iOS 16 is coming soon and big things are expected from Apple given WWDC is set to start on June 6th, 2022 we should know real soon what's coming but that does not put the brakes on the ever engine revving rumour engine but beyond the rumour engine of what to expect and what won't be coming I thought this time we could focus on what of those rumours that have been routed we (the users) want to see in the next version of iOS.

I expect some big things from Apple - Universal control on the iPad/MacOS has been such a hit and works shockingly well, despite it taking a very, very long time to get to us Universal Control was a big feature and I think iOS could do with a big feature or two to drag it forward a little...

Mark Gurman per usual has been posted all over the internet with many taking his words as gospel so notifications and health updates of a significant quantity are on route, this is not something I feel I need, my notifications on iOS are in a happy place and health features on iOS all work better with an Apple Watch and I do not have a modern apple watch

I have an original Apple Watch that was donated to my collection, and it turns on but it's seen better days!

Synced Notification Center

Notifications could and should see one improvement and that'd be notifications across all devices, dismissing a notification on an iPhone should see it go away on your iPad, Apple Watch and even MacOS and dismissing elsewhere should dismiss everywhere else

Oddly this "feature want" does not come from the usual rumour mills but the comments on MacRumours originally posted by fwmireault that said many, many in those same comments made the point that redoing notifications for every major version of iOS and calling it a big feature overhaul suggests Apple cannot figure out how to get notifications right.

Messaging Quality of live improvements

iMessage and Mail have sat still for a while and it would be really nice if a few little nuggets of awesome could appear, the ability to have messages auto-expire (set by the sender, enforced on the receiver's end) some fun new animations, god no more AR stuff.

Mail is a tricky one, it's perhaps the most boring app on both iOS, iPadOS and MacOS - it's been updated.. slightly over the years but it hadn't changed to the point of calling it an all-new Mail App it's just mail it's boring, it's bland and it works just fine but it could be much better - older clients like Mailbox from dropbox, Sparrow which was purchased by Google prove that email can remain functional, minimal and less ... dull and drab

I do have just one really annoying gripe with Mail! When I set swipe right to delete for example - that means (at least in my head) delete on all accounts, not delete on some, archive on others, if I wanted it to go to the archive I would set the swipe to be archive!

Anti Spam

Both of these Apps need better, improved universal anti-spam - my understanding of iOS anti-spam is you can filter messages, to only known senders and in some regions, you can report messages to Apple and all around the world we can block messages see this Apple doc on the subject for further info the problem is Apple wants a secure messaging platform, we want a secure platform also so how do we do pattern matching on the encrypted messages server-side without opening up a massive privacy problem? Dunno I'm not an Apple developer, but seems to me these devices have come far enough to be able to do a lot locally, a simple trainable system should be possible ... or just the ability to junk flag (and not show in inbox) messages/mail that trigger specific keywords .. that'd work for 99% of my spam...

App Locks

Another suggestion I did like in the comments of the same MacRumours post was from contacos who suggested that the FaceID/TouchID lock that can be set on notes should be a thing across other apps, the suggestion made is the ability to lock albums or folders on the Photos app and I can see why this would want a secondary level of protection for some.

Interactive Widgets

This feature suggestion I have seen all over the place, in short when a widget has a button say the music app and you press the button, just do the action - no need to open the app and then do the action or in many cases just open the app .. allow widgets to be smarter.

This one seems like it has to be included this time around, widgets have had a moment or two now so in typical apple logic make us want it more and more then give it to us with some weird twist, I do feel like Apple have held off on this feature and that it has probably been ready to go for some time but they 3D touch was only missed when it was gone, the widget screen on the old old OS X versions was kinda crap and never did anything useful and honestly notification centres widget area is hardly lighting the world on fire.

Camera App update

Some would use the world overhaul, I have big doubts that Apple would even consider going anywhere near a complete overhaul of what is perhaps the easiest camera of its time to use, point and tap for video, swipe, point, tap - granted the ones likely to appear in comment sections will disagree with this notion but Apple sells so many devices and the bulk of those devices are sold to people that legit just want to take out the phone, point, click.. nothing more no fancy bells and whistles

However, given how much has recently gone into the camera it seems like it would be time to offer a pro mode that changes the UI within the app enabling some of those advanced options, bells and whistles.

I would love to make use of the LIDAR in real-time to show me what's in focus, this is something the Note 20 Ultra did very well, histograms, light sensors, shutter speed adjustments.. tons more could be turned on and god only knows what they could offer in video options with pro mode but I do feel the simplicity by default needs to remain for everyone else

Siri

Siri is an idiot compared to its Google equivalent at present - she (she's a female voice on my device, but obviously is genderless software!) at this stage needs an improvement, she needs to be smarter - they are competing with the Google home mini with the little inexpensive speaker's powers by Siri but again, she's an idiot by comparison.

I'm not sure how many people actually want to see Siri updated but I think that as some services are directly sold with the idea of Siri being the usage point, then she needs to improve, vastly.

Most Sites are Just Article Recycling

Most sites currently have gone with the basic recycled article, what is it, when is it coming, what devices we expect to be supported a wishlist that contains rumours of what's coming not actual wishes, well all except ZDNET who want integrated 2FA - which is already a thing in Apple Passwords - I use it daily, works fine, honestly hows a tech site does not know this.

Right now most sites will go through the usual recycling period where they take an old article or template, update the numbers iOS 15 -> iOS 16, fix dates, add a graphic including a couple of rumour tweets then update that article until release after which we will get breakdowns of what Apple said, What does X mean for Y, I tested X on Y and it's B and of course, X on iOS vs X on Android because SEO exists and bills got to be paid, no ads here btw just saying 😛

What they say we want

Some tech sites have posted a wishlist or "what users want" section but, in many cases, I have as yet not seen the comments line up in agreement and say "that's what we want, yes!"

Split screen
Always on Lockscreen
Better battery health screen

Split-screen on the iPadOS is already a thing, not sure I'd want it on the iPhone unless I was using the larger of the iPhones (Pro Max)

Always on Displays are fine, ok but aside from a clock, I never found much use for them myself and I do know I may be alone in that statement.

The battery health screen has one purpose that I think a lot of tech folks want to see do more, but for the general public its purpose is, the battery has now hit a point where it's probably better to get it replaced as your iPhone is being underclocked (slowed down)

The tech folks myself included would love to see things like

The batteries estimated current capacity
How many times it's been charge cycled
How hot is it running, or not

Most of this information is also very handy for those that wish to resell the phone, but in all my time with iPhones and selling one on, nobody has ever wandered into the battery life section to check its capacity most of the time they are concerned about iCloud lock and scratches...

In other words, while it would be nice to see that info, I don't see a reason to add that info