WWDC 2021 is just under a week away now. Surprisingly enough, we haven’t heard much about Apple’s upcoming iOS 15 update for iPhone, bar the food tracking feature and a complex redesign of the Lock Screen. Google, on the other hand, announced Android 12 with some exciting new features. Here are ten Android 12 features that we’d love to see in iOS 15.
With Android 12, Google introduced a new ‘Material You’ design. The new interface is colorful, playful, and a joy to watch. It has new animations, bulky icons for easier access, a privacy dashboard, and many more.
iOS 14 introduced a major design update, with features like App Library and widgets for Home Screen. So, a major redesign isn’t expected this year. However, we hope that at least some of these Android 12 features make their way to iOS 15.
Android 12 Features We Would Love to See in iOS 15
1. Gaming Mode
To everyone’s surprise, Google baked in a very subtle Gaming Mode in Android 12. However, it’s not as feature-full as other Android OEMs’ gaming modes. It lets you do the basic stuff, like blocking notifications from appearing, shows up a quick screen recording button, lets you see the FPS of the game you’re playing, and stream directly to YouTube.
iOS already has several high-quality games available for it, and what it needs now is a Gaming mode like in Android. Currently, when you play games on iOS, you need to manually enable the Do Not Disturb mode to block calls and notifications. Here’s hoping Apple adds a Gaming Mode in iOS 15.
2. Notification History
The notification system on iOS is a mess right now. And if you’re anything like me, you dismiss the notifications as soon as you unlock your iPhone. But in such situations, you might miss one or two important notifications, like an email from your boss or a text from your wife.
Google added a ‘notification history’ feature in Android 12 for folks just like us. It lets you see up to 24-hours old of notifications. iOS doesn’t have any notification history feature right now, and we would love to see a similar feature making its way to iOS 15.
3. Color themeing
One of the Material You’s interesting features is that it maintains consistency throughout the operating system. So if you like your phone’s accent color to be pink, it’ll be pink throughout the whole system, in third-party apps, and even wallpapers.
Arguably, iOS has one of the best implementations of dark mode. With just one tap, you can turn on dark mode on all of your apps and even schedule it. However, there’s no ‘color accent’ option in iOS — the operating system defaults to Apple’s favorite ‘blue’ color. Won’t it be great if Apple can add some color to this now-dull-looking Dark Mode?
4. People Widget
Google’s new widget system clearly looks inspired by iOS 14 — with its rectangular shape and rounded corners. One of the widgets available on Android 12 that’s not available in iOS is the ‘People Widget.’ This widget keeps you updated with the most important people in your life by displaying any text message, missed calls, emails directly in one place.
iOS used to have a similar ‘favorites’ widget, but that was absurdly removed in iOS 14. It let you directly call or text your starred contacts, but Apple decided to do away with it. Google’s implementation is certainly better since it delivers updates from apps, even third-party such as WhatsApp and Signal, directly to this widget. Such a widget would be handy on the iPhone, too.
5. New Lock Screen
Android 12 brings in a much-needed redesign to the Lock Screen. It’s smart, intuitive, more animated, and easier to use. When there are no notifications, the clock becomes bigger in size, and when the notifications arrive, it tucks to the top left.
And when we look at the other side, iOS’s Lock Screen has mostly been the same since its introduction. The only change that Apple has brought in is how you need to swipe to unlock and the widgets area on the left. iOS 15 is said to come with a ‘complex redesign’ of the Lock Screen, and we can’t wait to see it.
6. Change Passwords In a Click
Though not Android 12 exclusive, Google’s new update for Chrome on Android will bring a feature that will make changing passwords on a website a one-click process. It’ll notify you when your password has been stolen ( in a data breach, for example) or when someone accessed your account from a different location. Depending upon the settings — whether you allow Google to automatically set a complex password for that website and save it to Chrome’s password manager or not — you can change your password in just a few clicks.
Keychain on Apple’s operating systems only notifies you when a password is re-used or when it’s weak and easily predictable. With Keychain being an important part of Apple’s ecosystem, it’ll be interesting to see if the Cupertino-based company brings this feature to iOS 15.
7. Third Party Settings for Control Center
Control Center, too, has been the same ever since its introduction. Although it proves to be quite a utility in an average iOS user’s life, it can still improve. Currently, Apple doesn’t allow third-party app developers to create custom toggles for Control Center.
On the other hand, Android has an extensive range of apps particularly built to make custom shortcuts for its ‘Quick Settings.’ Won’t it be nice if you could toggle VPN or run a speed test directly from the Control Center? Here’s hoping Apple (finally) opens up Control Center to third-party developers with iOS 15.
8. Conversation Chat Bubbles
Introduced in Android 11, chat bubbles make it easier for you to keep a conversation going while doing other stuff. A chat bubble appears as soon as one of your ‘favorites’ sends you a text, irrespective of the app they send it on. It then stays on top of the screen until you swipe it away. In this way, you can reply to the texts of your loved ones while you continue to do other stuff on your phone.
Even though Apple has some sort of ‘Chat Bubble’ implementation, it’s limited to its own iMessage app. For other apps, you’ve to rely on the notification’s reply option if you’ve to reply quickly.
9. Notification Stacking
Android 12 groups notifications into three categories: Conversations, Notifications, and Silent. This implementation helps you stay organized and see the important things on the top. With the new notification shade, managing notifications on Android has become even easier — with big icons and font.
With iOS 15, I really hope Apple takes some inspiration from Android and implements a better notification system.
10. Pause Apps
Everyone one of us has at least one of those apps that you use once every month, and it keeps bothering you by sending a notification now and then or by randomly appearing in Siri Suggestions.
Google has introduced a feature to ‘pause apps’ in Android 12. This feature disables the app until you ‘resume’ it. It stops the app from hogging the RAM, consuming battery life, and sending notifications. iOS has a feature called offload apps that removes unused apps from iPhone, but that only removes the app when your phone is low on storage. It’ll be interesting to see if Apple incorporates such a feature in iOS 15.
Which Android 12 feature would you like to see in iOS 15? What are your expectations from WWDC 2021? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
