The Horror that iOS 9 Brought Back from the Dead

down-swipe --> <-- right-swipe
the two faces of search on iOS 9

I have to make this very, very clear: In my humble opinion (which is more frustrated than humble at this point) iOS 8 got the search feature right, and iOS 9 just killed it. Like, killed it, in a very bad, awful way. Yes, Spotlight Search and Proactive Siri are cool, and even Siri Suggestions is at times useful, but my problem lies with the way you access them. Either you can swipe down from the home screen or you can swipe right from the home screen. That’s the problem. There are two options. Why? Just, why? They each offer slightly different features if you have Siri Suggestions on, but in the end, we will probably find one method more to our liking than the other. We will end up using only one. Why doesn’t Apple just give us the choice to disable one or the other? I don’t understand! Please help me to understand!!

The only moderately good thing I can find in this whole two—way-search feature is that your search is continued across the screens. Search “Starbucks” on the swipe-down screen and you will find the same search on the swipe-right screen (until you cancel the search). And this isn’t even a “good” thing. It’s more like a less-bad-than-I-thought-it-was thing. It’s just a sort-of-nice-feature-in-an-otherwise-terrible-thing thing.

I am a strict one-page home screen person, and I personally loved the way iOS 8 got rid of the swipe-right search. How clean my home screen was! There was no stupid little magnifying glass between the dock and the app-grid! (I actually wouldn’t mind the current search-page as much if the cursor and keyboard were there, waiting and ready, at least when I have Siri Suggestions off.)

For the record, I am in no way opposed to Siri or Spotlight. I think they are both headed in a good (and potentially merging) direction (think, SiriLight or SpotSiri), and I do find them useful. I just think I should have more say in how I use them. So, iOS 10? Please do me a favor and give me the choice: swipe down, swipe right or both. But, please, let me pick!



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