This article may contain personal views and opinion from the author.
The iPhone has been around for nearly two decades, yet basic functionalities still evade Apple's inert iOS.
Sure, we've fairly recently gotten lockscreen customization and widgets, as well as homescreen personalization and freeform app positioning on the screen, but one particularly important feature is missing in action decades after Steve Jobs debuted the iPhone interface for the first time.
Separate volume controls are the one thing that I gravely miss whenever I use an iPhone, and conversely, one of the less romanticized Android features that quietly makes Google's operating system the better one overall. I am dreaming of the day when iOS will allow us to separately control the media and notification volume levels.
Apple's volume problem
Currently, iPhone users have a single, universal volume slider that controls both the notification and media volumes, which are tied together. And if you disable the "Change with buttons" toggle in the Sound & Haptics menu, the ringer volume also gets bundled up with the rest of the volume controls, further limiting the control the user has over the separate volumes.
Imagine that you're waiting for an important phone call but don't want to be audibly bombarded by whatever notifications may come your way. Nearly impossible on an iPhone.
You can sort of do that if you head to focus modes and micro-manage what apps can send you notifications or not, but the process is far from straightforward and intuitive. That adds insult to injury for people used to Android's significantly more intuitive control over your phone's volume settings.
The reason for this oversight could be either Apple's obsession with oversimplifying things or the legacy behavior inherited by the earlier versions of iOS. Either way, the lack of more precise volume control in iOS feels increasingly out of touch today.
That's very glaring when you consider the recent trends of Apple opening up iOS and giving it expanded customization features. What good are parallax wallpapers and dual-tone lock screens when one of the basic functionalities is still implemented poorly?
In a glaring contrast, Android has had separate volume sliders since 2011, and every time I use an Android device, I'm reminded how much more frustrating iOS is in the same regard.
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Here's just how much more intuitive Android is. In the screenshot below, we have separate volumes for alarms, notifications, media, and ring volume, intuitive and easy to change instantly. By default, the volume buttons control the media volume, but expanding this menu is as easy as pressing a button.
Is there a solution?
The solution is pretty obvious and apparent: it wouldn't take much for Apple to simply implement a more customizable volume slider. Simple as that, yet Cupertino's top-tier software engineering team has missed adding an obvious improvement to iOS that will easily fix that wrongdoing.
A possible separate volume control could be implemented inside the volume slider in the Control Center. Long-pressing the volume slider could open a similar menu that would allow iPhone users to adjust ringer, notification, and media volumes separately, like this:
Apple, please consider adding separate volume controls to iOS
That's a really crude mockup I made in Photoshop, but it clearly shows how Apple could get around implementing this feature in an upcoming iOS release. There's also space for extra buttons at the bottom that could enable iOS users to fine-tune the behavior of the volume controls.
Conclusion
This system is Apple's vision of how one should use their most successful device, but to this day, I still think it's unintuitive and exceptionally limiting, stripping control away from the user.
Apple's vision has been mostly clear for decades: simplicity above all. But sometimes, just sometimes, this simplicity comes at the cost of usability. Instead of molding itself to the unique needs of every user, the iPhone railroads you into the same unintuitive behavior that usually goes against the grain of intuitiveness.
Peter, an experienced tech enthusiast at PhoneArena, is captivated by all things mobile. His impartial reviews and proficiency in Android systems offer readers valuable insights. Off-duty, he delves into the latest cryptocurrency trends and enjoys sci-fi and video games.
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