhone X - swipe up to multitask switcher, swipe fully up to go home


I have mixed feelings about the home bar. For swiping to go home I agree they could get rid of it, its a very easy to remember gesture. But they also use that area for quick task switching. And that means you’re swiping directly on the screen so you can’t have active content there. Personally I’d be ok losing that task switching shortcut and giving me back the entire screen.

I hate the 3D Touch buttons for torch and camera on the lock screen. This is a touchscreen - we’re conditioned to tap things, but you have to hard press to activate camera or torch. Why? That makes no sense at all - you’re just making it harder to get to those from the lock screen - the old swipe left gesture for camera was fine.

A logical explanation of why they made 3D Touch for the lock screen is touches you didn't mean to do which happens when holding a phone with basically just a frame. makes sense to me. it doesn't take that much more pressure than a normal touch and its smart to have on the lock screen imo.
For the lower app switcher I dont like running my finger straight across. if you do a U shape I like the feel more. You can also do a u shape to the right of the screen to pull up the normal multitasking faster. you can just play around with the apps and throw them back down towards the bottom of the screen to choose an app. Not sure if you've been playing with that or not?

 

[Mudodonbond]

I don’t know, I’ve had the Watch since the beginning and the current WatchOS is maybe the worst it has been as far as glitches/random behavior. It no longer makes a ding when I put it on the charger and it sometimes doesn’t seat right on my dock so it is almost dead in the morning. The Watch is almost ALWAYS on the now playing screen when I look at it, regardless of whether I am currently listening to something. I am constantly having to press the home button to go back to my face. Now playing screen sometimes lets me control my AirPod volume with crown, other times not. I think that’s just different apps having the exact same now playing screen but different button options. So it looks consistent but isn’t the system’s music player. Sometimes it just goes silent and only notifies with haptics even though it isn’t on silent mode. Other times it doesn’t get notifications at all until a reboot.

And much like iOS on the X, they keep changing around the buttons/dock/features to the point that I don’t even bother with 75% of the functionality. It’s a Watch with notifications for me and that’s okay.

Mine makes a ding when charging. If you have it on silent it won’t do that. You can turn the now playing screen off(Apple Watch app>General>Wake Screen>Auto Launch Audio apps) the first few features and what the buttons did sucked. And maybe try repairing if not could just be your watch

 

[protobiont]

Well written post, with some constructive criticism. I hope Apple devs read this.

 

[QquegChristian]

Mine makes a ding when charging. If you have it on silent it won’t do that. You can turn the now playing screen off(Apple Watch app>General>Wake Screen>Auto Launch Audio apps) the first few features and what the buttons did sucked. And maybe try repairing if not could just be your watch

Ding just came back by updating to 4.1!

Good to know about now playing. I DO like the audio app launching, I just wish it timed out quicker. I guess it figures I may want to un-pause my podcast even an hour later. I think the current behavior would be perfect if it dismissed audio app when I put my AirPods away.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

iOS has been fragmented for a long time. The iPad version is not identical to the iPhone, different models have different features, etc. I think your assessment is dead on though. iOS really feels like a full storage closet and Apple keeps wedging stuff in that really doesn't fit and then pushing the door hard to get it to close. Increasingly it's becoming less intuitive. And it's going to get harder to fix with so many different models around that don't share similar hardware.