Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
If rumors are to be believed , Io 18 will allow you tocustomize the house screen on your iPhone more well than ever before . This feature will be conversant to Android telephone owners , but I do n’t need my iPhone to take care like an Android phone .
It ’s a eldritch doubly - edged sword , as by give you more exemption to make the home concealment feel unique , iOS may also lose what make it unequalled compared to the less constrained man of Android .
Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
iOS 18 and your iPhone home screen
Apple ’s rigid , grid - ground app layout works . All your frequently used apps are right there , in intimate positions , when you want them . Those that are n’t so unremarkably used are popped into the App Library or into folders , which can be bump to other place screens to keep the principal screens free from muddle . thingummy can be slotted in to spice things up and make good use of areas you do n’t want to occupy with app ikon .
In iOS 18 , you ’ll seemingly be able-bodied to partially ignore the grid layout and point app icon more freely on the home covert , which will usher in blank blank space around apps . This is what you could do on Android , where you could have just one app placed anywhere on a home screen if you want . The blank place around your app process no real purpose , aside from the fact that you may now see more of the wallpaper .
It sounds like I ’m against it , right ? I ’m not . I like place my commonly used apps in a row at the bottom of the home screen on Android . Just take a look at the exposure of Android sound I review to see what I imply .
I stick to basically the same formula every clock time and revalue the chance to savor whatever wallpaper I choose whenever I unlock my telephone . It ’s what makes Android , Android . But it ’s not iOS , and I do n’t really desire the two to merge any more than they already have .
The Android-ification of iOS
In its efforts to keep iOS “ fresh , ” Apple has already take more than enough innovation cues from Android over the past few years . Widgets — a longtime Android staple feature — first came to iOS on the Today screenland andthen to the house blind in iOS 14 . In the same update , Apple introduced theApp Library , which works in the same way of life as the App Drawer on an Android earpiece , where you could stash away infrequently used apps without deleting them entirely .
IniOS 16 , thelock screen get some attention , include the ability to rate gismo on it , change the font and style of the clock , and make different translation of the lock screen for unlike function . Through all this and other adjustments to the form and style of iOS over the years , the iPhone ’s software package has become more personalized and individual , but it has never completely lost itsiOS - cape — and I really like that .
The influence of home screen and operating system design has worked both ways . Android sound have taken on key aspects of what makes iOS what it is too . Most lately , manufacturer and developers have found direction to adapt Apple ’s active Islandinto their own Android interface .
Before that , it was common on phones from Xiaomi , Oppo , and Huawei to set the software so apps distribute over multiple home screens by default , iOS - mode , rather than utilizing an app draftsman . The two software program program have law of similarity , but are still suitably dissimilar .
A step too far?
I reverence the changes rumour for iOS 18 will be a step too far . While I translate you wo n’t be forced to distance apps out or create open , white areas on the home CRT screen , the fact is that it ’ll probably be potential to nearly mirror the app layout and style of my Android speech sound on my iOS phone — and this is what I really do n’t like about the scene .
While it ’s possible to replicate my iOS home screen on Android , I never do it . Iwantit to look different as it ’s a different earpiece and software . It should n’t appear like another twist . It should be its own matter . I roll my eyes at Xiaomi and others for making its Android interface look like iOS because it ’s otiose ( and the same give to smartwatches with watchOS - style interfaces ) . I do the same when manufacturerscopy the iPhone ’s camera mental faculty layout . If I require an iPhone and iOS , that ’s what I ’d buy .
It works the other elbow room around , too . If I require an Android phone , I ’ll corrupt one . The lines between the software are already blurred , but there ’s enough specialization between them that they ’re still clearly unique , and one really ca n’t be mistaken for the other .
I ’m cautious about the latest rumors because there ’s a risk this could exchange . I ’m all for making the software on my phone individual to me , but I also desire it to have its own personal identity and not just be a tiny variation on a single theme I find oneself on every phone , regardless of its manufacturer or political program . That ’s not customization , that’sboring .
Until lately , complaints about smartphones all basically looking the same were valid , but this has in spades change for the good . I do n’t desire to begin to intend the same matter about the software on headphone in the near future — especially after ill-conceived campaign to introduce personalization accidentally eat away personality at the same time .
