My wishlist for WWDC 2023

My personal wishlist of things I want Apple to add or improve on this year's WWDC

It's almost WWDC time. As always, I've already blocked my work calendar so I can watch the keynote live. Also, for the first time, I will be making my wishlist public. For years I've made lists like this one in private on Apple Notes. This year I'm excited that I have my own place to post these and start a sort of series where I can look back each year.

My favorite part of "WWDC season" is listening to the draft/predictions episodes from my favorite podcasts like Connected, Upgrade and App Stories. Β I also enjoy reading other people's wishlists, like this one from Jarrod Blundy. I was impressed on how Jarrod uses a shortcut for adding items throughout the year; a fantastic idea I will undoubtedly borrow.

I want to make clear that this is not a prediction list; they are my most wanted improvements for this year's iPhone, iPad, and Mac software updates. Most are minor quality-of-life updates that have been problems to me throughout the year.

Without further ado, here are my most wanted improvements for this year's lineup of updates:

Update 06/Jun/23 - I went back and added an emoji for the status based on what we know so far. A lot of them are so specific that I guess will remain unknown until I install the Public Beta (I made a promise to myself that I won't install the Developer Beta this year lol) I also made a list of my favorite features announced so make sure to check it out!

iOS

  • πŸ‘Ž Ability to reorder lockscreens like watch faces in watchOS.
  • πŸ‘Ž Add a second row of lockscreen widgets.
  • πŸ‘Ž More homescreen widgets sizes, like a 1x1 icon widget for example.
  • πŸ‘ Interactive widgets.
  • πŸ‘Ž Time-based widgets (like Widgetsmith).
  • πŸ‘Ž Allow apps to initiate live activities from other devices without the need to open the app - For example, if I start a timer on my Mac, I want the live activity to show up on the iPhone lock screen.
  • πŸ‘ŽIf I pause the now-playing media, the live activity and dynamic sound should not disappear Β immediately.
  • πŸ‘ Fuzzy spotlight search β€” if I search for a timer in spotlight, the clock app should show up for example.
  • Reorder spotlight results (from Jarrod)
  • πŸ‘Ž Weather widget with a neutral background that does not change with the weather.
  • πŸ‘ Collaborative playlists in Apple Music β€” My wife created a playlist for both of us to listen to, but I can't add any music.
  • πŸ‘Ž Dedicated Passwords app.
  • πŸ‘Ž Calendar sets on the calendar app, similar to Fantastical.
  • πŸ‘Ž In the Photos app, allow to hide pics from the main library bit still shows them in albums.
  • πŸ‘ Allow me to name dogs similar to people in Photos.
  • πŸ‘ŽIn shared photo libraries, allow to remove a photo someone else added without having to delete it β€” Currently, you can only remove photos you added yourself.
  • πŸ‘Ž Open in... similar to Mac OS β€” When clicking on an RSS link, iOS shows a dialog that says Open his page on "app"?. But if you have multiple reading apps installed, you cannot choose the one you want. This should present a list of apps to choose from, similar to MacOS.
  • Allow to change widget size without having to remove and add a new one, like in MacOS.

iPad OS

I primarily use my iPad Mini, so I don't care much about the Stage Manager debacle or making the iPad as powerful as MacOS. I mostly care about parity with ioS features and a few quality improvements for my use case.

  • πŸ‘ Feature parity with iPhone β€” Add multiple lockscreens, Live Activities, and lock screen widgets.
  • πŸ‘Ž Sync home screen layouts between multiple iPads, like TvOS syncs app layout between all the Apple Tvs in your home.
  • πŸ‘Ž Add a single-day calendar view with no side column.
  • πŸ‘Ž Improve home screen app layout for iPad mini β€” Currently there is a lot of extra space in the sides, it could easily fit an extra column/row of apps.
  • πŸ‘Ž Improve how you view/manage multiple windows from an app.
  • πŸ‘Ž Bring back the split-view keyboard.
  • πŸ‘Ž Redesigne Control center Β for iPad to better utilize the screen size of the iPad.

Mac OS

Uff, the Mac is a tricky one because of how flexible it is. Nowadays, you can find third-party apps to customize anything you'd like on the OS. It would be nice if a few of those became native features.

  • πŸ‘ Widgets outside of the notification center, maybe on the desktop.
  • πŸ‘Ž Improved window management so I can stop using like 10 different apps to achieve window customizations.
  • πŸ‘Ž Window preview on app switcher like on Microsoft.
  • πŸ‘Ž Portrait sidecar - You can only use a sidecar in Landscape for some reason.
  • πŸ‘Ž Native split-view for apps like safari β€” similar to how Arc does it.
  • πŸ‘Ž Native focus mode for apps where they hide all the menu bars and sidebars.
  • πŸ‘Ž Rethink & merge full-screen apps, spaces and stage manager.
  • πŸ‘Ž Allow for 4 apps in Full Screen mode.

Watch OS

Even though I wear my Apple watch pretty much 24/7, I barely use the watch os itself apart from starting workouts each day. I mostly glance at the complications. Therefore my wishes here are few.

  • πŸ‘Ž More digital time watch faces. We currently have just the infographic ones. (1 in 6 people can't tell the time)
  • πŸ‘Ž Third-party watch faces.
  • πŸ‘Ž Small and Large Photo complications for infographic watch faces.
  • πŸ‘Ž Notification of watch battery on other devices.

TV OS

We use Apple TVs as our primary media consumption devices for both our tvs at home. I would love to see a dedicated segment for TV OS this year, as in past years; it barely got any mention. I wish for them to go all in and tie TV OS to some sort of Home OS.

  • πŸ‘Ž Customizable screensaver β€” With widgets, date, weather, photos, cameras, etc.Our TVs are off for most of the day; I wish there was a way they could do a similar thing with the Oled screens as they do with the iPhone lock screen.
  • πŸ‘Ž An easier way of editing app icons, maybe from the iPhone like with Car Play.
  • πŸ‘ Improved and expanded control center Homekit controls.
  • πŸ‘Ž Native Homekit app with a multi-camera view.
  • πŸ‘Ž Home screen Widgets.
  • πŸ‘Ž Separate the apple tv+ app from the TV queue app.

Homekit & Siri

While Apple made significant improvements to the home app last year, I still think there are still a little behind.

  • πŸ‘ Timers on Homepods should be universal and not per homepod - When I setup a timer in the kitchen and ask for it the living room Homepod always says "no timers"
  • πŸ‘ŽRevamped Automations - Ability to organize, group and rename them.
  • πŸ‘Ž Native If statements in automation.
  • πŸ‘Ž More icon options for all devices but specially for lights.
  • πŸ‘Ž Native support for Robot Vacuums.
  • πŸ‘Ž Home wallpapers sync across devices.
  • πŸ‘Ž Remove the useless discover tab and add a rooms tab.
  • πŸ‘Ž Better control center actions - being able to customize which items appear.
  • πŸ‘Ž Let me change a thermostat temperature from control center, not just the on/off state.

β €Other: Hardware

  • πŸ‘Ž I really wish that the rumored iPad docking station gets announced. Similar to google's Pixel Tablet dock.

‍

I hope you liked the list. I don't think Apple will be able to address all of these issues, but I'm optimistic that they'll be able to fix some of them. I didn't include anything about the upcoming Apple headset because I haven't used any other headset operating systems before, and I don't know what to expect. I'm really looking forward to being pleasantly surprised, though!

Also, following Jarrod's idea, I might come back to this post and grade how each of the items after Apple's keynote is over. I can't wait for June 5!