First look: iOS 9 brings tons of tweaks to search, music, mail, and more

Posted:
in iPhone edited June 2015
Alongside a few headline features, Apple has --?as it does in every iOS revision --?made a number of tweaks to existing apps and options in its flagship mobile operating system, including the newfound ability to set the function of the iPhone's side switch to orientation lock, making podcast playback easier, and adding built-in document search.




Mail

• The dialog that lets users add automatically-discovered contacts and calendar events has been redesigned to be smaller.
• Users can now add attachments to messages, the same way they insert photos.

Siri & Search




• Search can now...search...through documents and "Found in Mail" data, like new contacts.
• Users can now set a default Notes account for Siri in SettingsNotes.

Podcasts




• Podcasts can now send notifications.
• Unplayed podcasts now have their own section in the Podcasts app.
• More advanced and clearer options for downloading and refreshing podcast subscriptions within the Settings app.

Music




• Shake to Shuffle has been removed.
• There are far fewer settings for the Music app; users can change their album sort settings, adjust the EQ, set a volume limit, and initiate Sound Check.
• iTunes Match is now under the "iCloud Music Library" umbrella.

Miscellaneous




• Users can now choose whether the iPhone side switch acts as a mute switch or locks device rotation in SettingsGeneral
• Users can now search through Settings using a bar at the top.
• Users can now configure the number of seconds to skip when skipping through audiobooks.
• Shake to Undo can be disabled in SettingsGeneralAccessibility.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 23
    Quote:


    Shake to Undo can be disabled in Settings ? General ? Accessibility.


    Users can now search through Settings using a bar at the top.


     



     

    Those things are small, but really appreciated.

     

  • Reply 2 of 23
    red oakred oak Posts: 1,087member
    Good job Apple. Keep rolling and pushing
  • Reply 3 of 23
    %u2022 Users can now choose whether the iPhone side switch acts as a mute switch or locks device rotation in Settings %u2192 General

    PRAISE JAH
  • Reply 4 of 23
    rrobrrrobr Posts: 28member
    And how long do we have to wait for the most annoying aspect of Mail on iOS to be fixed-the placement of the Delete icon right next to the Reply icon? I'm pretty sure I'm not the only fat-fingered user who has trashed an email when attempting to reply.

    Please. Pretty please.
  • Reply 5 of 23

    Very appreciative of Apple's hard work and attention to detail. 

     

    Is there still no "Junk" filter on iOS AppleMail or did I miss it? :)

     

    Best.

  • Reply 6 of 23
    I like the name 'iCloud Music Library'. Makes it more in line with iCloud Photo Library

    I think Apple should get rid of iTunes Match, turn it to iCloud Music Library and use iCloud storage instead to store the songs (maybe along with extended format support). The prices for iCloud storage now are quite decent so for $48 per year you get 200GB which is more than enough to store songs.

    With iTunes Match gone, Apple should also get rid of iTunes Radio because I don't see the point of it existing anymore. Apple Music has Beats 1 radio station, along with curated playlists just like what iTunes Radio does. I like to see the music services unified into Apple Music and iCloud Music Library being a separate thing like iCloud Photo Library.

    Not to sound shady but this could be another way of Apple making a little bit more money with Music and Photos both using the same iCloud storage which will prompt people to buy more storage as well. Also the idea of iCloud Music Library like iCloud Photo Library is a great experience IMO. Add a song to iTunes and it automatically downloads to iPhone (I know iTunes Match does this too, but I like it to take an identical approach of the service like iCloud Photo Library). Hope Apple does this.
  • Reply 7 of 23
    mike1mike1 Posts: 3,275member

    I wish they would allow me to group my contacts as I see fit. One long list of contacts is not very helpful. I could have several groups such as friends/family, coworkers, take out restaurants, service providers etc.

  • Reply 8 of 23
    wonkothesanewonkothesane Posts: 1,717member
    mike1 wrote: »
    I wish they would allow me to group my contacts as I see fit. One long list of contacts is not very helpful. I could have several groups such as friends/family, coworkers, take out restaurants, service providers etc.

    You have groups already. It's just that you cannot create/edit them on iOS. But all groups I created on OS X appear in contacts and I can chose which ones to display.

    Of course, having a list of groups akin to music playlists would be nice.
  • Reply 9 of 23
    calicali Posts: 3,494member
    Adding more default apps eh?
    Why not merge them?

    iTunes and App Store should have been merged years ago. Maybe call it iStore.

    Find My iPhone and Find my Friends could potentially be merged. Call it "Find", "locate" or "where" etc.

    It always bothered me how music, videos and now podcasts have been separated.
    A media App merging them together would be nice.

    I think users would appreciate this.
  • Reply 10 of 23
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by cali View Post



    Adding more default apps eh?

    Why not merge them?



    iTunes and App Store should have been merged years ago. Maybe call it iStore.



    Find My iPhone and Find my Friends could potentially be merged. Call it "Find", "locate" or "where" etc.



    It always bothered me how music, videos and now podcasts have been separated.

    A media App merging them together would be nice.



    I think users would appreciate this.



    Noooooo...do not merge iTunes and the App Store.

  • Reply 11 of 23
    bugsnwbugsnw Posts: 717member

    I haven't seen iOS 9 yet but I hope they change the way apps are installed and then placed. Trying to get an app just so, in the right folder, is hellish. Icons move all over the place, sometimes twerking your entire screen. Not to mention the numerous times I've accidentally dropped the icon and then cannot find the damn thing.

     

    Than you, Apple, for adding that 4th row on the keyboard, at least in some apps. Add another one, while you're at it, and let us put commonly used punctuation there. I don't need to see so much of the rest of the screen when I'm focusing on the keyboard...there's plenty of space to make input on that keyboard easier.

     

    Love the trackpad / cursor feature and multitasking. iOS 9 is going to change how I use my iOS devices.

     

    Now in the next few months, hopefully Apple will announce new, copious amounts of iCloud storage - including a bump in the free tier.

  • Reply 12 of 23
    tdknoxtdknox Posts: 82member
    Quote:



    Originally Posted by christopher126 View Post

     

    Very appreciative of Apple's hard work and attention to detail. 

     

    Is there still no "Junk" filter on iOS AppleMail or did I miss it? :)

     

    Best.




    It's non-obvious but it's there. Just move the message to the Junk folder. This will send that upstream and teach the iCloud mail servers.

  • Reply 13 of 23
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    I like this back button that Apple added. So say you're composing an email and you get a notification. You can go respond to the notification in-app and then use the back button to return to the mail app exactly where you left off. Nice.

    Also, apparently they moved search on page functionality to an action sheet and then you get a search box right above the keyboard. Nice again.
  • Reply 14 of 23
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by tdknox View Post

     



    It's non-obvious but it's there. Just move the message to the Junk folder. This will send that upstream and teach the iCloud mail servers.


    Thanks TD. I thought as much and have been doing that. But was not positive.

     

    The other thing, as far as AppleMail, is iOS should know my "rules" that I set up on my iMac's AppleMail.

     

    Thanks for the info! :)

     

    Best.

  • Reply 15 of 23
    tdknoxtdknox Posts: 82member
    Thanks TD. I thought as much and have been doing that. But was not positive.

    The other thing, as far as AppleMail, is iOS should know my "rules" that I set up on my iMac's AppleMail.

    Thanks for the info! :)

    Best.

    Open a Radar with Apple and suggest that. http://radar.apple.com/
  • Reply 16 of 23
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by tdknox View Post





    Open a Radar with Apple and suggest that. http://radar.apple.com/

    Will do! :)

  • Reply 17 of 23
    hagarhagar Posts: 130member
    how about support for the Share Sheet in Mail? I would like to create todos from my mails
  • Reply 18 of 23
    mr. hmr. h Posts: 4,870member
    cali wrote: »
    Adding more default apps eh?
    Why not merge them?

    iTunes and App Store should have been merged years ago. Maybe call it iStore.

    Find My iPhone and Find my Friends could potentially be merged. Call it "Find", "locate" or "where" etc.

    It always bothered me how music, videos and now podcasts have been separated.
    A media App merging them together would be nice.

    I think users would appreciate this.

    These are terrible ideas, with the possible exception of merging Find my iPhone and Find my Friends. For media, seperate apps are superior as the interface can be optimised for the specifc media that the app has to deal with, and the library databases are smaller so each app is less likely to become sluggish.

    What irritates me is that Apple hasn’t done the same thing in OS X. Instead, we have this behemoth app iTunes that tries to do everything, and stores all media in ~/Music/iTunes/, even when it’s not Music.
  • Reply 19 of 23
    calicali Posts: 3,494member
    mr. h wrote: »
    These are terrible ideas, with the possible exception of merging Find my iPhone and Find my Friends. For media, seperate apps are superior as the interface can be optimised for the specifc media that the app has to deal with, and the library databases are smaller so each app is less likely to become sluggish.

    What irritates me is that Apple hasn’t done the same thing in OS X. Instead, we have this behemoth app iTunes that tries to do everything, and stores all media in ~/Music/iTunes/, even when it’s not Music.

    You're agreeing with the overall concept. This isn't 2007 anymore. A solution is possible.

    It's awkward going into iTunes to find TV shows, and awkward to find apps in iTunes in the OS X version and apps separated on iOS. But it's just as bad to go to the Podcasts app to search for those. One central place to find anything you'd like to download would be awesome.

    It's a mess that we've just gotten accustomed to.
  • Reply 20 of 23
    mr. hmr. h Posts: 4,870member
    cali wrote: »
    mr. h wrote: »
    These are terrible ideas

    You're agreeing with the overall concept.

    I’m not sure how you figure that.

    You say: All the apps should be unified on iOS.

    And I say: No, they really shouldn’t, and what’s more, we should take the app that is unified on OS X (iTunes), and split it up into several apps.

    I really don’t get how you think that is me agreeing with your concept. Are you a politician?
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