The Secret Button On Your iPhone

Apple Bytes: 

Your iPhone got a new button recently, and you may not have even noticed.

No, Apple didn’t sneak into your house and secretly superglue a button onto your smartphone. But it did release iOS 14, the latest version of its iPhone software, which includes a feature called Back Tap. Back Tap adds a fascinating new “button” to your phone that blurs the line between hardware and software.

Back Tap turns the entire back of your iPhone into a giant touch-sensitive button that you can double or triple tap to trigger specific functions on your phone. There’s a good chance that you haven’t noticed it yet. Apple slipped the settings for Back Tap into its Accessibility menu.

Its intended purpose is to give users more options for interacting with their devices. Most of Back Tap’s options reflect that, with settings to open the app switcher, notification menu, or control center; scroll through an app or webpage; trigger Siri; or take a screenshot.

But Back Tap also ties into Apple’s incredibly robust Shortcuts app, which means you can effectively make those new buttons do almost anything you can imagine. It’s a fascinating kind of button: entirely invisible to the naked eye, completely nonfunctional until it’s enabled through software, but can be tasked to open, interact with, or accomplish nearly any task on your smartphone with just a quick tap.

That software customization is key. It’s easy to imagine a world where Apple limited Back Tap to just a few preset options focused on making the iPhone UI more accessible. But by opening it up to Shortcuts, the company turned Back Tap into a tool of limitless creativity, letting users come up with their own ways to take advantage of the new button on the back of their devices.

It’s not just Apple. Google experimented with a similar, albeit more limited, feature for Android 11, although it didn’t end up making the final cut. Some enterprising developers have since replicated the feature for any Android device.

This is also a level of control that’s almost unheard of for iOS devices. Imagine if Apple let you remap the side button (for Siri and Apple Pay) on an iPhone 12 to, say, launch Google Assistant or send a preset text message to your partner. It’s practically unthinkable.

It works well, too. The software is responsive, and whatever Apple’s doing to differentiate between an intentional tap and just regularly holding your phone, it works well. It's particularly useful for triggering Control Center to quickly toggle system settings.

Back Tap repurposes the existing sensors and hardware on your iPhone with software to create a new hardware interaction that wasn’t available before. It’s a new physical button users can interact with, but one that’s almost completely free of Apple’s limitations.

Physical buttons, of course, are the most direct form of interaction. It’s why Samsung insists on a bespoke Bixby button and why Netflix pays for a spot on your Roku remote. And while Apple may not quite be willing to give up control of the physical buttons on your iPhone, Back Tap, with its almost button, is the next best thing.

Credit: theverge.com

The Changes Coming To Your iPhone With iOS 14

Apple Bytes: 

Apple's next major iPhone update won't officially launch until the fall, but the company made an early version of its iOS 14 software available for free through its beta program on Thursday, 7-9-20. When it launches, iOS 14 will bring a bunch of changes to the iPhone, from the way the home screen looks to upgraded privacy controls, new ways of using apps, and much more.

The biggest takeaway is that Apple is doing much more to help us manage the deluge of apps crowding the home screens of our iPhones. The company has done this by adding tools for managing the sheer amount of apps installed on our phones, and also by creating a new way to access parts of apps when you need them.

Apple has significantly improved widgets in iOS 14, finally bringing the iPhone closer to the level of customization that Android has provided for years. Widgets in iOS 14 have a new design that shows more data and they now come in multiple sizes. Best of all, you can finally drag and drop them onto the home screen.

The most obvious benefit from this has been the ability to make the home screen more than just a hub for your most frequently-used apps. Glancing down at the home screen can now tell you all sorts of information like what's next on you calendar, progress toward your fitness goals, and a to-do list you've recently drafted in the Notes app.

Among the most interesting new widgets is the Smart Stack, which as its name implies is comprised of several widgets piled on top of one another. The widget choices are curated based on the apps you use the most. The stack also rotates throughout the day to show relevant information.

iOS 14 introduces a new section of the home screen known as the App Library, which sorts all of your apps both by category and in alphabetical order. This makes it so much easier to manage your sprawling app collection.

Your iPhone automatically creates folders for your apps in the App Library based on app categories (i.e., social, productivity, utilities), in addition to folders for suggested apps and apps you've recently installed.

Other than these folders, the App Library also lets you browse all of your apps in a list view organized in alphabetical order. The best part, though, is that you can finally choose to hide some app pages and send newly installed apps straight to the App Library.

This makes iPhone feel so much less cluttered. You can choose to hide home screens by tapping the dots positioned above the dock when in jiggle mode.

One of the big themes in iOS 14 seems to be improved organization, and that holds true in the Messages app as well. You can now pin messages to the top of the Messages app in iOS 14, meaning you'll no longer have to scroll through the app to find relevant chats.

This saves a lot of time when contacting the people you text most frequently. Now, being able to pin conversations to the top of the app means those threads are at your fingertips whenever you launch Messages.

Apple's messaging app is also getting another feature that makes it easier to manage conversations, Mentions for group conversations. That means if you're in an ongoing group thread with many people, you can choose to only get notifications when a person mentions you specifically in a new message.

Apple is also introducing a new user interface for incoming phone calls in iOS 14. Rather than dominating the entire screen, which can feel jarring, you'll see an indicator that looks similar to a banner notification near the top of the screen.

You can also continue to use your iPhone as you normally would while receiving an incoming call. That can be useful at times when you may receive an unexpected call just as you're about to hit send on that email.

If you have an iPhone 11 or iPhone 11 Pro, you may have noticed that it can be difficult to take stable Night Mode photos. Apple is addressing that in iOS 14 by introducing a new guidance indicator to help you keep your phone steady during the duration of the shot. This indicator, which leverages the iPhone's gyroscope, looks like a cross that appears in the middle of the screen.

iOS 14 feels like a welcome update that streamlines nearly everything you do on your phone, from checking the news and weather to finding apps and sending texts. But none of these are necessarily new behaviors, and some of these additions, especially widgets, feel more like Apple is catching up to Android rather than introducing new capabilities.

There are some aspects of iOS 14 that could change how you use our phones in the future. App Clips, for example, could help us cut down on the number of apps you install in general and is setting the stage for iPhones that are more proactive by showing you relevant information as you need it.

And the new privacy protections in iOS 14 are designed to hold app makers more accountable for the data they collect by providing more information in the App Store.

The ability to change the home screen alone will make iOS 14 feel like a much more significant update than years past.

Credit: businessinsider.com