As a software-focused event, a large portion of Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference is dedicated to unveiling the latest operating system for the iPhone. While there are plenty of features we could potentially see in the new OS, here are a few we would like Apple to bring to iOS 12.
As a software-focused event, a large portion of Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference is dedicated to unveiling the latest operating system for the iPhone. Last year’s iOS 11 set out to allow for more customization and accessibility options. On Monday, June 4, we’ll see what Apple has up its sleeve for iOS 12 when it presents the new operating system at WWDC 2018 in San Jose, California.
Ahead of its debut, rumors have surfaced about what could be included in iOS 12 — software to combat iPhone addiction, HomeKit improvements, and more. But while there are plenty of features that we could possibly see in the new OS, there are also ones we’re hoping will actually make the cut. Here are a few of the new features we want to see in iOS 12.
One of the most notable changes in iOS 11 was the control center. Past versions of iOS only allowed you to access the basics in the control center — Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, toggles for the flashlight, camera, calculator, and brightness adjustments. But in iOS 11, you’re able to add quick access toggles for Notes, Stopwatch, Text Size, and Wallet, among others. We were particularly in favor of the ability to add Lower Power Mode — which used to require multiple steps to simply toggle on. With the last OS, we are able to simply swipe up on the control center and tap the low battery icon instead.
In our iOS 11 review, we hoped future updates would be less restrictive regarding what you can add — but that has yet to happen. That’s why we’re hoping to see additional options in iOS 12. It would be nice to be able to have other useful apps available to you in the same motion that we do with the camera or calculator. This could include social media or productivity apps you use often. We’d also like to have the ability to choose between different Wi-Fi networks through the control center, rather than only be able to toggle Wi-Fi on and off.
We’d like to be able to customize the control center when it comes to more than icons as well. Even though you can control the order of the controls that you add, there’s no way to customize the entire menu. Similar to the way you rearrange your app icons, it’d be nice to be able to drag and drop each module in the control center freely.
While Siri didn’t receive a ton of updates in iOS 11, it did give users the ability to type out questions and commands instead of saying them out loud. But with iOS 12, we want to see an upgrade to the voice assistant — with more functionality. Especially in a world of Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa, it seems Siri only sticks to the basics.
For starters, Siri isn’t reliable enough to handle too many commands at once. We’d like to see a feature similar to Google’s Multiple Actions — where you’re able to make different requests at once. Another feature we want in iOS 12 is for Siri to be able to launch specific things within third-party apps with a voice command. For example, if we want to play a specific song in Spotify, we’d be able to let Siri know by stating the command, which would prompt our iPhone to automatically launch the song. As of now, we’re only able to launch the app itself but it doesn’t allow us to go into specifics.
There are rumors that Siri is supposed to be getting smarter, with information being unveiled at WWDC. We do hope that at the very least, the company has spent the last year working to improve the voice assistant’s ability to understand its users. Even though Siri has a variety of language support, users still find that it often misunderstands exactly what someone is saying or asking it. Even if more of the complex features aren’t added in, it’d be nice for Apple to improve Siri’s transcription capabilities at the very least.
It’s rumored that iOS 12 will allow users to FaceTime in groups — which is a feature we would definitely like to see. More often than not, friends and family are always communicating via group chats on iMessage, so it only makes sense to have the same capability via FaceTime. Rather than having to install third-party apps, it’d be extremely convenient to have the option built right into the operating system instead. It was also rumored to be included in iOS 11 last year, and we hope the new feature makes the cut this time around.
This update is for iPhone X owners specifically, seeing as how the device includes Apple’s Face ID — the company’s facial-recognition system. Even though Animoji was debuted less than a year ago, we’re still hoping to see additional Emoji options at WWDC. Currently, there are about 12 different animals for you to choose from but there are far more Emojis Apple could add to make the feature more fun.
While Samsung’s AR Emoji — which launched a few months back — didn’t receive the best response in terms of accuracy, it definitely set a precedent for all the possibilities when it comes to digital cartoon avatars. With AR Emoji, you’re not only able to mirror a character or animal but you’re also able to create one of yourself — allowing you to choose a skin tone, outfit, hairstyle, hair color, and glasses. We would definitely like to see the same wide range of customizability with Apple’s Animojis in iOS 12.
There’s an exhaustive list of different bugs found in iOS 11, ranging from microphone problems to notifications disappearing and even Touch ID not working. Perhaps one of the strangest glitches was when the letter “A” and a symbol appeared if some users typed the letter ‘i.’ Even though Apple released updates for mostly all of them, it’s inconvenient to constantly run into issues on an operating system that’s supposed to improve the user experience with new features and capabilities.
With iOS 12, we hope to see Apple’s new OS run far more smoothly this time around. There have been reports that suggest the company is already focusing on this — rather than making it feature-heavy, iOS 12 will focus on ironing out bugs from its software.
