iOS 18 changes you’d like

[jbailey]

having written a lot of ios apps, i’d be quite happy with a simplified xcode (without all the massive cruft from the desktop version). But i also need a real, reliable, files.app/finder/whatever they want to call it, with the ability to work with/move around/share/etc etc files as easily as on mac. Because every application i’ve written requires creating/working with/editing audio, video, text, sql, etc. files. All sorts of stuff that combines together into an app. I can’t imagine doing that on an iPad when i am forced to use files.app as my interface to organize and manipulate these things,

Of course, some of my apps have a combination of objective c/swift/swiftui/javascript, and imagine xcode for ipados might be limited to just swift/swiftui, but who knows.

I’m a full-time developer but I don’t really use Xcode much. I write small personal macOS apps occasionally but nothing serious. What I do for 40 hours/week is write web apps (currently in React) and I can’t do that with a locked down version of iPadOS. I really need command line tools, node, npm etc.

I understand Apple’s desire to keep iPadOS locked down for security purposes but that makes it completely useless for me as a developer. I’d propose that Apple create a developer mode that is only available to registered developers who pay Apple’s standard annual developer fee. It should come with Xcode, the terminal app, and allow unsandboxed apps. Leave the rest to developers to work out. I guarantee that if Apple did this the iPad ecosystem would take off in a big way that currently isn’t possible.

 

[throAU]

I’m a full-time developer but I don’t really use Xcode much. I write small personal macOS apps occasionally but nothing serious. What I do for 40 hours/week is write web apps (currently in React) and I can’t do that with a locked down version of iPadOS. I really need command line tools, node, npm etc.

I understand Apple’s desire to keep iPadOS locked down for security purposes but that makes it completely useless for me as a developer. I’d propose that Apple create a developer mode that is only available to registered developers who pay Apple’s standard annual developer fee. It should come with Xcode, the terminal app, and allow unsandboxed apps. Leave the rest to developers to work out. I guarantee that if Apple did this the iPad ecosystem would take off in a big way that currently isn’t possible.

I suspect they’ll release a web version of xcode for this purpose with cloud compilation, data storage, etc. integrated with their code signing infrastructure - before they release a full featured ipad xcode.

 

[diamond.g]

I'd like Apple to adopt more similar call screening options that Google has along with the hold for me feature. It would be nice for Shazam to work more like Now Playing. I do think circle search (or really what is on my screen type search) would be cool to have. A Google Lens ripoff would be welcome.

 

[Herdfan]

For iOS to recognize an email field and stop capitalizing the first letter.

Along the same lines, recognize a numeric field and just give me the number pad. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't.

 

[Yoused]

recognize a numeric field and just give me the number pad

I have a custom keyboard on my iPad that includes a 10-key pad, because, quite frankly, why not, there is plenty of room. 10-key is so much easier than numbers across the top. My ultimate thought, for iPadOS would be a keyboard that gives you the regular layout, but if you swipe laterally, it squeezes the layout to make room for a 10-key on the side, which you can then swipe back out of the way when you no longer want it there.

 

[fooferdoggie]

I want to see some AI features like spelling and grammar and a far better understanding of the spoken word.

 

[Nycturne]

Along the same lines, recognize a numeric field and just give me the number pad. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't.

iOS will absolutely show the number pad if it knows it's a numeric field. But it relies on developers properly annotating their input fields, which they don't. Doubly so for all the developers who target the lowest common denominator with apps that are just a web view pointed at their web site (and fundamentally broken half the time).

 

[Yoused]

Another thing I would really appreciate: when I read a news story that happened in E. Gorleymottle, I have this weird need to know where that is – to look it up on a map. So, I open a map program and type in the name of the place I want to find, and it finds it just fine, and I am looking at Main Street from about, IDK, 500 feet. Which fails to help me understand where exactly E. Gorelymottle is in relation to its environs.

Now, I understand that most people look up a place to look at the place itself, not so much to see where a place is. But, once I have found the town, I have to zoom out in order to learn what I wanted to learn, which, on my iffy connection, can mean that Maps will stall out on grid view and take another 5 minutes to pull in the surrounding area.

It would just be handy for me to have a thing where I can tell it, I want to view from 10000' for this one, or from 500' for this other one. A feature that could be made available to the people that want to be able to use it that way, as an opt-in thing so that it would not get in the way of regular people.

 

[Herdfan]

You are not alone. I do the same thing.

Much easier to deal with on a desktop vs iOS.

Is there an iOS 18 thread with the new announced features or is it the WWDC thread?

 

[Cmaier]

Another thing I would really appreciate: when I read a news story that happened in E. Gorleymottle, I have this weird need to know where that is – to look it up on a map. So, I open a map program and type in the name of the place I want to find, and it finds it just fine, and I am looking at Main Street from about, IDK, 500 feet. Which fails to help me understand where exactly E. Gorelymottle is in relation to its environs.

Now, I understand that most people look up a place to look at the place itself, not so much to see where a place is. But, once I have found the town, I have to zoom out in order to learn what I wanted to learn, which, on my iffy connection, can mean that Maps will stall out on grid view and take another 5 minutes to pull in the surrounding area.

It would just be handy for me to have a thing where I can tell it, I want to view from 10000' for this one, or from 500' for this other one. A feature that could be made available to the people that want to be able to use it that way, as an opt-in thing so that it would not get in the way of regular people.

how about a new overlay option in Maps, in addition to the existing satellite, navigation, transit, etc. Call it “Atlas” or something, and it gives you an inset showing you where the detailed view is from, only gives you educationally-interesting POIs, and tells you fun stuff like key exports, famous natives, population, demographics, etc.?

 

[The Hardcard]

For iOS to recognize an email field and stop capitalizing the first letter.

Along the same lines, recognize a numeric field and just give me the number pad. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't.

I’d like a way to toggle capitalization as an option when selecting a word. I get mistakes both ways when dictating, it’s one of the biggest problems I have.

 

[Yoused]

I’d like a way to toggle capitalization as an option when selecting a word. I get mistakes both ways when dictating, it’s one of the biggest problems I have.

That would make writing with the Pencil much more practical.

One thing I want is not an i(Pad)OS specIfic feature but it would help me a lot. I track a particular page and paste new content into Numbers. Well, not paste but enter most of it manually because pasting trashes the format. I would really like to have a way to paste only the data into the table, forcing it to acquire the table's formatting.

 

[Andropov]

That would make writing with the Pencil much more practical.

One thing I want is not an i(Pad)OS specIfic feature but it would help me a lot. I track a particular page and paste new content into Numbers. Well, not paste but enter most of it manually because pasting trashes the format. I would really like to have a way to paste only the data into the table, forcing it to acquire the table's formatting.

Huh. TIL iOS doesn't have "Paste and Match Style" like macOS.

 

[Artemis]

Negative comment warning:

Color styling in iOS 18 is insane and a rare case where I think “Steve would roll in his grave” applies instead of usual hyperbole.

It just doesn’t work that well, and the reason Google pulls it off is Material You is a theme engine beyond the app icons, and it works quite well in that case. But really Android is more reliant on App Libraries, so if you have 4-8 icons on home page that are themed you can kind of muscle memory your way into them even if impinges some easy discrimination and is silly.

It’s just a different dynamic. That doesn’t mean I think the themed icons are a good idea there either, they really aren’t for the simple reason that it’s a impediment to quickly discriminating been apps, but just that the damage is much easier to mitigate on Android both aesthetically and functionally because of how home screens are more commonly used.

I’m honestly just shocked by that from Apple. It really looks bad. You don’t have to use it obviously, but I think there’s something to what it says about the design teams in software that they allowed this, some limited guidance and parentalism in an OS is good.

Basically my only iOS 18 complaint I guess.

 

[Artemis]

Locked and hidden apps is really great.

Game mode smart and will probably get significant performance boosts or power reductions. Should be cool.

Categorization in mail great and maybe overdue.

Passwords app also great especially if exporting gets easier.

Larger icons is also great, instead of having to have a widget.

 

[Artemis]

If I could request anything for iOS 19 I guess?

Notification center changes, just want more contrast and better management with less of the overdone roll-ups?
It could be so so much better.

It would nice to swap swipe down to search with swipe for notifications, I don’t think they’ll do that but if not then the above would be great.


App Library: let us sort folders on our own or change the default view.

let me remove tabs on Apple Music, e.g. customize the bottom tabs.

 

[Roller]

Negative comment warning:

Color styling in iOS 18 is insane and a rare case where I think “Steve would roll in his grave” applies instead of usual hyperbole.

It just doesn’t work that well, and the reason Google pulls it off is Material You is a theme engine beyond the app icons, and it works quite well in that case. But really Android is more reliant on App Libraries, so if you have 4-8 icons on home page that are themed you can kind of muscle memory your way into them even if impinges some easy discrimination and is silly.

It’s just a different dynamic. That doesn’t mean I think the themed icons are a good idea there either, they really aren’t for the simple reason that it’s a impediment to quickly discriminating been apps, but just that the damage is much easier to mitigate on Android both aesthetically and functionally because of how home screens are more commonly used.

I’m honestly just shocked by that from Apple. It really looks bad. You don’t have to use it obviously, but I think there’s something to what it says about the design teams in software that they allowed this, some limited guidance and parentalism in an OS is good.

Basically my only iOS 18 complaint I guess.

I agree. Icons are supposed to be readily identifiable visually, and this reduces that IMO. I already sometimes confuse icons with similar color schemes because that’s the first thing I notice.

 

[Artemis]

I agree. Icons are supposed to be readily identifiable visually, and this reduces that IMO. I already sometimes confuse icons with similar color schemes because that’s the first thing I notice.

I honestly can’t believe they’d degrade iOS like this, I truly believe it looks worse than with Material You’s accents which, Android doesn’t rely rely on home screens like iOS does so you can decorate a few icons and rely on instinct and just use the app library — Also again the theme engine with color is actually great outside of apps.

It just feels like they took the worst part of Android’s Material You, did it for an OS where home screen icons are abundant and more important, and somehow also made it feel more out of place.

Also appears they gave more optionality than Google! The RGB color selector is ridiculous. Google doesn’t give that much power, preselected accents from your wallpaper.

Which is so unfortunate, it’s also so uncharacteristic of both. It really really feels like a lapse from Apple.

 

[Artemis]

That said, material you isn’t reality perfect and at least this is all avoidable.

 

[Cmaier]

I honestly can’t believe they’d degrade iOS like this, I truly believe it looks worse than with Material You’s accents which, Android doesn’t rely rely on home screens like iOS does so you can decorate a few icons and rely on instinct and just use the app library — Also again the theme engine with color is actually great outside of apps.

It just feels like they took the worst part of Android’s Material You, did it for an OS where home screen icons are abundant and more important, and somehow also made it feel more out of place.

Also appears they gave more optionality than Google! The RGB color selector is ridiculous. Google doesn’t give that much power, preselected accents from your wallpaper.

Which is so unfortunate, it’s also so uncharacteristic of both. It really really feels like a lapse from Apple.

Eh. You don’t have to use it. And for the weirdos who like color-coordinating icons and backgrounds and such, they seem to like it. It’s also only the first beta, so maybe some more changes will come (like opting an app icon out).

I think eventually Apple will adopt something like SFSymbols for icons, and then they can do more intelligent tinting.