More iOS 16 Tidbits: New FaceTime Video Call UI, Redesigned Video Player, and More

[MrRom92]

That's because the average person records video in the vertical orientation. It's one of the few things that triggers me when I see the way most people record videos on their smartphones. Record in landscape orientation ya Philistines.😫

Anyhow, I only use my iPhone for games. I used my android phone for watching videos because it's ten billion percent easier to get movies on and off via microSD. And the video players on Android are superior to those on iOS.

Most video content online is in 16:9 landscape orientation - as it should be! But watching it on an iPhone is still horrible. Nobody uses safari to view videos recorded by the average person. That’s the domain of Facebook and Instagram and tik tok, etc.

For the longest time apple themselves would livestream their keynotes and only allow you to access them in safari. They wouldn’t even show them on YouTube or other platforms. It was like this for YEARS.

So you’d excitedly load up the stream for WWDC or the iPhone announcement, and you’d have to squint and watch it letterboxed into this tiny little portion of your screen. Their own professional live video stream was practically unwatchable. It was pretty ridiculous.



Now let’s say I want to visit a website with video on safari, like something with the initials PH for example. Many of those videos are professionally produced and in 16:9 widescreen for the most part. But still. Tiny little window in the middle of your screen. What am I supposed to do with that? Better off using my imagination.

 

[iBreatheApple]

Not a good solution.

But a very easy workaround. Drag up and pause for 0.1 seconds, let go, flick up.

 

[bmac89]

I hate that the new video controls dim the screen and are needlessly in the middle. What was wrong with having them off to the side out of the main content area?

I agree. The new video player controls are horrible. Having the buttons in the middle of the video is annoying, especially when you just want to check elapsed/remaining time or scrubbing through the video. This provides zero benefit over the old design in my opinion and I will be providing feedback to Apple (for what it’s worth).

 

[svish]

Privacy access history is great. Also transparent FaceTime UI during video calls is nice.

 

[chibihabibi]

The transparent elements for FaceTime and the video player look very amateurish to me. I’ve always loved the translucent elements, why do they need to change things just for the sake of it?

 

[trost]

I hate that the new video controls dim the screen and are needlessly in the middle. What was wrong with having them off to the side out of the main content area?

I thought I was the only one! The new video controls would be fine if they didn’t have to dim the entire video to change volume or scrub video track..