Why doesn't iOS have SwipeShiftCaret or SwipeSelection?

[158273]

I just don't understand Apple, so can anyone explain to me the reasoning behind their decisions? SwipeSelection especially seems like an easy to implement feature since it doesn't interfere with anything, and they could make it an optional setting so that people can turn it off.

For those who don't jailbreak their devices, SwipeSelection makes moving the cursor and selecting text 100x easier than it currently is when using the magnifying glass. SwipeShiftCaret works the same way, just a slightly different solution to the same problem.

I know you guys are going to call me out for complaining, but I'm genuinely curious... what do the people who work at Apple POSSIBLY do with their time all day???

 

[JoeyCloverfield]

I know you guys are going to call me out for complaining, but I'm genuinely curious... what do the people who work at Apple POSSIBLY do with their time all day???

It can take a couple hundred hours to create a 4-5 minute song. It can take months/years to create only two hours of video entertainment.

Apps are no different. To the end user it's a simple feature and a simple change. To developers it's hours, days, weeks of designing, programming, and debugging. All that just so that selecting text is a second faster. People like to think that Apple is different but it's not. It prioritizes, as it should. The priority is to not waist time, because waisted time is waisted money. What I'm trying to say here is, Apple obviously believes it has bigger priorities. What they are exactly is up in the air.

 

[takeshi74]

Features aren't just implemented because they're perceived (by a forum user that probably has no idea what it really takes to develop a product no less) to be easy to implement no matter who the manufacturer is. This isn't anything unique to Apple. There are countless features that "could" be implemented with that kind of reasoning.

I know you guys are going to call me out for complaining, but I'm genuinely curious... what do the people who work at Apple POSSIBLY do with their time all day???

A comment like that is just complaining. Any product has limited resources for development and your preferred features aren't always going to make it. Your preferred feature not making it doesn't mean that they sit around doing nothing all day.

 

[Thepoobear]

Because people still buy their stuff without it...

They felt that iOS needed to change in order to make them money, so they changed it. If they felt swipe selection was going to make them money, they would have done it.

 

[3bs]

Samsung has it on some of it's devices but if you enable it you can't use swipe on the default keyboard (which isn't available on iOS either).

Why? Who knows..

 

[Kaiser99]

From what I can remember the first video concept for this appeared and within about 2 weeks we had swipeselection so you can't say it takes time to developer one man did it very quickly and with the minimum amount of updates it works really well. If apple had implemented this I would no longer need to jail break all my needs would have been taken up in the iOS

 

[freerunnering]

From what I can remember the first video concept for this appeared and within about 2 weeks we had swipeselection so you can't say it takes time to developer one man did it very quickly and with the minimum amount of updates it works really well. If apple had implemented this I would no longer need to jail break all my needs would have been taken up in the iOS

Well I had a working version implemented within 48 hours of me first seeing the concept video.

In total it took around 1 or 2 weeks development time to fix ALL the edge cases, built in gestures, other tweaks & other languages.

+ I open sourced SwipeSelection https://github.com/freerunnering/SwipeSelection


The reason Apple doesn't implement it is likely they don't like the concept &/or they don't think typing needs sufficient attention to design a better/new solution.

It's possible they also think this is a power user feature that could confuse average users?
(Likely they just don't care/think it needs enough improvement though)

 

[Armen]

Because people still buy their stuff without it...

They felt that iOS needed to change in order to make them money, so they changed it. If they felt swipe selection was going to make them money, they would have done it.

I totally agree with you. Unless Apple is losing customers/money or are going to make money or gain new customers why would they invest time and money into a feature?

 

[3bs]

I totally agree with you. Unless Apple is losing customers/money or are going to make money or gain new customers why would they invest time and money into a feature?

Because it's a good feature that people will appreciate?

 

[Menneisyys2]

It's possible they also think this is a power user feature that could confuse average users?

Definitely that's the case. Given that the vast majority of iPhone users are casual, non-techie people (teenage girls being vastly overrepresented among them), this is pretty understandable.

 

[Menneisyys2]

Because it's a good feature that people will appreciate?

Unfortunately, not the majority of them - see my prev. post. iOS is mostly popular because it's not "confusing" (in no way feature packed) for the Average Joe. This is why a lot of essential, on competing mobile OS'es supported (at least by third party apps or by manufacturer additions) stuff is missing from iOS:

- f.lux (possible without rooting on Android)
- decent, true multitasking - including multiwindow (Windows 8 / RT; Samsung's & LG's custom windowing support)
- either native storage card support or at least a way of streaming content from external storage without rooting (certainly possible on Android's OTG)
- changing keyboards

etc.

 

[Armen]

Because it's a good feature that people will appreciate?

It's a great Jailbreak tweak but if it aint broke why fix it? Not enough users complain about the magnifying glass UI for cursor placement to warrant Apple spending time and money into developing this.

 

[cynics]

I've always thought text selection could be much better especially comparing it to android.

Nearly constantly I'm deleting way too much just to get to a single word I want to correct. Selecting text to cut/copy isn't much better either.

While I agree if it's not broke don't fix it. However it can be very frustrating the way it is now so it's not exactly fixed either.

 

[Armen]

I've always thought text selection could be much better especially comparing it to android.

Nearly constantly I'm deleting way too much just to get to a single word I want to correct. Selecting text to cut/copy isn't much better either.

While I agree if it's not broke don't fix it. However it can be very frustrating the way it is now so it's not exactly fixed either.

Like I stated I was using this jailbreak tweak and loved it but can I live without it if Apple doesn't implement it? Sure.

 

[Menneisyys2]

It's a great Jailbreak tweak but if it aint broke why fix it? Not enough users complain about the magnifying glass UI for cursor placement to warrant Apple spending time and money into developing this.

The majoity of iOS users, being non/anti-techies, don't know what other OS'es are capable of. They're pretty happy with the current "solution" and don't even think it could be made better...

 

[3bs]

It's a great Jailbreak tweak but if it aint broke why fix it? Not enough users complain about the magnifying glass UI for cursor placement to warrant Apple spending time and money into developing this.

Because as the developer already said, it took him 2 weeks to develop it and iron out the bugs. Surely a company like Apple would be able to manage. Why are you and others against improving the OS?

 

[Armen]

The majoity of iOS users, being non/anti-techies, don't know what other OS'es are capable of. They're pretty happy with the current "solution" and don't even think it could be made better...

No one is arguing that swipeselection isn't a better method to control your cursor position in iOS. It's just that since there has been no demand or uproar over the magnifying glass method why change anything?

It's not like MS removing the Start button on Windows causing its user base to freak out and then add it back. A lot of people I've come across don't even know how to initiate the magnifying tool itself LOL.

----------

Because as the developer already said, it took him 2 weeks to develop it and iron out the bugs. Surely a company like Apple would be able to manage. Why are you and others against improving the OS?

A few things to consider:

- If it took the developer 2 weeks to address issues with the tweak with let's say 10,000 users can you imagine how much effort would be required by Apple if 10,000,000 iOS users found issues with this tweak?

- I'm not against the feature. I used it happily when I was jailbroken. All I'm saying is unless there is money to be made Apple probably will not pursue it.

 

[cynics]

Why doesn't iOS have SwipeShiftCaret or SwipeSelection?

Apples decisions are obviously motivated by money like all businesses.

However it's a little short sighted to say Apple doesn't add this feature due to money or lack of making more.

It's an advancement to the user interface. We all happily dealt iOS prior to having features it has now.

Why did Apple add a native flashlight button? Every .99 flashlight app (ad free version) made Apple money. Now there is no need for it so it's effectively taking away money.

There is probably more too it then just saying "well it makes iOS better but doesn't make us money".

Btw copy and selecting text in a PDF in the native email app is all but broken since iOS 7. If Apple can't get that right....well....

 

[old-wiz]

I know you guys are going to call me out for complaining, but I'm genuinely curious... what do the people who work at Apple POSSIBLY do with their time all day???

You have obviously never worked in a software development environent. It takes enormous amounts of time to design, code, test, and debug. Debug is often the most difficult since the interactions can be a royal pain.

 

[C DM]

You have obviously never worked in a software development environent. It takes enormous amounts of time to design, code, test, and debug. Debug is often the most difficult since the interactions can be a royal pain.

There you go, bringing reality into the discussion. ;-)

 

[0000757]

Definitely that's the case. Given that the vast majority of iPhone users are casual, non-techie people (teenage girls being vastly overrepresented among them), this is pretty understandable.

"Teenage girls" are not a representation of "non-techie" people.

 

[Menneisyys2]

"Teenage girls" are not a representation of "non-techie" people.

Still, they're highly unlikely to demand advanced / "geek" features like this. After all, the vast majority of geeks / nerds are male - see for example the XDA-Devs folks, you'll hardly show me any female cooker / dev there.

 

[158273]

Because people still buy their stuff without it... If they felt swipe selection was going to make them money, they would have done it.

People bought iPhones without Control Center. People bought iPhones without Notification Center. People bought iPhones without AirDrop. None of those features necessarily "make" money for Apple or make the iPhone leaps and bounds better than the competition.

Yet Apple still puts in the time to implement it, because it increases the overall value of the user interface and makes for a better experience. SwipeSelection would make for a better experience as well. No, it wouldn't be a revolution in terms of features and it wouldn't directly make Apple money, but it would add to the experience and ease of use of iOS.

I totally agree with you. Unless Apple is losing customers/money or are going to make money or gain new customers why would they invest time and money into a feature?

I know it's easy to use the "Apple is all about the money" reason, but that's simply not true. Developers at Apple clearly care about user experience, otherwise they would not implement many other "insignificant" features that add to the user experience. SwipeSelection is the same way. It wouldn't directly make money for Apple, but it would make typing, texting, emailing, and every other keyboard experience in iOS easier, thus increasing the overall perceived value of buying an iOS device.

***

This entire idea that Apple only implements the software features that make them money is complete B.S.
Apple makes its money primarily from hardware, some of it from selling other people's software (third-party apps) and nearly none of it from their own software, since their entire suite has just gone free with any new iOS device (read: hardware) you buy.

So everything that Apple is doing on the software side is not to make them money directly, but to make the hardware more appealing. Better software means a better experience on an iPhone that on a competing Android phone... that's the message that Apple wants to market. And isn't the entire idea behind iOS is that it provides a superior experience to Android? Isn't that what Apple wants us to believe? Implementing tweaks like SwipeSelection fits right into their values. It makes the user experience easier, not to mention it's a feature that's easy for them to market ("Text is now easier to edit than ever!")

 

[3bs]

People bought iPhones without Control Center. People bought iPhones without Notification Center. People bought iPhones without AirDrop. None of those features necessarily "make" money for Apple or make the iPhone leaps and bounds better than the competition.

Yet Apple still puts in the time to implement it, because it increases the overall value of the user interface and makes for a better experience. SwipeSelection would make for a better experience as well. No, it wouldn't be a revolution in terms of features and it wouldn't directly make Apple money, but it would add to the experience and ease of use of iOS.



I know it's easy to use the "Apple is all about the money" reason, but that's simply not true. Developers at Apple clearly care about user experience, otherwise they would not implement many other "insignificant" features that add to the user experience. SwipeSelection is the same way. It wouldn't directly make money for Apple, but it would make typing, texting, emailing, and every other keyboard experience in iOS easier, thus increasing the overall perceived value of buying an iOS device.

***

This entire idea that Apple only implements the software features that make them money is complete B.S.
Apple makes its money primarily from hardware, some of it from selling other people's software (third-party apps) and nearly none of it from their own software, since their entire suite has just gone free with any new iOS device (read: hardware) you buy.

So everything that Apple is doing on the software side is not to make them money directly, but to make the hardware more appealing. Better software means a better experience on an iPhone that on a competing Android phone... that's the message that Apple wants to market. And isn't the entire idea behind iOS is that it provides a superior experience to Android? Isn't that what Apple wants us to believe? Implementing tweaks like SwipeSelection fits right into their values. It makes the user experience easier, not to mention it's a feature that's easy for them to market ("Text is now easier to edit than ever!")

Well said.

 

[158273]

Not enough users complain about the magnifying glass UI for cursor placement to warrant Apple spending time and money into developing this.

One could easily argue that not enough people complained for Apple to implement Control Center in iOS 7, yet they did.

And this is text we're talking about, something that every iOS user deals with every day on their iOS devices. If Apple can implement five-finger gestures and four-finger gestures on the iPad, they can certainly implement a one-finger gesture on the keyboard.