Apple: Improvements To Their OS We Want To See

Everything Apple does is meant to engage their fans adding ease and simplicity to their lifestyle. From iPhone to Apple Watch, to iPad, and Mac, they’re all meant to make our day-to-day tasks smoother. Work shouldn’t feel like work when it comes to the ease of their operating systems, yet there’s still plenty to improve upon that seems like they’re obvious. With WWDC coming up, here are some things we hope Apple fixes about their software:\

Apple TV – tvOS

Apple seems to be leaning into Apple TV+. They’re hitting their stride with critically acclaimed movies and shows. They’ve got great documentaries and family-friendly programming to suit all ages. However, there’s one thing that is increasingly annoying about their UI for Apple TV that all streamers fail at, navigation. Look, as great as the slide bars are for quick reference they should not be the only option. While the search bar is easy to use if you’re looking for a specific title, streamers don’t have the equivalent to “channel surfing”.

Would it really be too much to ask, instead of making us aimlessly scroll a slider bar, there’s a long push of the select button to bring up a grid view in each category? Say I’m in the mood for a comedy, I scroll down to the comedy section, slider bar. Shouldn’t I be able to just hold a button and bring up a 4-5 wide grid of all their comedy offerings? The same thing for “Hey, Siri”. You can ask Siri to show you comedies etc, but once again a slider bar. So much of your viewing experience is wrapped up in scrolling their old-fashioned “cover flow” from their iTunes days. For quick reference or suggested titles, this is beautifully done but for the “just looking” experience it’s a slog that isn’t really the Apple way.

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Apple Watch – watchOS

Apple Watch has come a long way since the first one was introduced. While it might be one of their more underutilized product in terms of functionality, it has drastically improved at monitoring each user’s health and wellness. As Apple continues to push these two fields, they need an improvement on how we interact with each one. With the iPhone and iOS, the majority of their health-related content can be found in the Health app. However, with watchOS it can get a little complicated. With watchOS you can check your heart rate, blood oxygen, and a few other key health components. The problem is, they’re each in their own app on the watch face that you have to move around on a tiny screen to each one. Sure you can move them around so they’re closer together on their grid view, but isn’t there an easier way?

Couldn’t Apple put all these things so they’re lumped together in one app similar to their Health app? Even if they stand on their own so users who only want one or the other can still easily access them, is it really that hard to also have them all in one spot. Call it iVitals (or whatever clever name they’d come up with) and make it a one-stop spot for ease of access and be done with it?

All Products – Home App

As much as users love the ease of an interactive app to control their smart devices, the Home app is very limited. It looks like they had a deadline to meet and got the most basic of functionality done. With Apple, the push for everything being integrated to work well together is great, but again these instances are limited. Go back to the UI for Apple TV. Say I don’t want the slider bar, why can’t my iPhone be a second screen for usability? I can use my iPad to be a remote for the device, but with multitasking can’t it help me browse as well.

If I pull up the Home app on my iPad to use as a remote, shouldn’t it be able to split-screen as a second screen and have options right on my iPad? Pair the two devices together and add ease of use there as well. More often than not I’m controlling my device with another Apple product and not the remote. So while my focus might be on the TV, it could save time to have a multitasking function on another device.

Siri

Let’s all be honest here, Siri is the most half-baked idea Apple has had over the years. While they’ve made tremendous strides in improving the digital assistant, they still lag far behind competitors. Siri is the one thing that all the devices have and should be the tentpole of their product lines. Apple really needs to step up and surpass the competition when it comes to its virtual assistant. If the company’s whole selling point is how all their devices work seamlessly together then the one thing they all share should be the top of the line when it comes to competition. No, we don’t need Siri to play the Akinator game, but the functionality in-home between all the devices should rival the competition. Siri is great, but it doesn’t quite get past the finish line.

Maybe there are ways that exist for these simple fixes and I’m not a “power user”. However, that’s the point. Apple has always been a company that any user should be able to use their device and not feel lost in the tech of it all. if iOS 16 focuses more on seamlessly using each device as a second option for simple tasks then a lot of these tweaks can be achieved.