Starting a couple years ago, I began maintaining a detailed note throughout the year keeping track of what changes I’d like to see made to Apple’s operating systems and apps in the hope that come WWDC, I’d be right about some of the changes they’d make. These were bullied lists; some read something like, “Updated Status Bar and Dynamic Island activities”. This obviously makes sense to me, but almost certainly does not to you. So in converting my iOS wishlist to a blog post, I’ll provide a brief justification for the change or try to explain the root of the complaint. Because, I am only human, and humans do love to complain about things they haven’t yet developed a solution for, but in offering the complaint, can spark an idea or discussion with another. I also want to generally speak the state of each platform; how mature is it and how much use do I give that platform each day. These kinds of things effect my views of each platform. Providing context for each is also important. Finally, I’ve tried to group these in somewhat of an order. Generally these lists will being with some higher level system changes and then drill into individual apps So without further ado, let’s begin. 

iOS is by far Apple’s biggest platform. It’ll also be going on it’s 17th iteration this year. This will also be the 5th year of iOS’s third major design era- the Customization Era. Beginning with iOS 13, Apple introduced Dark Mode system wide, iOS 14 Brough new Widgets and the App Library, iOS 15 brought Focuses and the Notification Summary, and iOS 16 brought major changes to the Lock Screen. These releases have focused on adding complexity to the system and I doubt Apple will go back on that. Complexity is fine, especially on a mature platform like iOS, but there is an ever growing lack of clarity on how all these features work on their own and together. Being able to tie a custom lock screen with custom lock screen widgets and specific Home Screen layouts to certain Focus modes based on times of day or location is very powerful, but it’s also very difficult to do. My biggest hope for iOS 17, is that Apple works to bring all these features together and focus on ensuring features work the way users expect them to. My second biggest wish is that Apple focuses on design again. Making beautiful products. Products aren’t just hardware for Apple- they also sell you an operating system and services. All of them have to work great and look great, especially together.

1. Refreshed Design Inspired By macOS Big Sur. I want to be clear. I am not advocating for changing all the iOS app icons to match those of the Mac. As Alan Dye mentioned while revealing macOS Big Sur, the icons of Big Sur were inspired by the previous generation macOS icons. This history doesn’t exist on iOS. Also, while macOS and iOS icons look similar, the flatter design of iOS makes it more clearly recognizable what app is for what platform. Especially when you consider on a Mac you can run apps from three different platforms- Mac, iPhone, and iPad. Having a clear indicator of what app belongs on what platform is a consumer benefit that Apple would be foolish to change. What I am advocating for is adding some of the design elements of macOS Big Sur and bringing rime other the iPhone where it makes sense. For example, the macOS Control Center features tons of color and horizontal sliders and switches. Simple to access drop down menus reveal additional options. On iOS, it’d be great to have horizontal sliders for screen brightness and volume control. It’d also be nice to have to long press on each Control Center tile to bring up additional control. Surfacing these controls in separate tiles or in a pop up menu would be great. This can extend to Settings too. Nothing is more simple to understand than a simple on/off toggle switch. The macOS Settings app also has really nice iconography for basically every option you can click on. This is something I’d love to see in the iOS app as well. It would definitely help users navigate around the app and make that navigation more enjoyable. 

2. Customize Quick Actions on Lock Screen- Currently on every iPhone that is Face ID equipped, the Lock Screen of your device has to two Quick Actions in the lower left and right corners of the screen- the Flashlight and Camera.  These options cannot be changed nor can they removed. This is especially weird considering in last years iOS 16 update, every other element of the Lock Screen was updated to become customizable. The font and color of the clock, the widgets, and the overall style and theme of the Lock Screen itself. But not the Quick Action options. This is the easiest thing for Apple to change. At the most basic level, let any Control Center tile be added to the Lock Screen. In addition, allow users to completely remove the Quick Action option if they so choose. Taking this a step further, Apple should update the default set of Quick Actions. If you’ve used earlier version of iOS, you may remember you could easily swipe and get to your Phone. That’d be a great option to re-introduce. In earlier versions of iOS, you could also have an app that was open on another device appear right not he Lock Screen for easy access. (For example, if I were working on Pages on my Mac an picked up my iPhone, Pages would the lower right Quick Action).

3. Expanded Lock Screen Gallery Options-In iOS 16, as part of its redesign of the Lock Screen, Apple introduced the Lock Screen Gallery to view all the different Look Screen themes and options available to users. It currently is very good about making it look like there are a lot of options to pick from than there really is. There is the Emoji Lock Screen that lets you pick a handful of emoji and they can be mixed and laid out in a few different ways. There are an immeasurable number of ways to edit and customize a photo that appears on your Lock Screen. This actually makes up the majority of marketing material Apple puts forth about the new Lock Screen. And there are some curated options like the Astronomy, Weather, or Unity options. But that’s about it. I think it’d be great if Apple reintroduced all the images they’ve used from iPhoneOS 1 though iOS 15 and remastered them to look amazing on modern iPhone displays and took advantage of depth whenever possible. I’d also love to see more fun Lock Screens like Weather. For example, if you track your water intake via Apple Health, the Lock Screen can gradually fill up with water throughout the day. As you tilt your iPhone around, it could even slosh around a bit. That’s the kind of fun interactions I’m lookin for. 

4. Live Photo Support for Lock Screen- This is a simple followup to the above point, but in iOS 16, Apple removed Live Photo support from the Lock Screen. Only static images can be used. Since then, many have complained and rightly so. There is no reason to not have Live Photo support. The Apple Watch Photos face supports Live Photos and the whole Lock Screen redesign was inspired by the Watch. Just make it so whenever a user raises or taps their Lock Screen the photo animates. Same applies to iPhone 6s and later Live Wallpapers; bring those back too. 

5. Get rid of all traces of 3D Touch and Haptic Touch- I am a vocal proponent of 3D Touch and not a day goes by that I wish Apple didn’t kill it. But they did. That is the reality of the world we live in. Since Apple couldn’t stand to not replace 3D Touch with something else, they invited the solution of Haptic Touch. Haptic Touch is code for a long press. Long presses are some of the worst UI design in app development history and especially in the way Apple has implemented it. In Files or Music for example, a long press brings up a full pages worth of options for users to select. It’s way too much. Apple needs to look at all the places a long press beings up a list of options and consider if those can options can or should be viewed from a separate menu after initially tapping on the item. Files is an easy one. Tapping a file can open it or bring up the preview window and from there, users could select an option to bring up all actionable options for that file specifically. When Apple killed 3D Touch, they replaced its functionality with long presses. This was a miscalculation. The fix is to introduce visible menu options to bring up the options that 3D Touch or long presses did.

6. Default App support for more app categories- In iOS 14, Apple allowed a small number of app categories to become defaults for the system, including email apps and internet browsers. At the time, I think Apple considered this an experiment to see if it could work and I would generally say it has. The time has now come to expand those app categories to include default app support for things like calendars, maps, reminders, notes, photos, music, and podcasts. If a user wants to set Google Maps as a default, they should be free to do so. Apple’s apps will still be the default and come pre-installed on all Apple devices, but if a user dose’t want to use them, they won’t be forced too. This will force Apple to complete with other developers to consistently create the best apps in its category. 

7. App Store rules updated to allow browsers to use their own rendering engine, separate of WebKit- In a related thought to the above point, allowing different browsers to use their own render engines will increase competition on iPhone. Allows greater competition among browsers in the App Store

8. App Store rules updated to require developers to give users more control over notifications- This is another thing that Apple should have done when they introduced a priority level system in iOS 15. Many apps like Uber or BestBuy will send users notifications that are ads for products or services, but also send notifications for important things like alerting you to the fact an order is ready for pickup or has shipped. Developers are the ones who determine if an apps notifications are non-important (and could be blocked in certain Focus modes) or important (and would be marked as Time Sensitive, allowing them to bypass certain Focus modes). The problem is not hard to see. If you are a smart developer who wants people to be in your app at all times and ever present on a users Lock Screen, you send regular notifications and mark them all as Time Sensitive. And that is exactly what these apps do. Apple needs to implement an App Store rule that requires developers to give users control over they types of notifications they receive and if those notifications are Time Sensitive or not. I don’t think it’s up to Apple to require this be controlled in apps or in the Settings app, but it needs to be somewhere. This way, people will have greater control over how much time they spend in an app and filter out distractions from their life. Developers will obviously need time to update their apps, so giving them a year I don’t think is unreasonable. And if at that point an app ins’t in compliance, they will not be able to send users any notifications at all. 

9. App Store rules updated to allow game streaming apps- Currently the App Store does not allow services like Xbox GamePass to be on the App Store. Some have viewed this as a way to protect Apple Arcade, but I don’t think that’s it. Apple Arcade can always have it’s own dedicated tab in the App Store and unlike GamePass, Arcade doesn’t require an internet connection to play. That’s a competitive feature right there. But the fact users can’t decide what game service to utilize is crazy to me. It’s no different than Netflix streaming movies to your device.

10. Dedicated Apple Arcade app- In a related note to the above point, Apple Arcade absolutely can be one of the main tabs in the App Store. Apple owns the App Store, and the games they pay to be developed or licensed to their platform can be given top tier placement in their store to ensure revenue. But a dedicated Apple Arcade app that allows you to view and download games, promote new releases and updates, and offer up promotions would be important as well. Not just for existing subscribers but for potential subscribers as well. The Apple TV has its own Arcade app and Macs in Apple Stores have special dedicated Arcade folders. Why not extend this to iOS and take it to the next level?

11. Dedicated Game Center app- I’m not sure how many people are really aware of what Game Center is or how it works. Part of that is due to the fact that in iOS 10 it was removed as an app where you could go and see what it offered and was instead replaced with being built into the backend of all Game Center games where it’s features were now palced. It’s very odd and kinda annoying when you want to play a game on iOS and these Game Center popups keep getting in the way of your game. Reintroducing Game Center as an app would raise awareness of what the service is and what it offers with users and help cleanup all the games that support  it by returning those Game Center features to its own app. Game Center would be the best place to see all your achievements for all of your games, setup controller settings, send and receive game invites, and manage friends. 

12. Updated Status Bar and Dynamic Island activities- This is a hard one to explain and it currently only effects iPhone 14 Pro users, but if the rumors are true that all iPhone 15 models will adopt the Dynamic Island, it is certainly something Apple will want to cleanup. Sometimes there are duplication and inconsistencies in how apps using your location utilize Status Bar and Dynamic Island. One example is when I open Pikmin Bloom, the Status Bar updates with a location arrow in a blue circle, then when I start to plant flowers, the Dynamic Island will expand out to show the app is using my location. Which it always was in the first place. It’s bizarre and this is the kind of thing that I hope Apple reviews and cleans up the Status Bar and adjusts some of the things that appear in the Dynamic Island. 

13. Camera Roll and App Albums in Photos app- This is a simple one. I hope Apple changes the Library tab in Photos to just show photos taken with your iPhone camera or those shared in iMessages. Then all the screenshots you take or photos you save from an app like Twitter or Reddit can be saved to their own App Album. This way it’ll be easier to separate out the pictures that you have taken with your iPhone camera and those saved or taken in other apps

14. Multiple timer support in Clock app- Finally, this is the big one, please Apple, allow users to set multiple timers in the Clock app on iPhone. This can be done already on Apple Watch and HomePod, but nowhere else. It’s time.