It is remarkable the difference in awareness that android vs iOS releases produce. As a iOS user, i'm glad that iOS releases and features are pushed to me aggressively.
"Oh, yeah, that's cool I guess. Be fun to get to use it in five more years when enough people have this, or a newer, version, for it to matter."
A few years ago the phone co's would sell a phone today to your parents that was already 1-2 version behind especially if the phone was released a year or so ago. And then NEVER update it over 3 years outside of (maybe) some security updates.
For some reason, a month after iOS is released, phones from Apple, including older phones still being sold, are either sold updated or can be updated.
That reason should be pretty obvious. Apple has a massive profit margin on their phones, so they're economically able to do this.
The margins are super small with Android devices, so if any OEM tries to offer support they'll be quickly undercut by the competition
Meanwhile my iPhone 8 got iOS 15 over 5 years after it launched.
iOS 14.8 was 9/13/21 14.7 was 7/26/21
iOS 12.5 was 6/14/21
So that's 7+ years?
Widgets, as well, have been a deal breaker for me, what makes you dislike them?
The only real problem I have with iOS as a whole right now is how buried some actions can be, especially in apps like Safari and Music, some things which should be a press away can take 3-4 taps to complete, which while not really annoying does make me feel like a grandpa just tapping away at his phone to share an image or add a song to my queue.
The shock of the move from 6 to 7 was pretty large. 6: "slide to unlock" slider that looked like a physical slider-latch, like one you might slide to unlock a container, and was so obvious in what it did, that it hardly even needed text to be usable by anyone. 7: "swipe to unlock" in thin text on... the background? So what do I swipe? Oh, the screen itself, which is a completely different metaphor for interaction, and entirely unintuitive to people who don't think like that. That kind of thing, repeated across the entire UI.
Most of the multitasking stuff they've added, are just weird modes I accidentally put myself in then have to spend time figuring out how to get out of them. I'm sure they're pure rage-inducing hell for most people, who are even worse at tech than I am.
I think the loss of the home button, one of the most brilliant UI elements of all time, is a big loss for intuitiveness/usability for people who aren't immersed in very digital-native metaphors. It was such a great safety net for people. "Oh shit, what's this?! HOME BUTTON! Ah, now I'm in familiar territory". Swiping the screen up from the bottom is not a complete replacement for that.
Overall it's just far less relaxing and straightforward than it used to be. Used to feel like some kind of hyper-advanced "slow tech" sort of thing. Now it's a lot closer to just being another computer OS. I wouldn't care, except there's no alternative that provides the old thing that I liked better.
> 7: "swipe to unlock" in thin text on... the background? So what do I swipe? Oh, the screen itself...
I can already detect what is probably a massive difference in technical literacy and age between us but I'll humor myself anyways. I still have an iPhone 3g lying around with the old physical looking slider and while i do agree it made more sense than just swiping up from the background, our great UX overloads at basically every phone company around the release of iOS 7 probably decided that just swiping on the background was more aesthetic and "modern".
Now that I think about it, the same could probably be said for just about any major mobile UI change over the past few years.
Also regarding what you said about the move from a physical home button, I am torn here, I like both approaches very much (as someone who has an iPhone SE and a 13 mini on hand) and can't really decide which is better. Though I will admit that once you really master the fully gesture based UX of newer iOS releases, it is just a tad but more efficient, if less "sensible" overall.
I still do wish Apple made a flagship alternative iphone which was just an 8 plus but with the latest and greatest chip and screen and battery and whatnot but with classic old look and feel, I have no doubt it would sell pretty well too.
> Overall it's just far less relaxing and straightforward than it used to be.
I genuinely believe this is by design, these products (both software and hardware) are being sold to people who already know what's been going on for the most part (and in the case of newbies, this is what they are first introduced to so they never even knew there was another reality) and can easily adapt to the new interface changes. In practice, I remember people being frustrated about the iPhone X's gesture based interface but Apple has improved it to the point where no one really mentions it anymore, it's just a part of the refined iOS experience now i guess.
> Swiping the screen up from the bottom is not a complete replacement for that.
Last note, you have to at least acknowledge that it's mad satisfying to do so, if a little unnatural at first.