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Apple Will Withhold iOS 12 Features to Focus on Stability

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iOS 12 won’t be the radical departure from iOS 11 it initially could have been, thanks to poor reliability and performance in iOS 11.
An iPhone X with spinning loading icon, indicating it's recovering from a system crash.

A sight I’m all to familiar with: iOS 11 crashing and rebooting my iPhone.

Survey iOS users on their interpretations of iOS 11, and you won’t receive many positive responses. A majority of the revolutionary changes came for the iPad, which gained new—albeit awkward—multitasking features. It also brought a unified file explorer through Apple’s Files app, making the iPad and iOS more suitable for work. Apple introduced augmented reality with ARKit, Apple Pay in messages, a new App Store, improved iMessage apps, and Siri became more of a “behind the scenes” assistant than an forward-facing user interface (UI). Speaking of UIs, the Control Center got a much needed upgrade, though it looks awful. I was watching the iOS 11 keynote with the iOS team at work, and one of our designers joined me in a visible cringe when Apple demonstrated the new UI for Control Center.

However, if you ask most iOS 11 users what the biggest change to iOS was, they’d tell you it went from an operating system that “just works” to one that “just doesn’t.”

iOS 11: Unstable and Insecure

I cannot prove that iOS 11 is unstable, though there have been a number of security problems lately, including Spectre and Meltdown. Only Apple has the crash numbers and complaint logs, and they’re not eager to share it, so we can only go by user feedback. A quick glance through Twitter shows that most people talking about iOS 11 are complaining about its woefully bug-ridden nature. Have a chat with your iOS-using friends, they’ll likely agree, iOS 11 is a mess. I’ve tried both the public beta and the standard release, and neither was stable. I’ve had apps not work under iOS 11, I’ve had to uninstall a few, and it has crashed at very inopportune times. Frankly, it’s the worst version of iOS ever, at least from a stability standpoint, and it’s starting to hurt Apple’s brand image and customer satisfaction.

Declining iOS quality could be killing consumer interest in new iPhone models. Current users are abandoning the platform or refusing to upgrade.

This is why Apple will be focusing on improving stability in iOS 12. Apple still has a few new features they’ll introduce, but iOS 12 will largely be a stability improvement. Axios reported that Craig Federighi met with the iOS development team in late January to discuss the changes to the product roadmap. A separate source speaking with AppleInsider would only state that they had a rather unusual meeting, but would provide no further details. This week, Mark Gurman of Bloomberg was also able to confirm that iOS 12 would focus more on quality, as would all of Apple’s software options this year. It seems all but certain, iOS 12 will be a small release to focus on stability.

Apple has lost its reputation for quality. Is it too late for them to get it back?

What iOS 12 Will Bring

iOS 12 won’t just be about improving quality though, there will be some new features as well. The biggest will be universal apps across iPhones, iPads, and Macs. The Apple ecosystem is already legendary, with devices working together seamlessly. This would take that one step further, making developing across platforms a snap. We’ll also see improvements to animoji, a new Digital Health tool that can tell parents to limit their kids’ screen time, and deeper integration of Siri. That might not sound like much, and it isn’t, but with how bad iOS 11 is, it’s exactly what we need, a return to knowing Apple for quality.

What iOS 12 Could Have Been

An old iOS concept showing iOS widgets on the home screen.

Funny how an iOS 8 concept from 2014 looks more modern than iOS 11. Those widgets even look like the new App Store cards, released in iOS 11.

This is going to disappoint a lot of people. Apparently, Apple was working on a new home screen, which will now be pushed back to iOS 13. The iOS home screen has become stale, and, as a frequent Android user, I’m tremendously envious of how utilitarian and ergonomic the Android home screen is in comparison to the iPhone home screen. You can use live widgets and wallpapers, landscape and dynamic wallpapers (including ones that update with the weather), keep apps in reach of one hand, and much more.

Apple intended to introduce a new version of CarPlay to coincide with the new home screen design. Apple would have also introduced a new Photos app, which would use “Siri” (what Apple calls any machine learning they do for your phone) to figure out what photos you wanted to look at. Altogether, it would have been a massive revamp of iOS, something customers have demanded for years. However, it’s clear Apple has spread itself too thin, and a simple iOS 12 focused on quality is exactly what the company needs.

Just What the Doctor Ordered

I’m certainly guilty of this. I’ll take on too many assignments, work at home, write for two blogs, keep up a surprisingly active social life, do chores around my diminutive (and often messy) apartment, and, at the end of the day, realize that I didn’t accomplish every task I set out to do. I spread myself too thin. This is what Apple has done. They put too much attention on deadlines, instead of allowing developers to push back releases that aren’t ready. They focused on bringing too many big name features into an OS update, when, often, consumers just one one or two exciting new features. Apple forgot that Apple is known for quality, that everything “just works,” and as a result, Apple hasn’t felt like Apple for years.

Apple Watch breath animation, a simple tool for meditation.

I stated not long ago that Apple needed a quality-focused release. I’d love features like a more customization home screen, and my goodness, the ability to define default apps would be miraculous. However, I know when you need to take time to relax, slow down, and do things right. They’re an old saying I’ve been telling myself lately: a person should meditate for one hour every day, unless you don’t have time, then you should meditate for two.

Apple needs to sit down, take a few deep, long breaths, and focus on what’s important. Apple has to become the Apple it has always been known for: not doing everything, but being the best at everything it does.

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