I Tried the iOS 16 Public Beta Version
From a feature prioritization perspective.
After watching my favorite tech YouTubers like Marques Brownlee and Dave2D trying out the iOS 16 public beta, I was tempted to do the same. My main motive was to check out their features and find out whether it is worth the hype or not. So, I signed up for their Apple Beta Software Program and downloaded the software to my iPhone 13 Pro (now upgraded to Beta 2). It’s been running on my phone for almost a month now and I am impressed, especially with the customizable lock screen and the continuity camera!
By writing this blog post, I don’t intend to describe the new updates Apple has rolled out. You can check out the official website if you haven’t yet. Rather, I aim to call out my favorite features from a product design and prioritization perspective and document some observations that I made over the course of time.
Is Public Beta an MVP?
MVP, which stands for Minimum Viable Product, refers to the smallest amount of product produced to users to gather feedback from them. There are different types of MVP techniques that each company might implement depending on their business requirements and customer needs, namely Explainer Video MVP, Fake Landing Page MVP, Piecemeal MVP, and Concierge Service MVP, to name a few.
Now, what Apple has done is released a public beta version of their latest software, which is an MVP as they are testing out certain core features and functionalities of their product. This form of MVP is called One Feature MVP. Big companies often tend to use this approach as they have a large user base who can experiment with their new features which in turn allows them to collect feedback and use that information to improve their product, before launching them officially in the market.
My Favorite Features and Observations
I noticed some cool and interesting stuff when trying out the beta software whilst coming across a couple of bugs too, which I believe is normal to expect on a beta.
THE Lock (and a little bit of) Home Screen
Disclaimer: I think I am a little biased towards this feature and going to spend more time talking about this.
Yes! I am emphasizing the “The” because it is probably the biggest change that iOS 16 has presented to us. The entire lock screen is customizable now and I spent a huge portion of time playing with this particular feature as it was engaging. I like how the development team has prioritized personalization as a significant factor to drive customer engagement and loyalty and create relevant experiences. Be it changing the font style, color, background image effects, notifications display, and adding widgets, iPhone has done an incredible job in integrating these details into what I believe to be the most important screen for a mobile phone. I particularly like the rolling notifications from the bottom as I feel I have more control over how I want to display them, I can either swipe up to see all the notifications received or swipe down to hide them completely. Additionally, it makes the lock screen appear less intrusive which is important to me because hey, I don’t want a bunch of notifications to hide the dope visuals I spent time customizing. The fact that I can save all my personalized lock screens and make the lock screen aesthetics blend with the home screen is truly a time saver. Also, I can revisit my creations any time and change the designs back and forth, just like changing profile pictures!
The little search bar at the bottom of the home screen is a useful addition for performing a quick search for our apps as well as viewing Siri’s Suggestions based on our frequency of app usage. Earlier, we have to swipe to App Library to search or click on the app we want to open but now, the search bar acts like a shortcut solution, a time saver again. The pattern of including significant operations at the bottom that includes our fingers mostly, such as the search bars on Safari and home screen now, and the rolling notifications demonstrates that Apple is giving extra importance to mobile user interface design, in this case, the hand placement or the thumb zone. It essentially means placing icons and CTAs in such a way that the button is easy-to-reach for the user’s fingers and hands.
Shoutout to Continuity Camera!
I am not a Mac user and so, I didn’t get the chance to try this one out yet. But, I did watch a couple of YouTube videos on YouTubers using and reviewing the continuity camera and it has certainly surprised almost everyone so far. I am intrigued by this feature because let’s face it, webcams suck! They’ve been around for decades and yet, there weren’t many improvements to it due to numerous reasons like bandwidth, location, and webcam hardware. Apple made an intelligent move by utilizing their excellent iPhone camera by mounting the phone to the laptop and using the camera as a webcam. Consequently, this feature provides a huge performance jump in terms of quality and photo effects, offering us to choose between Portrait, Desk View, Studio Light, and Center Stage, depending on different situations like meetings, photo shoots, and so on. In my opinion, this feature comes in handy for content creators like YouTubers and photographers as they can save some bucks from purchasing a DSLR by utilizing the enhanced video and photo quality.
Edit and Unsend iMessages
I am a heavy iMessage user. Hence, it goes without saying that this upgrade is definitely a savior for me as I have the option to edit a text within 15 minutes and unsend a text within 2 minutes of sending it. Although it took a while to introduce this feature when compared to Instant Messaging and social media platforms like WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook, it’s certainly a major upgrade, like the above-mentioned ones. I believe that features like these could save many valuable relationships from going south as we live in a generation where we are more inclined to react than to respond. Thus, editing and unsending messages give a buffer for the person to think through things, thereby helping us from a psychological standpoint.
Copy Paste Elements of a Photo
I am not sure how frequently I will use this feature but I find this dope. I feel like I no longer have to use a separate stickers app for WhatsApp where I crop my friends’ faces and save them to WhatsApp for sending them over as all I need is just a funny picture of them! I also like the animated outline that flows around the subject, indicating clearly that it’s going to get cropped and there’s a clean background cut after getting pasted, which is sick. However, the only requirement is that the picture must be in Photo mode and not in Portrait, Video, or Cinematic.
Hidden and Duplicates in Photos
iPhone’s Photo app has now introduced the Hidden feature where we can hide our selfies and view them a million times before we finally decide to delete them and embarrassing photos or videos of our friends that we choose to release right on their birthdays, basically helping us protect from prying eyes. Additionally, the Duplicates feature, which is similar to Google Photos allows us to remove duplicate pictures or merge them as a single photo. I personally prefer these features as I like to keep my gallery organized and free from clutter.
Apart from this, I am currently exploring the Apple Wallet where there have been some new additions like Apple Pay Later, Tap to Pay, and Order Tracking feature that comes in handy for those with Apple Credit Card.
I also noticed some bugs which are quite common in beta, like the flickering of the lock screen when a notification appears and the screen turns off when I am trying to navigate my Spotify playlist from the lock screen. There was also an instance where nothing was displayed in the Control Center when I pulled it down while watching a YouTube video. Hopefully, Apple resolves these bugs in its future beta version releases.
Overall, from my observations of iPhone designs and different iOS versions over the years, I have noticed that Apple has been focusing on the “functionality over form” mantra and it has been working well so far. Having said that, I feel that they’ve been having a lot on their plate lately and the fact that they’ve introduced many features in several services and whether they’re futile or not remains a question of interest to me.
How far is Apple focusing on product prioritization when it comes to introducing new features? Is Apple doing enough customer research to understand their needs or are they just focusing on design and aesthetics? These are some questions that are currently on my mind.
Hope you enjoyed reading it! Feel free to leave your comments below. :)
