One of the most annoying elements of the iPhone user interface is the guessing game we have to play when changing settings for an app.
Some of the time we open the app itself and go to its built-in settings menu. Other times we have to exit the app and open the completely separate Apple Settings app, which is a clunky experience to say the least (though a free shortcut helps) …
The problem with Settings
We’ve all been there. We want to change a setting for an app, so we go to the hamburger menu, select Settings and search for the one we want. We fail to find it and then realize we need to exit the app, open Apple’s own Settings app, search for the app, and make the change there before finally reopening the app we wanted to use.
It’s a clunky process to start with, and the fact that we have to begin it by making a guess as to where we should be looking in the first place makes it even worse.
Take Apple’s own Camera app as an example. Recent iPhones offer what Apple calls a Fusion Camera for the 1x lens. This defaults to 24mm, but we could instead have it default to either 28mm or 35mm. This is done by the app applying an automatic crop. Additionally, we can choose whether or not to tap the one times button in order to cycle between the different focal lengths.
But unless it’s tucked away somewhere I haven’t yet spotted, we can’t do this from within the Camera app itself. Instead, we have to open the Settings app, scroll down to Camera*, then scroll down to the Photo Capture section, tap Fusion Camera – and only then can we make our choice.
*Don’t even get me started on also having to guess whether an Apple app will have its own section in Settings or be within the Apps section …
A shortcut provides a partial fix
We can’t avoid the guesswork, but there is at least a handy third-party shortcut created by Snazzy Labs’ Quinn Nelson to take away some of the pain.
My thanks to John Gruber for pointing me to this. If you want to install it yourself:
- Download it here and install it
- Open Control Center
- Tap the + button top-left
- Tap Add a Control at the bottom
- Search for Shortcuts
- Tap Run Shortcut
- Select the App Settings shortcut
Once installed, if you’re using an app and find you need to seek out the setting in the separate Settings app, just swipe down from top right to open Control Center and tap the app settings button.
But Apple should fix this properly
I would, however, like to see a full fix for this rather than a handy third-party workaround.
My suggestion is that app settings menus always have a More option at the bottom – and this automatically opens the settings app and navigates to the correct page. In that way, if we don’t find it within the app’s own settings menu, it would always be just one more tap away.
To be clear, Apple already offers an API to do this, but relatively few developers use it. I’d like Apple to make this mandatory.
Is there something you would like to see too? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
Image: Simone Secci/Unsplash