iPhone What's the matter with the colored status bar?

[iRock1]

Wasn't it supposed to be colored depending on the menu bar of the current app? What's wrong? Because the only colors that I'm seeing on the status bare are black and blue—when I open Mail or Settings.

For example I open Quora and I don't see a red status bar, but the same classic black one.

 

[BlaqkAudio]

It's only colored if the app uses what used to be the white status bar. The only apps I use that have a colored status bar other than blue are Alien Blue (if you use a theme other than the stock blue) or Jasmine.

 

[iRock1]

Then it doesn't make any sense at all. I still don't understand what's the utility of a blue bar that is supposed to change to another color, but it doesn't.

 

[trekkie604]

It should be black all the time. I hate that 'feature' of os 6.

 

[iRock1]

It should be black all the time. I hate that 'feature' of os 6.

I agree with you, but let's assume that the new status bar is just here and it won't change. Still doesn't work like is supposed to.

 

[viperGTS]

The color is based off of the last line of pixels of the title bar.

 

[iRock1]

The color is based off of the last line of pixels of the title bar.

I supposed that it should work that way, but as I said before it doesn't at all. The only colored status bar that I see is the blue one—when I open some default apps like Mail or Settings. The rest of the time is black.

 

[cyks]

It's up to the app developer to add in that functionality. That said; it's telling that even Apple couldn't be bothered to add it to more than half of their own apps.

 

[Beeplance]

Status bar colors works in tandem with most of the default apps like messages, where it's blue in color.

However, I don't get why it's black in Safari, when the address bar in Safari is clearly blue. It should've been blue in color too.

 

[boglott]

It does work with all kinds of colors as you can see in my attachment. If I remember correctly, before iOS 6 the programmer has the choice between 3 kinds of status bar styles:
1. Gray with colored icons
2. Black with black and white icons
3. Transparent with B/W icons

You can see the third style in Photos or Google Maps.

Now, with iOS 6 the first style has been replaced by that colored one with B/W icons. So you only can see colors if the developer has chosen to take style 1 and if the menu bar of that application is not black. Because then you'd see a "black colored" bar which looks like 2.

 

[iRock1]

It's a weird decision. Giving to the developers the possibility of choosing the status bar color adds more inconsistency to the OS interface—as if were not enough!

So sometimes we'll be seeing a black bar, an then a colored status bar. What a mess!

 

[Brian Y]

It's a weird decision. Giving to the developers the possibility of choosing the status bar color adds more inconsistency to the OS interface—as if were not enough!

So sometimes we'll be seeing a black bar, an then a colored status bar. What a mess!

The OS interface is actually one of the most uniform out there.

I actually quite like it and think it makes sense - If you have a completely white App, a black status bar doesn't make sense.

When you're in an App - you're looking at what the developer has designed, why should we see something the developer hasn't?

 

[Tyler23]

Wasn't it supposed to be colored depending on the menu bar of the current app? What's wrong? Because the only colors that I'm seeing on the status bare are black and blue—when I open Mail or Settings.

For example I open Quora and I don't see a red status bar, but the same classic black one.

It has to do with the top corners of the app window. Apps with rounded top corners do not color match status bar, apps with angled corners do. Check it out with native apple apps, then with 3rd party. It's consistent across the board. Many apps have rounded top corners on the windows, this is why you don't see too much of it.

 

[viperGTS]

It's a weird decision. Giving to the developers the possibility of choosing the status bar color adds more inconsistency to the OS interface—as if were not enough!

So sometimes we'll be seeing a black bar, an then a colored status bar. What a mess!

Inconsistency? If you haven't realized it by now, iOS is mostly an app-focused OS. The change to colored status bars adds MORE CONSISTENCY in applications themselves. It's also not as intrusive as iOS 5's status bar.

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It has to do with the top corners of the app window. Apps with rounded top corners do not color match status bar, apps with angled corners do. Check it out with native apple apps, then with 3rd party. It's consistent across the board. Many apps have rounded top corners on the windows, this is why you don't see too much of it.

Actually, Lose It! Has rounded corners with a colored status bar.

 

[iRock1]

The OS interface is actually one of the most uniform out there.

I actually quite like it and think it makes sense - If you have a completely white App, a black status bar doesn't make sense.

When you're in an App - you're looking at what the developer has designed, why should we see something the developer hasn't?

My point is that if Apple wants consistency, the status bar should be always colored to coincide with the current app menu bar. It shouldn't be an option for the developer to leave the status bar in black.

At the end it doesn't make any sense, since sometimes we'll see the bar in black (most of the time I'm guessing) and not always adapted to match the app colors.

 

[BlaqkAudio]

Well, Apple hasn't been very consistent lately. For example, the updated Music app has a completely different look from the "traditional" iOS look. Furthermore, the Music app gets an updated look but the lockscreen controls and the Remote app stay the same (lockscreen controls are getting fixed in 6.1).

 

[iRock1]

Well, Apple hasn't been very consistent lately. For example, the updated Music app has a completely different look from the "traditional" iOS look. Furthermore, the Music app gets an updated look but the lockscreen controls and the Remote app stay the same (lockscreen controls are getting fixed in 6.1).

That's true, and just one example. I'm not buying the "iOS is the most uniform OS in the world" argument anymore. It might be a valid statement, but anything will look like gold if we start to compare with the crap that is Android's GUI.

Truth be said, Apple decisions on this matter in the last years have been terrible.