[Music]
so iOS 14 is here
well it'll be here this fall but it's
announced and developers can try it
right now plus there's going to be a
public beta in July so when you do get
to install it your iPhone is going to
look totally the same it's gonna look
the same because apples not gonna move
your stuff around on your home screen
but Apple is finally changing what you
can do on your home screen is it a
little bit more like Android or Windows
Phone yes there are widgets that you can
put right on your home screen and there
is this app drawer
they call it an app library thing but
it's also different and you know what
you know me anytime I see a big user
interface change I need to talk about it
so here's a question why did Apple
finally let the iPhone homescreen get a
little complicated alright so obviously
the big headline news is widgets you can
put them wherever you want on any home
screen they're not just trapped in this
vertically scrolling today.you that you
have right now I still love the today
view actually but now you can put them
anywhere you can intersperse them with
your icons and your folders so it's just
like Android except not really for a
couple of reasons
the first reason is I just think these
widgets look better than Android widgets
and I would say they're not that well
supported and I don't know I just have a
sense that these are all gonna just be a
little bit nicer on the iPhone the other
reason I don't think it's like Android
is because it's more like Windows Phone
all of these widgets they basically come
in three different sizes small medium
and large they all sort of fit into
rectangles or squares which means that
they fit into a grid that feels a lot
more like the live tile homescreen
Windows Phone that Android homescreen
does
okay so widgets how do you use them well
it's pretty simple you can long press on
them on the today view and then drag
them out to where you want to put them
on the home screen and then you can put
them anywhere you want on your home
screen except not because Apple still
forces icons and folders and widgets to
flow in from the upper left and then
across and down you can't just put an
icon on the bottom of your home screen
like you can on Android because Apple
apparently hates people having their
icons or they can reach them more easily
with their thumb or but hates people
seeing you know
their wallpapers I don't get it anyway
there's one other way to get at widgets
and that's actually the more fun way and
that's to go into jiggly mode so we
should talk about jiggly mode for just a
second you long press anywhere on the
home screen to get into jiggly mode and
I'm saying of jiggly mode because that's
officially what it's called now in my
opinion because Apple itself called a
jiggly mode in the keynote and when
you're in jiggly mode you get you know
the minus buttons as usual and I'll get
to those in a second but you also can
tap this little plus button in the upper
left hand corner to get to the gallery
of widgets you can search for them you
can tap on an app to see the available
sizes for that haps widgets and then you
can grab one of them with a long press
drag it out and then move it anywhere
you want anywhere you want on your home
screen
but jiggly mode actually has one new
really interesting feature that I want
to get to really quick if you tap on the
dots that represent all your different
pages on your iPhone it opens up a view
of all of your pages on one screen and
you can turn them on and off so you can
uncheck them and then they aren't there
scrolling on your iPhone or you can go
back into jiggly mode go back into those
pages and turn them on so in theory you
could have a page that's like
specifically for work and you turn it on
when you're at work and then you uncheck
it to turn it off for the weekend so you
know they're not there when you're
scrolling to your iPhone you can do the
same thing with social media apps if
you're afraid you're gonna look at them
too often it's really really clever the
other thing I love about Apple's widgets
that you can stack them you can have
them all on the stack and swipe through
them with your thumb to get to the one
that you want now this does mean that
developers have to redo their widgets so
the old widgets that you currently have
in your today view won't automatically
work on the home screen and that's for
battery life actually but it also brings
up an interesting feature with these
stacks there's a smart stack so when the
app maker remakes their widget they're
able to put you know a timeline on it
that says well you should update my app
at 4:25 that there's a storm coming and
it's really really important and so that
smart stack will look at all the widgets
in the stack and see which one thinks
it's the most important and then float
that one to the top which is really
clever I hope nobody abuses the priority
thing we'll see so that's widgets' but
to me at the bigger change for the
iPhone is this
thing called the app library see on
Android there have historically been two
places where your apps could show up
there's the home screen where all you
know you rearrange all your apps and put
them in folders and put widgets there
and whatever and then Android also has
the app drawer which is usually just an
alphabetical you know listing of all of
your apps and so Apple is now doing the
same thing your apps might not be on
your homescreen if you choose not to put
them there they might instead be in the
app library or you know in both places
like Android so that is a bit of
complication that wasn't really there
before on the iPhone now the app library
the way Apple implemented it it's
interesting you can swipe down to get a
alphabetical list of all of your apps if
you just want to find something that way
or Apple puts them in these little
categories that it figures out on its
own so there's suggestions in the upper
left and that is for apps that Apple
thinks you might want to launch and I
don't know we'll see how accurate that
is often it's not there's a recently
added box for all the apps that you've
just installed and then the rest are
just categories that Apple decided on I
think they're based on like the store
categories I don't love them so for
example my Wi-Fi utility app hero is in
the lifestyle category for some reason
the Apple Store is in the lifestyle
category which I guess makes sense but
the productivity category has my banking
apps which I don't love and you can't
actually customize any of this and so
it's not so much that Apple stole this
idea from Android as they kind of stole
it from Samsung because Samsung has an
app drawer but they kind of try and
customize it for you with all these
little categories and it's just a little
bit too confusing we'll see how this
goes I think that eventually you'll
learn where your stuff is and if you
can't remember where your stuff is well
guess what you can put it on your
homescreen the interface is also
interesting because it shows three big
icons and then four little icons and
they do different things depending if
you tap on it if you just tap on one of
the big icons it doesn't open a folder
it like opens the whole app which is
like surprising if you tap on the little
icons you get a listing of everything
inside that category but there's no
obvious way to get out of it you have to
know
to sort of tap on a blank space on the
screen or swipe up to go back just like
going home so the app library is
fascinating to me because it is the
first real time that Apple has added
real complexity to the iPhone homescreen
the third complication is this thing
called app clips and these are just like
instant apps on Android their little
baby versions of an app that you don't
technically like go through the full
Apple Store install process you can
install just a little baby version of
the app on the fly when you need it and
then it sits there inside your app
library the little dotted line around it
and it eventually goes away or if you
want the full version of the app you can
tap on the app clip and then you can saw
the full version of the app from the app
store
the idea behind was actually really
clever sometimes you want to do a thing
that only an app can do but you just
don't want the whole damn apps sitting
there on your phone forever so a good
example of this is if you're renting a
smart scooter or paying for parking I
don't know I go to a random city they
have their own custom parking app I
don't I'm gonna I don't want that app
I'm gonna delete it I'm gonna forget to
lead it I'm gonna be annoyed and my
tracking you know I don't know just
having an app clip for that thing is
really smart but I don't know how much
use this thing is actually going to get
because if you think about it you've got
web pages for stuff that you just want
to look at and you'll have to go away
pretty much right away and you got apps
for things that you want to be permanent
and app Clips live in the middle for
things that can do things that web pages
can but you don't want them to stick
around like the full apps and I just
don't know how many things live in that
middle zone like parking meters renting
scooters maybe you know maybe for like
certain things or like a I don't know
I'm gonna use them in Park map or
something but really that's about it you
install them using QR codes or NFC codes
or you know maybe it'll be some custom
URLs but we'll have to see just how much
developers really adopt this kind of
thing because on Android it's sort of
been yeah I'm gonna seem that many of
them all right so let's review the ways
that I think Apple has made the iPhone
homescreen more complicated in iOS 14
there are widgets that you can put
anywhere on the home screen and you can
scroll through them into little stacks
that might algorithmically try and
figure out what
one should go at the top at any given
moment there's the new jiggly mode which
lets you go to the app pages view and
turn app pages on or off if you don't
want to have to see them at a certain
time of day or whatever there's the app
library which means that your apps are
potentially in two different places a
home screen or the app library and your
home screen folders and your app library
folders work a little bit differently
and last but not least their app clips
which is a whole new kind of app and you
need to know what that means and what
the dotted line around an icon means and
that those apps might go away in 30 days
if you don't use them oh and there's
actually one more complication there's
now a setting for the home screen where
you can go in and decide whether app
badges show up in the app library and
whether new apps show up on your home
screen so that's a lot of complication
and it probably sounds like I'm
complaining about all that complication
but I'm actually not and don't get me
wrong I can complain about complications
on Apple's platforms I think that Apple
has made the iPad way too complicated
when it comes to selecting text or
knowing what's going on when there's
multiple windows especially multiple
windows from the same app but in the
iPhone I think it's different and that's
because the defaults on the iPhone are
not complicated you don't have to learn
any of this stuff the widgets that
jiggly mode even the app library you
could ignore even though it's over there
the defaults are still the classic grid
that you're used to and you can just
keep using your iPhone in the same old
way that you always have so well Apple
makes you understand the new iPad OS
interface they've made it more
complicated with the iPhone Apple lets
it get complicated you get to do this
new stuff if you want to or you can
ignore it if you don't now me obviously
I'm a power user I want to use all this
new stuff and I've been really excited
to try a bunch of it out and make this
thing just feel a little bit more like
it's mine and a little bit more like
it's customized to the way that I want
to use smart phones and so it's great
that I have that option but if you don't
I think it's also great that you don't
have to everybody thanks so much for
watching let me know what you think of
the iOS 14 homescreen stuff down in the
comments and I know I said I wouldn't
cover everything in I was 14 and I meant
it
but I do have to point out that there's
this new feature in accessibility where
you can double tap the back of the phone
or triple tablet to do custom actions so
just you know
fun I did what everybody else is doing
and I'm app DoubleTap to launching the
Google list instead because why not