this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2023
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Apple

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Why on God's green earth can I not have an #iPhone interface that works?

To say that Apple's "gestures" suck is entirely too kind. They are a fundamentally broken idea anyway, but that gestures have regions and therefore that a gesture may mean any of three different things, makes my phone desperate--and I do mean desperate--to do anything other than what I'm telling it to do.

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[–] NewNewAccount@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Like what specifically? And what’s with the hashtag?

[–] benfell@lemmy.world -3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Like when I swipe from right to left. An app can have it's own meaning for this gesture. The phone itself, two more, one to switch home screens, one to pull up the camera. I'll be trying to use the app's meaning and get the camera. This is not improving my efficiency.

[–] michikade@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I’ve never had the camera pull up from swiping right to left except from the Lock Screen, otherwise it just uses whatever app’s swipe controls are or from the Home Screen it goes into my second screen or App Library.

Same left to right, an active app uses its controls, the Home Screen or Lock Screen pulls up a widget drawer.

What app are you trying to use that has Apple’s Home Screen swipe commands overriding the app?

[–] benfell@lemmy.world -4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm seeing the behavior consistently, regardless of app. It's just wrong.

[–] Riven@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Do you have one of the older iPhones that had “3D Touch”? That did some weird stuff with gestures, like if you swiped with enough pressure it would switch apps.

[–] benfell@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

No, this is a 14. I never heard of "3D Touch" but it sounds like it would be completely unusable for me.

[–] OhStopYellingAtMe@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Whoever said “there’s no such thing as a wrong opinion” never encountered a post like yours.

Touch-screen gestures are the best part of having a touch screen, and Apple’s implementation of such gestures is so well-received it’s been licensed and borrowed and imitated by all of its rivals.

I can’t imagine having a touch screen without swipe to scroll / pinch to zoom / press-and-hold for pop-ups, and so on.

It completely eliminates the need for physical buttons or on-screen real estate being covered by fake buttons.

All that being said, have you explored iOS’s robust Accessibility features? Geared toward people with limited abilities / handicaps, you can modify how some gestures respond and even add on-screen buttons in some ways. It might be worth checking out.

[–] benfell@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

The pinch to zoom and scrolling features generally work fine. I did explore the accessibility features and found nothing that addresses my need for easy predictability.

The reason I like the buttons is because I know what they do. And they do it every time.

The reason I hate the gestures is that I'll think I'm doing one thing and get something completely different, often when I needed it to do the right thing five seconds ago.

[–] Plantee@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

To be honest, the gestures for notification center and control center are terrible. At times I am still doubting which one does which, and control center should be way easier to reach (and I am on a mini), reachability requires too many steps and reaching for the top left is quite a stretch.

I think a combination of both of them like Android is a better option.

[–] 0000@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

As an Android user who’s glad that iOS gestures have been “copied” on my Samsung phone, I respectfully disagree. Gestures seem to work relatively reliably and keep navigation muscle memory uniform between my iPad and phone.

Let’s not forget the fantastic bonus of having all that screen real estate not being taken up by software navigation buttons like on older android phones.

[–] benfell@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

I pine for those buttons.

[–] ImaginaryFox@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If you haven't already I recommend one hand gesture plus. It's replaced gestures for me, and something I wish was standard, since I can perform various navigations actions and shortcuts without having to reach down. Very helpful on large phones when one handing it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvc-H3jve40

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[–] alexius@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Switch brands. Honestly, gestures are like half of the iPhone experience. If you think it’s a fundamentally broken idea, then this phone just isn’t for you.

[–] benfell@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Clearly, you haven't played with an Android lately. As @OhStopYellingAtMe@lemmy.world pointed out, everybody's imitating Apple.

[–] alexius@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

I once helped my niece set up her Android phone. That’s the only time i’ve used an Android phone for over 2 minutes.

But hey, at least Android is customizable to the point of maybe getting a version with no gestures. I just can’t imagine what that means anyway. Scrolling by tapping arrows…? Zooming in by tapping on a magnifying glass? Gestures are the way we interact with screens.