Communication has always driven engineering forward . From the telegraph to the telephony to the internet , it ’s on a regular basis been one of the orca apps for every technological development of the last century - plus . And Apple ’s devices are no exclusion to that . WhenSteve Jobs introduced the original iPhone , he described it as a revolutionary roving phone , but he also called the machine that would go on to reign Apple ’s business was as a “ breakthrough Internet - communication machine . ”
Fifteen yr later , we use the iPhone to talk with others in a potpourri of way , of which the phone capability may ironically be the least . But while Apple ’s spent a luck of time investing in the communication great power of its platforms , it has a disposition to let those technologies languish once it ’s rolled them out .
As Apple potentially preps a headset gimmick for an promulgation later this class , one of the primal areas it’sreportedly looking to concentrateon is also communication . Might this signal a renewed interest in the company ’s investing in this family ? If so , here are a few ways that Apple could improve its current communication options .
iMessage from above
My fellow Jason Snellrecently described iMessageas “ more of a unsuccessful person than a succeeder ” and , though it ’s a system I use pretty much every Clarence Shepard Day Jr. , I ’m hard - press to disagree with him . While the company might not be able to lure away the Brobdingnagian troves of international user who trust on compete message services , that ’s no excuse to not improve the experience for those who do trust on it .
iMessage ’s want of compatibility with Android devices has been in the news recently , and while I do n’t think Apple will or necessarily should make an humanoid - compatible offering , there are still some tweaks to be made . Tapbacks , those emoji - similar responses , presently show up in school text in chemical group confabulation with any non - Apple machine as those groan - desirable “ So - and - so liked ” followed by a quotation mark of the message . Google has improved this for Android user using the Messages app byconverting those message into emoji responses . But many Apple drug user are still stuck getting these silly text edition substance , make the experience way worse for only one chemical group : the company ’s own customers .
Perhaps there ’s an opportunity here for some lightheaded quislingism . Even if Apple does n’t take to implement the RCS standard being push by newsboy and Google as a replacement for SMS , the company might at least find out a mode to tot up some interoperability for the two major wandering platform in existence . Neither Android nor Apple are going away — they should at least learn to survive with each other .
orchard apple tree
There are plenty of other improvement to be made in iMessage as well : allowing any emoji in tapbacks , moving away from the puzzling and progressively archaic system of earpiece numbers game / emails , and adding much better filtering of junk e-mail and other unwanted message that seem to be plaguing us more and more .
FaceTime about face
Of of course , iMessage is n’t Apple ’s only communicating organization . In the pandemic , we ’ve become all too at home ( where else would we be ? ) with video New World chat , and though Zoom may have become the generic noun for these conference , Apple ’s FaceTime has still managed to hold onto its spot as a commodious way for ad hoc telecasting calls between two people .
But FaceTime is still leave out a wad of features that could make it a more attractive option . For example , I recently helped a friend testan app that adds caption to FaceTime calls , which can be a Brobdingnagian help to those with take heed impairment . While it work okay , as a third - party app it involve using the unexampled SharePlay feature , which can be clunky and complex for the less technically savvy .
But pass on that Apple already has a technology for doing speech - to - text ( in bid , and even inhabit in videos if you ’ve ever used the Clips app ) , it ’s surprising that the troupe — which often prides itself on its Accessibility features — has yet to tender live subtitle for FaceTime calls as a build up - in feature .
The ability for Android drug user to get together FaceTime calls was a step in the right centering . trouble is , Apple has n’t taken any more step since then .
Likewise , there are a slew of other advance that FaceTime could use , such as a secure multi - person port ( it still has way too much blank space ) , easier access to feature film such as adding people to a conference ( which is buried under controls with generic icons ) , and the ability to show somebody both the front- and back - facing cameras at the same fourth dimension ( potentially helpful if you ’re trying to demonstrate something ) .
Phoning it in
severely as it is to conceive , the iPhone is still a phone . And , from time to clock time , citizenry even make earpiece calls on it . But the Phone app has been mostly unchanged since the iPhone ’s debut — which is n’t precisely surprising , give that telephony is n’t on the dot the hot field it once was . Still , there is some way for betterment .
First and foremost , the Phone app necessitate to do a better task of percolate spam birdcall . Right now the solution to this trouble is for the most part patchwork quilt . postman may do some filtering , you could install third - party spam filtering apps , or you could take the atomic option and silence nameless callers . This might be one of those places where the party select to let third parties handle the feature , but that feels a fleck like the company is shrugging and throw up its hands in surrender .
There are a few other rightness to be had , as well , such as letting you look your recent calls and voicemails or tot up more Shortcuts integrations . But in the end , it ’s also pretty likely that there ’s not a draw more innovation to be had in the phone , so I ca n’t fault Apple for focusing on those other communication engineering — just as long as it actually does .
