notes on Apple QoL improvements

[jimbrend]

watchOS issue

Current version,

Switching on Spotify

For workarounds I will contact each company.

[jimbrend]

The fruits of my labor, this above segments were submitted through the public portal and none of this is internal information, but my recommendations I may utilize in the future or work on little QoL apps,

I'm writing them here as very sporadic notes I can come back to or ideas

It may be nice to aggregate a Find My solution for what information is displayed when locking devices: https://support.apple.com/en-us/101558

For the above you may dox your personal phone number when leaving a note, when not realizing it instead of using an iCloud relay e-mail instead or simply keeping the default blank lock message as it is optional, or information is displayed if correctly guessing someone's e-mail such as full name, these are some friction points I'm noticing that lead to people not following all the correct steps, or being uncertain what information is still accessible when they lock their device which should be nothing and show lost mode unless you can find your device and input your passcode, or require the device to be erased and then activation locked if the passcode is inputted incorrectly https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204306

It's the biggest uphill battle to more UX improvement such as these because obviously these impact so many users, but something people deal with the most daily in my experience, just typing information here on biggest improvements I think can be implemented

• Increased redundancy when creating a recovery key, you cannot recover an account if you generate one and lose it

• One Page/Tab or a new app that allows you to manage your contingency plan in the event you lose your device all on one screen, if you must recover you must expect that you cannot access your account for the duration of account recovery, this period involves an initial 24-72 hour period then an additional automated waiting period of anywhere from days to a month: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204921 This would also list all your non-Apple apps that currently rely on your phone number or access to your device preferably on a local machine

• Users who want to backup private photos have immense difficulty navigating these myriad of articles: https://support.apple.com/en-us/108782 https://support.apple.com/en-sg/HT204215 https://support.apple.com/en-us/108429 https://support.apple.com/guide/icloud/introduction-to-icloud-mm74e822f6de/icloud#:~:text=When%20you%20use%20iCloud%2C%20you,same%20photos%20on%20both%20devices.

• It would benefit to feature on iCloud.com/photos you can click and drag 1000s photos at at time to local storage, or find a workaround to be able to do your entire iCloud via the web easily (this is an easy click and drag method but limited to the 1000), the biggest use-case I've seen is users want to transfer their most precious moments and save them easily in a family archive or external drive by plugged in and clicking and dragging in the least amount of steps possible, the UX on this is bad for non-tech savvy users and often leads to lost data https://support.apple.com/en-in/111762

i.e. grandma expects to be able to plug in a family drive then simply click and drag all photos easily to it all from one modal

• There are several related ways to do this linked above for data transfer but it's hard to describe to users the nuances of the Apple ecosystem where data lives, based on all the support documentation I describe it is located in one of three places:

• General > Device Storage is your local storage on your physical device

• iCloud > is your iCloud Storage

• iCloud > In your Backup which is not accessible unless you wipe and restore on the same or another compatible device already updated to the correct version

• Conveying the fact to users is a recurring challenge that your backup will only have your last successful backup if kept turned on, your iCloud Storage must also be synced and turned on, and your local storage is gone if your device is obviously broken or lost,

• Many users may have one iPad for instance not syncing and not realize, or there is a gap in understanding of what is syncing to the cloud or on the iPhone itself,

Ideas for companion apps or improvements:

• One solution could be a new iCloud interface or interface that boots up and allows a simpler click and drag experience and one tab that shows the data stored in each location and the exact discrepancies between them including the total storage in your backup and on each device all on one screen in an easily digestible graph, and destinations on right tab

• The contingency plan app showing all information on one modal, including all third-party accounts reliant on your phone number or iCloud account without tapping through multiple screens.

• This would negate all the years of Android users' ability to click and drag files easier after one plugin instead of users' having to sometimes guess and then attempting to learn where year old albums are in and relieve lots of stress during any crisis

I worked for Apple for nearly 3 years, I don't want to write more about negativity that is subjective, but these common problems not being addressed on a timeline- for a company with 10s of thousands of employees and a market cap that broke 2 Trillion while I was there then 3 trillion seem kind of not cogent. However, the M chips made me more of an Apple fanboy when I previously was not... but still the reason I gave up this desk badge for now

Has to do with this, and a few other reasons like if I am about to download an app it says click billing info then nothing happens, you login you click billing info, nothing happens- doesn't even open your browser on Mac Sanoma 4.1.2.. then, you get 200,000 calls in a day on the same topic... redirect a few people and pay em a lil more cost of living and listen to them on that change? Idk...

I'd rather document to help others maybe resolve the UX in some way somewhere, then make a video on it. It's expected of a large corporate environment though. Or, one day maybe collaborate with Apple again, things they're doing in the computer architecture world across the world like their buildings in Cork, Ireland are still inspiring, and development teams still ship their senior engineers Macs and Apple is still looked at as the bar... which I understand, but I'm also a gamer and I use Windows more... or just all the things. Did not mean to add these last paragraphs but here we are, enjoi!