Apple makes well-built products that work

seamlessly with each other. But not all is well within the walled garden.

Outside, third-party companies are surpassing the tech giant in many ways.

Still, there are a few features Apple could add to its smartphones to improve

the user experience.

Software

T9 Dialling

Android (and even non-smartphone) users have benefitted from T9 dialling for years. The feature allows users to find a contact by simply typing their names or a part of their phone numbers on the keypad and poof; their contact information pops up. The feature is not present with the fruit branded company’s smartphones. The only way to find contact information is to dial all the digits from memory or use the Contacts App to pick whom you want to call. Come on Apple; it’s 2019, give us T9.

Make Siri Great Again

Siri has come a long way and now offers deeper integration with Apple devices, and a more natural, less robotic voice. But face it Apple users, Siri is objectively worse than the Google Assistant at providing useful information. Siri was a joy to use back in the day when the assistant was new. There were hundreds of YouTube videos of people asking Siri various questions and getting different, sometimes cheeky remarks to the amusement of many. Now, the competitors have caught up and surpassed Siri, and it shows.

Siri misunderstands words far too

frequently and sometimes entire sentences, forcing manual input which defeats

the purpose of hands-free operation. At times, the results are entirely

confusing and useless.

Simple commands like “Convert 300 USD

to Jamaican currency” results in bizarre answers that make it seem like

the currencies are the same. The strange currency responses only started

recently, which means Apple can fix Siri with an update.

Apple can do a better job of making Siri smarter and provide more useful information while preserving user privacy.

iMessage improvements

iMessage is hands-down better than SMS. It

offers enhanced communication and security, creative ways to express emotion

and even allows users to compete through games right in the messaging app.

Android users have to scour the Play Store

to download a bunch of apps to talk to different people. iOS users can fire up

iMessage or FaceTime and contact any Apple user, for free (over WiFi). That’s

awesome.

However, third-party messaging apps offer

useful features that Apple hasn’t yet introduced to iMessage.

For example, currently, users cannot reply to specific messages with text or audio. The only option is to add reactions like a thumbs up, etc. Also, you can’t delete sent messages. The ability to erase sent messages have saved millions on WhatsApp. That feature will undoubtedly protect many more in iMessage.

Hardware

Get rid of the Lightning Port

The iPad Pro line and the entire MacBook

line use USB-C. Arguably the best USB standard to date. Yet, even Apple’s

latest iPhone 11 series phones still have Apple’s proprietary Lightning Port.

For techies, that means bringing an extra cable so that you can charge one device.

Switching to USB-C will simplify the ecosystem and remove the confusion as some

Apple products use USB-C. Others are stuck with the Lightning connector. USB-C

offer up to 10 Gbps data transfer rates, is reversible and provides more power

for charging. Switching to USB-C would be a win-win for iPhones. Hopefully, the

iPhone 12, 11S (or whatever they call it) will use USB-C.

No brand is perfect. Improvements happen over time, let’s hope Apple implements some or all the above soon.

Renor is a creator and budding photographer who loves the outdoors. He likes using, talking and writing about technology.