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What's on your iOS 14 wishlist?

iOS 13 has grown into quite a solid and robust operating system, but there's still plenty of work that Apple needs to do.
Written by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Contributing Writer

Windows used to be the operating system that I used the most, then that became macOS, and now it's iOS and iPadOS. But familiarity breeds a certain level of contempt, and there are no shortages of things that Apple should fix and improve in the platform for iOS 14.

Here's what's on my iOS 14 wishlist. What's on yours? Let me know in the comments.

Must read: You're using your favorite iPhone and iPad apps all wrong

#1: Focus on reliability

iOS 12 started out bad, as did iOS 13. This is a trend that Apple needs to break. I'd much rather Apple focus on reliability of iOS than add new features to the platform. Without good levels of reliability, using iPhones and iPads becomes a miserable, wretched experience.

#2: Focus on speed

After reliability, speed is important, especially on older devices. While IOS 13 is super-fast on the iPhone 11, it feels kludgy on older devices. Apple needs to address this performance hit that older devices experience, because it makes for a miserable experience for a lot of users.

#3: Revamp the Home screen and Dock

The Home screen and Dock really haven't changed much since the iPhone was first released. I find it hard to believe that a static grid of icons is the best that Apple can come up with for app icons, and the Dock at the bottom of the screen needs to be more than a spot for icons to appear on all pages. That's so basic and dumb.

The whole Home screen is so downright basic, and reminiscent of Windows 3.1. Wake up Apple, it's 2020!

#4: Allow users to change default apps

Sounds like this might actually be happening, and not before time. However, I suspect Apple is doing this not because it would be useful to users, but because the company is concerned about the threat of government intervention.

Whatever the reason, being able to kick Apple's default apps to the kerb and choose the apps that I want to use would be very welcomed.

#5: Active icons

It's surprises me that the Clock and Calendar have icons that change, but that everything else it weirdly static on the Home screen.

Why can't app icons be more like complications on the Apple Watch, and allow important information to be displayed on the icon without having to open an app?

#6: Make Siri smarter

Compared to the competition, Siri is as dumb as a bag of sand. It's not like Apple doesn't have the know-how to make Siri better and smarter, so increasingly it feels like Apple isn't interested in voice assistants anymore, and is happy to give ground to Google and Amazon.

It's time for Apple to recommit to Siri.

AirPods Pro and how they are tightly integrated into iOS

#7: Always-on display for OLED iPhones

For some reason Apple has failed to offer this for its OLED iPhones. Having an always-on display show information such as time, reminders, and important notifications on the iPhone would put it on par with high-end Android smartphones.

#8: Multitasking

The iPhone 11 Pro Max has a display that's big enough for two apps to run side by side, similar to split-screen on the iPad. This is probably a long-shot wish, but this would be a really useful feature.

#9: Sweat the small stuff

There's a whole bunch of little tweaks that I'd love to see in iOS 14. For example, being able to set multiple timers would be cool, being able to set alarms based on how long I want to sleep would also be nice. I'd love if call recording was built into iOS, rather than having to rely on third-party apps. Thinking of calls and FaceTime, it would be great if these didn't feel like they took over my iPhone as much as they do.

Like I said, plenty of things to fix.

Apple will likely show off iOS 14 in June at WWDC, with a beta landing soon after, and the final release being made available when the new crop of iPhones are released in the fall.

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