My WWDC 2022 wish list

MacRumors put together a wish list for this year's WWDC. It's pretty comprehensive, but these are my top picks from that list:

• More control over placement of app icons on the Home screen
  While it aesthetically pleasing to have icons top aligned, as our phones have gotten larger it would be much nicer to keep them in reach. It would also be nice to be able to use my phone in landscape mode, but the minute you include a widget then the ability to do that is gone.
• Always-on clock on Lock screen
  An Android feature for years now, this really should be a feature that the iPhone already has. There's a particular case Apple sells that gives you this functionality but you need to part with £129 for the privilege. If the Apple Watch can do this, the iPhone needs be able to aswell. The Pro models currently step down to 10Hz when it can, although maybe there's a reason a larger display can't drop all the way to 1Hz?
• Split view on iPhone
  I use multi-tasking mode on the iPad fairly frequently and would love to see it come to the iPhone. Being able to browse the web and Tweet at the same time for example would be a really nice power feature.
• LED visual for notifications
  Almost every phone I owned before the iPhone had this. This includes candy bar and flip-phones from Nokia. My HTC Wildfire running Android 2.0 had this feature. I've enabled the feature that flashes the LED on the back of the phone before and it's either invisible when you have you phone in a case or blinding if the phone is turned on it's face. A simple LED is all we need... or a small section of the OLED display (see always-on feature above)
• Option to snooze notifications
  Ever since I used the Mailbox email app that Dropbox unforgivably shuttered, being able to snooze things has been a feature request I will always come back to.
• Universal notifications - notifications clear from all devices when read on one
  This is very hit and miss for me at the moment, and has been for years. I have no hope of my Series 2 Apple Watch playing ball, but if my iPhone and iPad mini could coordinate their notifications, that would be huge.
• Scheduled sending and snooze in Mail
  Again, snoozing feels like it should be a feature in any email client now.
• Option to prevent a photo from being synced to all devices
  Most of our joint iCloud storage is taken up with photos, being able to keep a few back might feel like a drop in the ocean but given my recent struggles with the Photos.app on my Mac, it could make all the difference when trying to sync your library across multiple devices.

And for iPadOS?

• Weather app
  I mean, come on already. Weather widgets, but no app? Apple acquired Dark Sky a while ago and it's about time we saw a native, Apple-built, whether app.
• Support for multiple users
  When we got our first iPad we tried to make do with it as a computer. Its biggest downfall in this regard was that it was made for one person, unless individual apps supported profiles. When being used by a couple or a family, some segregation of apps and data is sorely missing.

Of these, how many are now a reality? I genuinely hope we see lots of these come to the iPhone and iPad later today. Maybe some features will have to wait for a hardware announcement in September, but 2022 would be a great time to unveil all of the above.

Update

So how well did I do in the WWDC feature lottery? Let's take a look.

• iOS:
  • More control over placement of app icons on the Home screen
  • Always-on clock on Lock screen — new lock screens look great but no always-on display... yet
  • Split view on iPhone
  • LED visual for notifications — unless it's part of an always-on display, this will need hardware so one to revisit in September
  • Option to snooze notifications
  • Universal notifications - notifications clear from all devices when read on one — While there were some improvements here (appear from the bottom), nothing clear on how they will sync
  • Scheduled sending and snooze in Mail — counting this as a win, I only really wanted the snooze option anyway
  • Option to prevent a photo from being synced to all devices — Shared Photo Library seems more powerful, and probably more in-line with what I want than being able to prevent certain items appearing on other devices
• iPadOS:
  • Weather app
  • Support for multiple users — Given how they covered features that work on the iPad or between your Mac and an iPad this would have been the perfect time to announce the concept of users on iPadOS

3 out of 10. Not terrible and there's still the hope that some of my wishes are granted in September at the iPhone 14 event.