A Wish List for Apple
It’s a living document!
Last updated: 2024-03-22
Hardware
- A compact Magic Keyboard with Touch ID with a silver frame and black keys
- New game console-competitive Apple TV
- A HomePod with a screen, perfect for the kitchen
- A standalone Apple camera with vastly improved optical quality that integrates with iCloud Photos and the rest of their image pipeline
- A pair of smart glasses a la Meta Ray-Bans that include hands-free photography and wireless speakers
- AirPods (4th gen) that fit similarly to the second-generation models with tap-to-control, some noise cancellation magic, improved audio quality and more
Software
- 🔜 A Siri that doesn’t suck.®
- Let me use the full maps application on iPhone when navigating with CarPlay rather it being stuck on the text directions
- Let me choose the destination quick options when searching for a stop in CarPlay
- Option to sync CarPlay’s app home screen layout between cars
- 🔜 Lock any app or folder of apps with passcode/FaceID
- Pinned playlists in Music
- PiP video for Apple News videos
- ‘Quick Open’ in more apps (based on Files Go-To menu? CMD-Shift-G)
- Smart rotation lock (based on face recognition?) that can be specified per app
- 🔜 Health widgets with trends
- 🔜 Shortcuts actions for TV app (and/or widget to search TV app)
- System-wide highlighting (bonus points for allowing to hook into an API like Readwise)
- Option to pull notification settings from other devices using iCloud upon app install
- When adding shortcuts to folders, add them to the bottom so as not to disrupt widgets and other shortcuts that mirror the folder’s order
- Clipboard manager support for iOS/iPadOS
- SF symbols everywhere
- 🔜 ‘Add to Control Center’ option for Shortcuts
- Fix handed-off music playback via third-party apps and widgets
- Dismiss Share Sheet after completing a shortcut (could be an action to be added in the shortcut)
- Reorder spotlight results (Again. When did this go missing?)
- Multiple conversations with the same person in Messages
- Make the Now Playing app on Apple Watch launch to the currently playing audio regardless of device. I don’t need an empty Now Playing for audio on the Apple Watch if my nearby iPad or Apple TV is playing something.
- Let me name Shortcuts Automations
- Select arbitrary shortcuts for medium and large Shortcuts widgets rather than just the first few shortcuts in a folder
- Make running shortcuts on the Apple Watch vastly faster, require fewer confirmations, and build out more actions that can change settings on the watch itself rather than changing a paired iPhone’s settings
- Overhaul Notification Center in general, starting with syncing dismissed notification and usable button targets. It’s sucked since Big Sur.
- 🔜 Bring on a Passwords/Credentials/Authentication app
- Always-on system extensions to iOS/iPadOS to enable things like third-party clipboard managers, text expansion, and launcher apps
- Music app overhaul that focuses on speed, Handoff support, and slicing and dicing my music library
- A compelling fitness story for the Vision Pro
- Gotta let me turn off the ‘Hide My Email’ feature; I never use it and it gets in the way
- Capturing and sending photos in Messages has to be fast; it’s very slow right now
- An Apple web search engine
- Dynamic wallpapers in iOS like macOS
- Map view while exercising in Watch Workout app
- Map view in cycling workout view live activity thing on iPhone
- An API for developers to implement hyper-realistic voices for easy text-to-speech use (gotta be close in this Age of AI, right?)
- iOS-like custom app icons for macOS. Right now the custom icon is only visible when the app is running and reverts to its default in the Dock when quit.
- Allow shortcuts to be tagged so that they can live in multiple smart folders. Oh, and add customizable smart folders.
- Let shared Reminders lists be put into folders even if they don’t have the same shared settings. I want to consolidate all my wish lists from family members, but can’t because they’re all shared with different sets of people.
- Better control over iOS clipboard access.
- Pause a Maps route for brief stops without losing destination, shared ETAs, etc.
Services
- In-person group workout support in Fitness+ (multiple Watch metrics on screen, both get credit)
- Personal training plans, like a working up to a marathon, that adapt over time to your actual performance and workouts
Initiatives
- Overhaul of Bug Bounty Program with promises of faster turnaround and better communication/transparency
- Overhaul of Feedback/Radar system with promises of better communication/transparency (The Casey Liss request)
Granted in 2024
- 👍 Solution for cloud gaming services in the App Store
- 👍 Improvements to in-app purchases with third-party payment processing
- 👍 An iPad Magic Keyboard with media/function keys and a bigger trackpad
Granted in 2023
- 👍 Preview of AR/VR headset
- 👍 Mac Pro gets a reveal
- 👍 Downloadable Offline Maps
- 👍 Extensions and Safari shortcuts actions available in Safari View Controller
- 👍 Overhaul widgets on macOS. They suck being constrained to Notification Center
- 👍 Allow alternate launch phrases for shortcuts for Siri (like synonyms for menu items)
- 👍 Family-sharing support for passwords and passkeys
- 👍 On-device transcription (offline) for watchOS
Granted in 2022
- 👍 A better solution for status icons on the watch face. These are not so persistent now.
- 👍 Multi-stop planning in maps.
- 👍 Better Family Sharing for Photos.
- 👍 Useful external monitor support in iPadOS.
Granted in 2021
- 👍 Speak workout status over headphones on watchOS. Horray!
- 👍 Shortcuts app for macOS.
- 👍 A refinement, if not overhaul, of multitasking. (The iPad got new multitasking keyboard shortcuts, gestures, and flexibility, but it’s all built upon the previous foundation rather than reimagined.)
- 👍 App Library and Widgets on the Home Screen of iPadOS.