Gulp. Apple is changing the iPhone in a huge, crazy way
Say it isn’t so! What is an iPhone without the iPhone home screen? Well, according to Apple, the future. In the next update of iOS 9, the home screen will still exist, but it won’t be what the iPhone is based around. Instead, users will interact with notification panels and search tools to get to where they want to go.
And according to Wired, this is because iPhones are old hat now. We use our phones too quickly to rely on the home screen. That’s why we can access things like our camera without having to unlock anything. That picture of a donut we want to upload to Instagram? It has to happen quickly so we can eat the donut even faster. Need to text our friends to make plans for the weekend? Why go through the motions of clicking our “Messages” button when our iPhone just takes us there immediately? We no longer need the safety blanket of a home base. Wired adds, “Mobile life is too fast to be routed through the home screen,” which is arguably true. And with this new upgrade, we’ll be able to get to where we want to go based on intuition —both ours and our phone’s. Which is pretty insane.
So… what does all this mean? It means our phones are going to start anticipating what we need before we need it. Which is awesome AND kind of scary. For instance, let’s say you check Instagram every morning after you wake up. Your iPhone will catch on, and make that app available on the lock screen so you can just roll over and scroll. Rollin’ and scrollin’.
Your phone is also going to start guessing who it is you want to talk to, taking into account the context and time of day. This means it will make certain contacts available on the side of the screen for easy access, a bit like your Facebook friends on chat.
Furthermore, this new update is going to make searching a LOT easier. Wired reports, “Answers, info, and functionality that once existed only as icons on your home screen soon will be baked right into search, through both text and voice, via Siri.” So, instead of looking up the reviews for a novel using your Goodreads app, or if you need to calculate how much of a tip you need to leave at a restaurant, you can just search those things immediately. Basically, this newest renovation will eliminate several steps in your smartphone experience.
Bottom line? All of this means less looking for what you need on your phone, and more of it just coming to you. The more you use it, the more it personalizes. After as little as a few days, it will become a device that is unique to you, anticipating your text messages and when you want to order Seamless. It’s almost like a living, breathing personal assistant…nobody tell Joaquin Phoenix.
