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By Zach Epstein, BGR
Apple’s iOS platform has certainly come a long way over the past
decade. It started as a bare bones mobile operating system intended to
simply the smartphone user experience, and it was welcomed with open
arms considering how sloppy and overcomplicated platforms like Symbian
and Windows Mobile were at the time. Then as the years went by, Apple
continued to add more and more features to its mobile software. iOS 12
is now a feature-rich OS with more capabilities than most people will
ever use. It’s wonderful that the platform has gotten more versatile as
time has gone by, but it has also gotten a bit more cluttered and
complex in some areas.
One example of a feature that could still use some refinement is the
iOS notification system. iOS 12 introduced a bunch of big updates to
notifications on the iPhone and iPad, and they’re so much better than
they used to be. Features like notification grouping and per-app muting
area great indeed, but Apple still has plenty of work to do before iOS
notifications and the iPhone lock screen are no longer headaches for
users. It’ll be interesting to see how much attention these crucial
features get in iOS 13, Apple’s next big iOS update that’s set to be
unveiled next June. In the meantime, a 17-year-old just whipped up a
terrific design concept that might be even better than what Apple has
done in iOS 12.
iOS 12 finally groups notifications by app, which
is something users have been clamoring for forever. It’s also much
easier to mute notifications from individual apps now, and 3D Touch
gestures allow you to do neat things like reply to messages right from
within a notification. Even still, notifications can build up quickly on
the lock screen just like they always have. In fact, I still wake up
every single morning with so many notifications on my lock screen that I
almost always just give up while scrolling through them and clear them
all instead.
A 17-year-old Reddit user who goes by “whatfood” is apparently as unimpressed with Apple’s iOS lock screen as I am, and he reinvisioned it in a concept video posted earlier this week.
It’s pretty awesome. The focus in this particular mockup is a new music
widget that’s immeasurably better than Apple’s, but the new
notifications layout has my attention. Instead of an endless stream of
text boxes, each app with unread notifications is represented by a small
icon. Tapping one of those icons would then theoretically expand the
notifications. This way a quick glance gives you an instant overview,
and then you can address whichever apps you’d like without sifting
through all the clutter you see on your iPhone now.
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