In 2007, Steve Jobs launched the iPhone, a minor revolution that would put mini touchscreen computers in our pockets.
Since then, there have been numerous system updates, gradually making the interface more complex, mostly due to new features, but also sometimes due to ergonomic considerations.
The initial simplicity that was iOS's strength has partly disappeared, and many users agree that the user experience on the iPhone has gradually deteriorated over the last few years.
Even though we now have to do a little more than before to achieve the same results, there's no reason not to continue asking Apple to improve or simplify certain features, while it's still possible.
Here are a few iD! ideas to submit to them.
This article has been updated for iOS 26, but it may be partially confirmed with later systems.
3 settings that have long been in need of improvement in iOS
After more than 15 years of using iOS, and despite ten years of providing feedback to Apple, here are three examples of what we consider to be poorly designed iOS interfaces that have persisted over time, even though they would be easy to fix.
1. Adjusting brightness on a darkened screen...
For Apple, before you can adjust the brightness, the logic is to activate a grayed-out Control Center that immediately dims and hides the entire screen.
This means you end up adjusting the brightness of a screen that is slightly darker than the one you want to adjust!
When you want to fine-tune the image of a movie or video, you sometimes have to do it several times, because the screen immediately brightens again after you leave the control center...
The solution is simple: just disable the display of the control center when moving the brightness slider so that you can actually see the adjustment being made.
2. The screen that turns on with a delay!
Once again, an ergonomic oddity, which has persisted for many years, can be found in the control center.
When you decide to rotate your screen display, you have to click on an unlock button, but it can't rotate immediately!
You have to exit the control center before the display can finally switch.
This usually requires reopening the control center in order to re-lock the new display orientation.
Wouldn't it make more sense for this unlock button (like the physical button on iPhones and older iPads) to have an immediate effect, like all the other settings in the control center?
The innovative solution (for Apple): one button = one immediate action!
3. A brute-force sound setting ?
On iOS, Apple uses a logarithmic curve with 16 steps (when controlled by physical buttons) to achieve a volume progression that is perceived as natural by its qualified engineers.
The problem that many users have noticed is that in a quiet environment, such as at night, the sound levels of the lower settings on the physical button are too far apart and do not allow for fine volume adjustment.
The iD! solution:
Apple could plan for additional, more gradual steps as we approach absolute silence.
The AI solution:
adjust button levels based on ambient noise.
The iOS solution:
use the control center by long-pressing the volume slider, which gives you access to a larger, more precise slider.
The ultra-precise solution:
speak aloud the exact percentage (sound at 1%, sound at 2%, etc.) of the desired volume level.
2 iOS assistants eagerly awaiting AI
In recent years, we have become accustomed to being assisted by imperfect tools, which we hope will no longer be the case in a few months' time...
1. Hey Siri, when will you finally be smart?
Pulling the Siri cart that Apple has been dragging for 10 years has become a meme on forums and social media.
All users of this iOS voice assistant have long been aware of its limitations, and even its gradual deterioration over successive versions of iOS, with recurring comprehension difficulties.
The list of Siri's irrelevant or useless responses is so long that it would be possible to write a comedy series for Netflix (Apple TV would not be very inclined to broadcast it) about this almost useless voice assistant.
In 2025, its use was still very often limited to making phone calls, setting timers, or dictating messages, which was not always mastered...
The solution: we remain hopeful that by 2026, Siri will finally be replaced by an AI that better understands our requests.
2. The spelling dictator
The ability to enter text using a touchscreen keyboard on a phone is a tremendous advance that first appeared with the iPhone.
From the outset, a spell checker was imposed in iOS with the peculiarity of automatically replacing some of the words you wanted to write...
If the intention was good, this feature should have been much more effective:
What iOS user has never seen, too late, their words replaced by incongruous, even embarrassing terms, which have already been sent in a text message?
This automatic correction, enabled by default, has always been problematic because it wastes a lot of time checking and correcting... random corrections!
The only solution: disable auto-correct and only use word prediction to ensure you don't write nonsense.
1. Keyboard losing accuracy
For several versions of iOS, letter prediction when typing on the keyboard seems to be increasingly inaccurate.
You only need to go back to an iPhone with an older version of iOS to see that typing on the keyboard does not cause as many typos as on a recent iOS.
The solution: wait for someone at Apple to notice.
To help advance these or other issues that are important to you, you can always provide feedback to Apple directly via this online form, or, if you have a developer account, via the “Feedback” app on the App Store.
iOS 26: still room for improvement?
In 2025, Apple launched its new “Liquid Glass” interface, which serves as a band-aid for the delay in integrating powerful artificial intelligence and the lack of real innovation in iOS 26.
While we can expect fixes to arrive with future updates, it seems that the introduction of the new Liquid Glass interface has caused bugs and malfunctions throughout the system.
It would be pointless to make an exhaustive list of the usability and interface issues in the early versions of iOS 26, but essentially:
- Readability is more than a little hit-and-miss, due to transparency effects that are far from being fully controlled everywhere. Update => iOS 26.1 already adds a setting to reduce this effect...
- Numerous keyboard malfunctions (punctuation and voice dictation in French).
- Questionable interface changes, such as reducing search fields to bubbles and moving them to the bottom of the screen while the navigation interface remains at the top.
- The addition of extra gestures that require you to scroll through a horizontal menu, then a vertical menu in a pop-up.
- Accelerated battery drain that seems to persist after several weeks.
- Deteriorated or non-existent spelling prediction for words containing circumflex accents.
- ...
The solution: The iOS 26 update is far from essential until a high-performance AI version of Siri arrives, especially if you are satisfied with iOS 18.
