Luke's Apple Wishlist

I am a heavy user of my iPhone, iPad, MacBook, all of that. I push 'em to their limits. As such, I find myself wishing Apple would add a lot of new features.

For the last few years, I've kept a running list in my Notes app of things I wanna see Apple add. This year I'm publishing that list. I've updated it by moving stuff added this year in iOS 14 into the "Completed" section. That's why the list is called iOS 15 and macOS 12 Wish List–this stuff's gonna have to wait 'till next year.

This list is only gonna grow once I get my hands on this year's betas. I'm not sure if imma update this post as I think of new ideas, or do another post with new ideas.

If you're interested in seeing everything Apple did announce this year, there's a post for that.

Table of Contents

Platforms

iPhone

  • The current audio player in Messages and Files is trash
  • Paste button on keyboard
  • More icons in dock
  • Split View
  • Apple Pencil support

iPad

  • HDMI display mode for iPad Pro to be used as as external monitor for any device–this would be so dope for playing Switch or PlayStation with friends on the go.

iPhone & iPad

  • Ability for Apple to update native apps separate from OS so that they can release new features quicker
  • iPhone app storage under app details in Settings
  • Switch up which app pages are active based on location, time, or via a Shortcut
  • Screen sharing with FaceTime
  • Shared video watching with FaceTime
  • Find My optional in Family Sharing
  • Temporarily disable night shift while videos play
  • Change default apps
    • Maps
    • Calendar
    • Text Editor
    • Browser
    • Mail

macOS

  • View Live Photos in Finder–Its inexcusable that the only way to view Live Photos is from inside of an app
  • show menubar in fullscreen apps
  • Bring back Spaces & Exposé–Mission Control is insultingly dumbed down from what we had back in the Leopard days
  • 4x4 and more advanced full screen window support
  • TouchID finger identification when you rest a finger on the TouchId sensor in System Preferences
  • FaceID on Mac
  • Grouped notifications on MacOS
  • Magic Keyboard/Trackpad/Mouse should switch between devices with ease the same way AirPods do

AppleTV

  • I want to be able to plug another HDMI device into my AppleTV and picture in picture my PlayStation

Apple Watch

  • Change watch face based on time of day or location
  • Raise To Siri is unusable... fix it
  • Third party watch faces

AirPods

  • Volume control without using Siri, touching phone, or watch

Continuity

  • Optional phrase to specify which device should respond to a Hey Siri request–"hey Siri on Watch"
  • Reminders for "on my Mac" or "on my iPad" to be reminded of a thing when you pick up a different device
  • When placing/making a phone calls, offer button to pause anything thats playing on other devices

Apps & Services

Files App

  • Cleaner "Open In..." experience

Apple Card

  • Change Apple Card bill cycle date
  • Syncing with Quicken and Mint–csv export ain't it

Shortcuts

  • Control orientation lock
  • Control all settings with shortcuts. Such as keyboard click, etc.
  • Allow user-created Shortcuts to parameterize inputs just like app Shortcuts can
  • Shortcut bundles that embed referenced Shortcuts so that we can share complex Shortcuts that call one another without requiring users to install multiple Shortcuts
  • Multiple speaker destinations from AirPlay action
  • Handoff between all AirPlay 2 devices–this is restricted to HomePods and AppleTV’s
  • Wait fractions of seconds in the Shortcuts wait action
  • Music action to fetch a list of all of the user's Music playlists
  • OCR from a Shortcuts action
  • NFC from a Shortcuts action
  • NFC invoked Shortcuts should receive encoded tag data as input
  • Native support for prettier menus in Shortcuts
  • Message to existing threads via Shortcut
  • Collapsible control flow in Shortcuts
  • Switch blocks in Shortcuts that behave like Menus but switch on a variable
  • Persistent Shortcut data–like DataJar
  • Delete Shortcut permissions for apps whose actions are no longer in use within the Shortcut
  • Multi-window support for Shortcuts app
  • Unlock device rotation via Shortcut
  • While loop
  • Shortcut version history
  • Play ambient sounds via Shortcut
  • Contextual shortcuts. When I launch an app let me prompt at the top of the ui without disrupting the user.
  • Full access to iCloud Drive from Shortcuts, including the ability to list and iterate over files
  • Functions/subroutines
  • Read and modify file tags
  • Query Notes by folder
  • Run Shortcuts on an interval–shoutout to Pushcut for enabling this today
  • User-defined smart folders

Music

  • UI for rating single song sucks
  • Spotify like cross platform music control
  • Offer to resume Music after a meeting ends
  • Sync ALL Smart Playlists with macOS–smart playlists that reference other smart playlists do not sync today
    • ability to modify Smart Playlists on iOS
  • Drag and drop and multi-select in Music app

TV

  • Keep AppleTV paired with AirPlay2 device after sleep/wake
  • allow Plex to surface user's own content in TV app
  • Sling and Philo in TV app
  • Netflix in TV app
  • Season 2 of Defending Jacob

Home

  • Home app wallpaper sync across devices
  • Device-specific permissions in the Home app

Notes

  • Ability to put lock notes that contain pdf and audio file attachments
  • User-defined smart folders synced with macOS

Voice Memos

  • Convert my voice memo to text

Reminders

  • Save any notification as a Reminder
  • Calendar view in reminders app so you can drag to change the due date of a reminder
  • User-defined smart lists synced with macOS

Settings

  • Sound profiles–home, work, switch based on location–I guess we can do this with Shortcuts at this point, but an optimized UI would be nice
  • WiFi network preferred order

App Store

  • Why is it so hard to see the price of purchased apps...?
  • Specify what device to download an app to
  • Wish List

Calendar

  • easy alarm setting like Calvetica used to have
  • Copy and paste events
  • Improved drag and drop support (drag to change calendar)

Mail

  • Sync macOS user-defined smart folders with iOS
    • ability to change smart folders on iOS
  • Gmail-like message snoozing

iMessage

  • Mark as unread
  • Schedule messages
  • Arrow key support when choosing who to send a message to
  • Bubble unreads to the top

Photos

  • Sync smart albums from macOS to iOS
    • Ability to modify smart albums on iOS
  • Hide hidden photos album behind FaceID/TouchID
  • I want a single Photos Library with a subset synced to iCloud–when I export a photo from the Photos app, it should keep the live, burst, and other Apple-specific features–the fact that it doesn't forces me to keep paying for iCloud storage to preserve my memories. It is monopolistic of Apple to force me to pay for iCloud storage in order to to enjoy my photographs.

Misc.

  • A true 1Password competitor
  • Sublime Text's multiple selections feature system-wide
  • Ask Siri to complete multiple commands at once
  • Dark and light shading of alarms based on a.m. or p.m. in Clock app
  • Improved PDF annotation in iBooks
  • Contact photo in contact list of Contacts app

Completed

iOS 14

  • Home screen widgets
  • Privacy considerations around apps reading the clipboard
  • Folders in the Shortcuts app
  • Less-intrusive Siri and background requests
  • Turn off lights/tv when I fall asleep
  • Threaded conversations in iMessage
  • Mentions in iMessage
  • iMessage group photos
  • Allow users to backup and restore Shortcuts from files–not just iCloud links (this worked in iOS 12, but not 13. They are adding it back in 14)

iOS 13 and Earlier

  • iCloud Keychain password management on iOS
  • Access macOS shared files from iOS
  • Night Shift on macOS
  • Native screen sharing support with Mac on iPad (SideCar)
  • Dark mode on iOS
  • Multiple windows of the same app open side by side
  • Multiple timers on HomePod
  • Amazon prime in TV app
  • Now playing across all devices in a single interface
  • Better ui for notification settings
  • Color coded Reminders lists
  • Don’t pause music while dictating or talking to Siri through headphones, bluetooth speaker or AirPlay
  • Allow third-party provided Shortcuts take input/receive output
  • Send an email to all members of a contact group
  • True file downloads in Safari on iOS
  • Maps for icloud.com
  • Jump to album, artist, from song in Music app
  • WiFi and Bluetooth settings in control center
  • Quicker event entry in Calendar app
  • Home automation integration, start playing when I get home
  • Annotate PDFs from Files or iBooks
  • Open whole folder from Files app in another App
  • iMessage
    • TimeStamps
    • Quick Reply
    • Proper Color button when messaging from API
    • Avatars
    • Extract 2 factor auth codes from sms
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