New features of iOS 9 to be announced at WWDC 2015

After two years of excitement, it's time to focus on the details.

Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference is less than a month away, which means we'll have a few weeks to learn what Apple has in store for its next versions of iOS and OS X.

iOS has been busy in recent years - first with the visual overhaul in iOS 7, then with the deep-dive overhaul in iOS 8. From this perspective, the only thing we can be sure of is that iOS 9 will focus on stability and performance. While iOS 9 won't be a "no new features at all" update like Snow Leopard, it will also be the first major iOS release since 2012 to feature minor tweaks rather than radical changes.

In today's article, we've compiled a wish list for iOS 9, which contains various small issues that we hope Apple will be aware of and fix as soon as possible - don't worry, there is absolutely no content that may cause system architecture to break. Some of these items are obviously easier to be recognized and solved by the official. Although some of them have appeared in our previous wish lists, we believe that if they can be fixed in iOS 9, the satisfaction of the majority of users will be improved.

Siri API

This is undoubtedly an old request that we have been looking forward to for many years. Siri has officially landed on the mobile platform as early as the iOS 5 era, and now it has been used in a wide range of devices from iPad Air 2 to iPhone 4S. And as a third party, we have always hoped to introduce its functions into our own applications.

Apple has a strong developer ecosystem, which is the most proud asset of iOS. If the official can promote Siri's functions to the entire ecosystem, then this digital assistant solution will definitely burst out with huge energy far beyond the current level - and Apple itself does not need to make any investment. For me personally, this is definitely a win-win deal.

Public transportation information introduced into map application

Yes, this should be the kind of function that people either don’t care about at all (such as users who drive their own cars everywhere) or can’t live without for a moment (such as commuters in the city).

Apple Maps lacked public transit directions when it first launched in iOS 6, and the company has relied on third-party vendors to provide this information ever since. While the interface is indeed an official Apple app, we are redirected to third-party solutions when searching for public transit information, which often lack in appearance, functionality, or accuracy - which obviously greatly affects the consistency of the user experience. All in all, Google Maps is still the best solution in this area, bar none.

This problem becomes even more serious when considering new platforms like the Apple Watch. The left or right turn navigation mechanism is great because it allows us to listen to music or make phone calls while ensuring that we are on the right road. However, the Apple Watch can only use Apple's official maps, and Apple Maps does not support turn-by-turn navigation.

Apple has been hiring people to solve this problem for a long time. Maybe with the release of iOS 9, the navigation gap that has plagued us for so long will be filled.

Setting Page Adjustment

Why can’t iOS have such a feature?

The picture above shows the System Preferences under the OS X platform, which summarizes all the different types of setting options under multiple subheadings. But what if you are not sure where the option you need is? No problem! Because the window also provides a search bar that can be used to find the corresponding content.

This is exactly what iOS should add to the settings screen, and its practical effect is believed to be understood by friends who have experienced Mac devices. Imagine that this kind of search bar will automatically hide when we open the application and appear when we perform the down operation. How humane. iOS users are already familiar with this mechanism from the built-in search bar of Spotlight and other applications such as Mail, so it is completely feasible to add such a solution to the settings.

Add black display scheme to menu

Not just the watch app, setting the entire phone to a black theme would look pretty nice, right?

Apps on the Apple Watch look very different from the normal menu screens on iOS.

The two are very similar, except for the difference in color - the former uses a black background with light text, rather than a white background with black text like the mobile phone.

As early as when iOS 7 introduced the blinding white background display solution, we have always hoped to have a "black theme" to alleviate this overly strong visual stimulation, but it was not until the launch of Apple Watch that we really felt how excellent this effect is (of course, only for those who pay attention to visual effects). Apple has equipped OS X Yosemite with a black theme, so it is conceivable that the official is likely to come up with a similar solution for iOS 9.

Keep running at speed

New iOS versions can sometimes be a little jarring on the low-end hardware that can barely support them, and while the vast majority of the world has upgraded to newer, faster platforms and therefore doesn't care about system speed, if you're using an iPhone 3G running iOS 4, an iPhone 4 running iOS 7, or an iPhone 4S running iOS 8, the sluggish response time can be a little frustrating.

If iOS 9 is really going to be a breakthrough in terms of speed and stability, then we hope that Apple will also take into account the feelings of users of older devices. According to our speculation, the new operating system version will still run on Apple's A5 system chip - including the iPod Touch 5th generation, Apple TV 3rd generation and the original iPad Mini, which are still on sale today - and if our wish is realized, then these devices will at least have a system running speed similar to iOS 7.

Fix the damn Shift key

Is Shift currently on or off? Most users don’t know.

Quick, is the Shift key on or off in the image above? Don’t worry if you can’t answer quickly, you’ve become one of the few people who can’t keep up with the changes in iOS 7. The answer is, it’s on.

Apple has made several changes to the Shift key before and after the release of iOS 7, and it is still difficult to tell whether it is on or off. But this is not a difficult problem to solve. In iOS 6, Shift had a special color display, and since other keys never had this effect, we could easily tell whether it was on. SwiftKey has given a disguised answer, which is to indicate whether the Shift key has been pressed by changing the size of the letters on the keyboard.

Obviously, this isn't the most important issue, as millions of users have faced this situation over the past two years and the world has continued to move, but to be fair, there are some users who would thank Apple for this if it could be fixed.

#p#

Expanding Messages and connecting with OS X

OS X and iOS applications have been slowly growing in sync over the past two years -- and just recently, iPhoto and Aperture have been merged into the new PhotoShop app, bringing these two programs, which have much in common, together on iOS.

I have long wanted an OS X version of the Messages app on iOS. Thanks to Handoff, I can now handle all SMS, iMessage, and even Google and XMPP messages in the same app on my Mac, but the iOS version of Messages only supports SMS and iMessage. Why can't it go a step further and include other protocols?

I believe this design will play a huge role on the iPad...

Make more use of iPad screen space

This relatively simple design in the iOS system is definitely a plus for the iPhone, but it is a curse in front of the iPad's wide screen.

…Just as the 2015 MacBook took a lot of inspiration from the iPad, so iOS 9 should take a few lessons from OS X.

Apple's large tablets are still better than Android's large tablets, mainly because developers are still focusing on iPad apps, not just expanding the display size of existing mobile apps. However, from the system's own perspective, iOS can add some new features to the tablet platform to make better use of the display space. There have long been rumors that iOS will support multitasking mode under the split window display mechanism on tablets.

At this point, supporting this feature is not difficult or even troublesome for most Apple developers. The successive launches of iOS 7, iOS 8, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus have made developers accustomed to considering multiple screen sizes that need to be adapted during the design of their applications, instead of simply facing one or two specific screen sizes and providing optimal display layouts for them as in the past (the Auto Layout mechanism is used to complete this task, and it has been on the market for quite some time).

Apps with good Auto Layout support may be more in line with everyone's usage habits, such as using half of the iPad screen to display app content rather than the entire screen. Since the display effect of the application in iPhone 6 Plus landscape mode is similar to a shrunken iPad application, the iPad application is fully capable of running two applications side by side - its single display effect should be basically the same as the mobile version.

Apple is likely to add some fuel to the iPad this year, helping the revenue giant to recover from its declining sales (although its absolute sales are still very impressive, the weak market demand is indeed obvious to all).

Customizable control center mechanism

As a well-received solution like the Control Center, I believe its practicality will be further improved if users can customize it in a more in-depth way according to their needs. Especially in the two quick panels at the top and bottom, if options can be added or removed more flexibly, the effect will definitely be better.

Windows Phone (er, I guess it should be called Windows Mobile now) has done a good job of this task. On Microsoft's mobile platform, the notification center can provide us with convenient quick settings options at the top of the screen, but you can choose which ones to include directly in it from a variety of different settings according to your personal usage habits. If third parties can be allowed to intervene on this basis, the prospects of the control center will be even more unlimited.

Clear all notifications button

If the Apple Watch can do it, why can't the iPhone? That doesn't make sense.

Hide unwanted apps and set new defaults

Although these apps seem diverse, they exist on every Apple user's device - even if we don't like them, there is no way to hide or uninstall them.

Everyone has a folder for all those built-in iOS apps they never use, right? Here, the Stocks, Tips, and Compass apps are grouped together. It seems like every OS update brings more of these apps, but not everyone really needs them.

Rather than hiding these apps completely, we may prefer to rotate them in a hidden folder, which is also a transition area between frequent use and the desire to delete them directly.

On that note, it would be nice if we could replace Apple's default iOS apps with third-party apps. People might want to use Google's Inbox or Microsoft's Outlook app instead of the native iOS Mail app, or they might want to use Google's Maps app instead of Apple's navigation app. If we can adopt this OS X-like design approach, customizable defaults will help phones and tablets better cater to users' actual needs, rather than forcing users to get used to the same set of app options Apple provides.

We don’t expect all of the above to become a reality - this is a wish list, not a prediction, folks. If you have your own changes you’d like to highlight on this topic, please share your thoughts with us in the comments.