Since Steven Troughton-Smith’s WWDC wish list guest post last week, I’ve been thinking about my own hopes for iOS 10 later this summer. iOS 9.3 is almost here and includes loads of new system features and even enhancements to stock apps, but as ever there’s still low hanging fruit that Apple could grab to improve iPhones and iPads. Specifically, I’d like to see at least one new feature added to each built-in app.
In general, I’d love to see every built-in app support landscape mode on the Plus-sized iPhones, 3D Touch on the latest iPhones, Split View for multitasking on the latest iPads, and take advantage of Apple’s share sheet for extensions. But beyond features that all apps should have, I’d also like to see each stock app gain at least one new and unique feature. Here are a few of my ideas:
Messages
I think Messages could learn a lot from Facebook’s Messenger app — stickers are great, group read receipts are a no-brainer, and stuff Messages can do like sending photos and location is just easier on Messenger — but I’d really like Apple to pick up the Digital Touch features from Apple Watch and bring them to Messages.
I understand that they’re novelty features meant to be unique to Apple Watch, but these notifications are the easiest to miss when mixed in with a list of other alerts and you can’t see the alerts or content on iPhone. Messages would be a great place to view (if not send!) sketches and taps. The Taptic Engine included starting with iPhone 6s even makes deciphering heart beats sent possible; you’d just need an Apple Watch to send one back.
Calendar
I really want three things from my calendar app: solid natural language input for adding appointments, a streamlined list view for browsing appointments, and occasionally a good year view for looking at dates far away, all things third-party apps currently do much better than Apple. Apple’s Calendar app gets the year-view right and has the benefit of displaying the current date on the app icon, but it misses the mark on great language parsing and an easy-to-use list view.
For those reasons (and more), I’m all in on Fantastical for iPhone and Apple Watch, iPad, and Mac, but aside from sherlocking the competition, I can’t see why Apple hasn’t devoted more attention to its Calendar app already.
Photos
As a dad, I spend a ton of time using my iPhone as an always-with-me camera, organizing photos in albums, and turning them into postcards, calendars, and screen savers. For me, iCloud Photo Library does exactly what it’s supposed to do: keeps my library in sync across all my devices including edits and albums, and frees up space on low-capacity drives.
But not even iCloud Photo Library gets family libraries right yet, and the Shared Photo Stream created by Family Sharing is so not the answer. Google Photos makes progress here with Shared Albums. Rather than creating a dedicated album intended to be shared, you just create an album as you would normally, then have the option to share that album with family and friends. It’s still a bit of work and doesn’t totally solve the family photos problem, but it’s a step in the right direction.
While you’re at it, Apple, could you throw iCloud storage upgrades in with Family Sharing? We don’t all need paid 200GB accounts with 75GB free. :) One more thing: Projects from Photos on OS X would be killer on the iPad Pro.
Camera
As mentioned above, I spend a lot of time in the Camera app capturing and sharing snapshots of my daughter quickly growing up. I’m mostly content with the Camera app, but I rarely (if ever) use filters or the square cropped camera. Filters can be removed during editing, but a square-shot image is forever.
I’d love to be able to optionally have other actions and cameras in place of filters and square. A 16:9 cropped camera might be useful, but I’d really like to see a camera that automatically puts photos and videos shot in a dedicated album. Assume we stick with the Shared Photo Streams model for families: this would be made more useful if the Camera app had a dedicated camera for this Photo Stream. Make the ‘families camera’ default during a vacation; save the square camera for … nope, I can’t think of a good reason. Upthere’s Camera app takes a similar approach.
Weather
That’s a nice-looking Weather app there. It even has a unique layout in landscape on Plus-sized iPhones. Fewer stock apps is generally better than more, but in this case I’ll make an exception for the Weather app. I’d love to have this exact app on iPad. Sometimes-9to5Mac-police-sketch-artist Michael Steeber even proposed a concept on Dribbble … over two years ago.
Clock
Did you know you could set a song as your alarm in the Clock app? It’s a nice feature if you want to wake up to something more pleasant than the sound of someone’s iPhone ringing, but if you wake up at 6 a.m. to your favorite song too many times, that might not be your favorite song anymore. What would be even better would be setting a playlist as your alarm so the song is somewhat random. Want to go full-blown clock radio? Let Apple Music subscribers set stations as alarms. “Siri, wake me up to Taylor Swift Radio at 6 am.”
Maps
I use Apple Maps frequently without much issue, but I still miss Street View when looking up a new location for the first time. Luckily, Google Maps is available on the iPhone as a backup, and maybe someday Apple will have their own version of Street View. In the meantime, I’ll request a few things a little easier than photographing the whole world: real lane guidance, smart toll advisories, and multi-stop routes.
Google Maps just aces lane guidance, which was previously only available on medium- to high-end dedicated GPS units. Apple Maps instead pulls out lines like “keep right ahead” in the middle of a 100 mile stretch with a slight fork in the road. Referencing the map on-screen is fine with CarPlay, but the more audio cues, the better.
Maps also includes toll advisories when getting directions and usually offers alternative routes when possible, but pulling data that could give you a general idea of just how much that toll might be would be useful.
Finally, allowing for an extra step or two (or more!) when mapping out your trip would be great. I want to drive from Mississippi to Florida but definitely stop at Shake Shack on the way. Or seeing the full, round trip with fuel cost estimates. There’s still plenty of room for improvement here.
Wallet
Person-to-person payments over Apple Pay is rumored for 2016, and that’s exactly what I want to see added to the Wallet app. The feature is rumored to work over iMessage, which is encrypted, to securely send messages, but the Wallet app is naturally where I’d start this process (and add a button to Messages). I’ve frequently used Square’s Cash app to do what Wallet will hopefully be able to do later this year.
Another thought: I’d love to keep a front and back photo of my driver’s license and insurance card in the Wallet app hidden behind Touch ID. Starting with iOS 9.3, you can do that with Notes, and I already do this with 1Password, but Wallet seems like the natural place with this information. Apple may not want to mix the physical and digital world together so much with Wallet though, until our driver’s licenses and insurance cards are actually stored in Wallet like our credit cards and boarding passes (or somewhere in our Apple Car?).
Notes
iOS 9.3 includes a generous update to the already much-improved Notes app thanks to Touch ID and password-protected Notes. Going further, I’d love to be able to share specific notes with my wife. We already share a shopping list using Reminders; similarly, being able to share individual notes with family would be useful.
Since Notes gained a share extension, I’ve been using it in Safari to save URLs to house listings and things I want to buy for around the house. Being able to add my wife to the note as a contributor would be terrific.
Phone
iOS 9 and Proactive made the Phone app a bit smarter when it comes to handling unknown numbers. If a phone number calls you that isn’t saved in your contacts but is found in your local iCloud email, the Phone app will try to sometimes suggest an identity for the person calling. I’ve seen it in action maybe once, but I usually end up Googling an unknown number when I’m filtering calls and the caller doesn’t leave a voicemail.
How great were the days of Caller ID? Scraping the Internet for the identity of a specific phone number may not be easy, but an option to search the web for an unknown number would be better than the copy and paste (and remove location description) method that I’m using now.
With the demise of Mailbox we saw rise to plenty of competing email apps like Airmail and Spark gain snooze features. I’m sure plenty of people would be happy to see similar snooze features on emails in Mail too.
For me, I’d really love to see Mail-specific Do Not Disturb. You can currently filter alerts by VIP contacts or set system-wide Do Not Disturb, but I’d love to tell Mail that I’m in front of my Mac from 9 am to 5 pm on Monday through Friday and don’t want to see most email on the weekend.
Music
Okay, the Music app still has plenty of room for improvement — especially anything Apple Music-related — but there’s one small feature related to 3D Touch that I’d love to see: Shazam integration. Siri already integrates Shazam for recognizing music (although it was better when it was automatic and didn’t require asking Siri to identify a song), and putting a nice Shazam button in the 3D Touch quick actions list would make the service even more accessible.
Of course the Shazam app itself has a nice 3D Touch shortcut for identifying content, but that’s too much of a feature and not enough of an app to belong on my Home screen or dock. There’s even room for one more thing on Music’s 3D Touch quick actions list. :) And Music on iPad could use a better video player that works with picture-in-picture.
FaceTime
Finally, I’ll send you off with one last request: FaceTime Video Messages. This feature is technically already available, but it’s presented in a way that doesn’t work quite like I would like. When you FaceTime call someone and they don’t pick up, you’re presented with an option to leave a message using the Messages app. This is fine as you can send an iMessage text, photo, or even video recording, but the alert and message content tie to iMessage, not FaceTime, which can remove the context and be confusing. The other person does see that they missed a FaceTime call, and that you sent an iMessage, but encouraging the caller to record a short video message and letting the recipient know that it was explicitly a FaceTime Video Message would feel like a more mature system and likely encourage use.
There are apps like iCloud Drive which I’d like to see become a whole lot more like Dropbox, and Game Center which I’d like to see become a setting and not just a standalone app. Then there’s always the dream of being able to remove some of the built-in apps … maybe one day.
The iPad Pro, in general, needs a lot of work on spacing with full-screen apps like Messages and Mail, which use way too much white space currently. And there’s the need for universal landscape support on the Plus-sized iPhones, Split View for every stock app on the latest iPads, and the other low-hanging fruit that I mentioned at the opening, but each of these relatively small updates would advance the platform greatly for me.
What features would you like to see added to Apple’s built-in apps in iOS 10? Let us know in the comments.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Google docs level cross collaboration for the IOS apps.
how about make 75% of the built in apps optional downloads that popup asking if you want to install like the iwork suite does. or maybe give us the option of hiding the icons because that’s what i do with about half of the built in apps right now anyway.
it would be nice to be able to receive individual built in app updates instead of requiring a ..1 release to fix a bug in Apple Music which i don’t use anyway.
“it would be nice to be able to receive individual built in app updates instead of requiring a ..1 release to fix a bug in Apple Music which i don’t use anyway.”
If you don’t use a specific app why do you care if it takes a .1 update to fix it? Overall I agree with your main point about the apps though, optional downloads and separate them out form the OS.
Your idea for FaceTime messages would be brilliant. Like a voicemail but as a video. I never think to record a video message and send it via iMessage, unless I was recording a short snippet of something happening in front of me. Not like a video voicemail.
FaceTime: sometime I get a video request but know that the video will be bad (poor connection).
I want to be able to accept a video call as audio-only.
cellular ipad sim phone calls !!!!! $#¥%¥$|££%$~
why not ?
but i won’t be listened
anyway
i do love the ipad but i want it to be my only device
you could just sign up with a service like skype whereby with a subscription you can get a dedicated number…
But most people nowadays use things like facetime call, facebook call, google, skype — rather than dish out a number, dish out an email to call on!!!
yeah i know , but not everybody have facetime, not everybody have Facebook, not everybody have google hangouts, on top of that i don’t have whatsapp phone calls
then skype with a dedicated number (i used to do this in university — save a lot of money cos i didnt pay line rental for a cell phone or landline)
UI improvement: add a dark mode that switches on and off automatically.
Ok you can’t expect third party app developers to make a dark mode of their apps, but just the iOS UI and standard apps.
Am I the only one thinking the Clock/Alarm is woefully under-developed considering how long it’s been a part of the OS? How many people use the Clock app as their every-day alarm?
Why is the Snooze button on the Lock screen normal size text (I mis-hit that word almost daily). Why not a big button?
I still have to hit “Edit” when I want to change the time an any single alarm.
Howabout progressively louder snooze alarms.
i use it every day… i dont want a big snooze button because the idea of the alarm is to get up, not go back to sleep…lol
they should have progressively getting louder.
And it should be the case of just tapping the clock you want to change — i have no idea why they make us hit edit…
They should also have a function to play soothing music when you are falling a sleep – this promotes healthy sleeping.
And they should have the option to monitor your sleeping. — after all, they have other health functions
I also would like the alarm buttons bigger – I often miss the snooze button and by the time I do get it, I am no longer able to snooze.
But my biggest peeve about Alarm is that the volume is tied to the ringer volume. I keep my ringer at high and use Do Not Disturb during sleeping hours. I’d like my alarm to be quiet, so it wakes only me and not the entire house.
One rather small but very annoying issue for me is the layout of apps differs from OS to iOS. For example, the “today” button in Calendar is upper right on OS and lower left on iOS. This strikes me that even Jonny Ive is’t immune from errors, as I Just cannot imagine that differing layouts was done on purpose.
All of those are awesome! Here’s a rather simple request re: FaceTime ~ the option to “downgrade” a video call to an audio call. Ever make a video call to show someone something (a baby, a room, a view, etc), and then you’re like, “uh.. okay… maybe we can just talk on the phone now…” a “switch to audio” button would be great.
Let’s see, uh:
-the ability to mark photo albums as private
-improved animated gif support
-folding the kinda one-purpose Voice Memos app straight into Notes
And for News:
-I’d like to see full Safari Reading List integration – basically, News should be where your Reading List pops up (and automatically using Safari Reader mode)
-I’d also like to see the “trending on Twitter” Safari feature moved wholly over to News and perhaps made a lot more like Nuzzel
-a much, much better RSS index, seriously
-intelligently pulling articles that have been emailed to you
Outside of that, though, I really think Notifications, the “Today” view, and the Proactive view have waaaaay too much overlap that needs to be cleaned up, but that’s not an app-specific feature – just a mess that needs cleaning up.
I think it is a bad idea to mess with extra features for Calendar, Mail and Messages. These are core products that should satisfy 80% of all customers needs. I personally don’t need stickers in Messages, nor the snooze feature in the Mail app. When I need something that is specific to my needs, I use 3rd party software for that.
However, I totally agree that iCloud needs more sharing options. Right now CloudKit (the framework Apple uses for iCloud Drive, Photos and Notes) does not support sharing with specific accounts, only private and public databases. Should they add sharing to CloudKit, they will be able to improve all of their built-in apps that were built on top of CloudKit.
And yes, Maps should finally learn to suggest at least one toll-free route.
I would like to see Do Not Disturb improved to have separate hours for each day of the week also adding location to it. similar to an app in android called Setting Profiles or Locale.
I’m surprised there’s no mention of the dreadful Video app
Search feature for split screen app picker is a must for me. Scrolling through all the apps to find the mail app for example is not that productive.
Additionally all apple apps to support the iPad Pro. And as mentioned to utilise the space rather than the half hearted approach we’ve seen so far.
And another overdue one is the springboard. I’d love a few gadgets like a weather gadget for instance. It’s the main envy I have when I look at android.
Whilst I dream about the springboard replacement that will probably not happen until sales fall, let me dream about HD audio. This is something that apple could pull off better than anyone else with their unique position, sigh maybe…
Granular control over iCloud Photo backups. The ability to set ‘best times’ for example. At a minimum, the ability to toggle backups on and off so your network’s bandwidth is released and available for your own use.
– better file managing tools in icloud app (on my iPad pro I use it like Finder, I create folders and put files there, but I miss some features)
– being able to import a file directly into an app (such as a raw file into lightroom mobile via the SD adapter)
– overall more “edit in”-features, without copying files into seperate app-environment, just override the existing file
– calculator on iPad (weather too, as mentioned by the author)
– News app for everyone (Switzerland here), even if content is only english
– forward delete on iPad, not even iPad Pro smart keyboard does it
– vibration toggle in control center
– vibration setting in alarm clock (hate it, reacts to the global setting)
FaceTime Video Conference Calls – Skype has it, I hope FaceTime will follow…
Here a few very useful feature requests:
– It’s about time that Multiuser comes finally to iPad.
– Siri multi language search. Language switch on the fly.
– Language Translator core services
– Siri universal apps search
– Better spotlight search. More reliable, faster and deeper integration of search services.
– Apple Maps must improve UI, reliability and gain deeper integration of services for searching places and traffic info. Here in Germany most of businesses appear on Google maps.
– PIP for iPhone
– Faster and more reliable syncing of reminders, calendar, photos, iCloud for iOS and osx. Dropbox is far more superior.
– Multiple users in conversation for FaceTime. Similarly to iChat in the past.
– Finish Apple Music Beta Version and library once and for all (very buggy). Lyrics integration.
– More reliable 3d toch when selecting text and app switcher
– Numbers and Pages are still buggy and missing tons of features compared to office.
– Capability of older Email (different thread) attaching when composing email (as it works on PC).
– Ability to Downsize and Save / export Pictures
– More useful options for 3d touch.
– More free space for iCloud. 5gb is a joke
– Ability to share files from messages app
– Podcast more reliable and with better sorting (i dumped it for overcast app which works much better)
– Apple pay in more countries.
– Merging of messages and FaceTime into one app.
How about making them deletable? I don’t need Podcasts, Watch-app, friends, tips, stock
Notes needs a built-in scanner, like Evernote, so you can take a picture of a document with your camera and have Notes OCR it. If they added that one feature to Notes, it would replace Evernote for me.
First on the list would have to he separating of non-essential stock apps from iOS. Not only would it remove apps and save storage and screen space but you could then replace the bad ones with better third parties.
I’d also love to see an option of new wallpapers that change weekly, provided by Apple. Similar to the AppleTV screen savers. I’ve always loved the bundled choices.
I’d like to see FaceTime integrated into the phone and messaging apps. No need for a separate app. A FaceTime tab for the phone app and as mentioned the option of FaceTime messages.
Protected photo albums, similar to the noted update.
Also picture in picture support for the iPhone would be a nice addition.
When I got my iphone 6plus with iOS9… i was looking forward to it.
But as you have pointed out above – Apple is actually falling behind so much… I once loved Apple, not enough to be a fanboy, but enough to say i like Apple better than others — but times are changing.
I’ve realised that most of my friends are on facebook, so we use messenger to text, call, and video chat. In Japan I often use LINE for all that. Even though I have a fair few friends who have iphone we prefer using messenger over imessages – the latter being very limited and a very poor experience on the mac.
Calendar I hate — i deal better with icons than colors — i would much prefer being able to have an icon that shows me which is work, which is a party, which is a birthday (thankfully i have facebook synced up to it, so i have a little present icon for facebook birthdays and a blue facebook logo for facebook events).
As for maps — Apple map in japan is pretty useless… they dont have transit times, travel times are not that accurate, it doesnt do well with japanese addresses, and no street view.
My photos feel all over the place (i prefered the older photo app on the mac — i would sync and put in dedicated folders… i still havent gotten used to the new one)
With regards to docs — they have a lot to learn… i use hotmail and so it was very easy to share documents, edit documents etc… the online versions are useful — both microsoft and google have colab options, share functions, restrictions options in sharing… i don’t even bother with apple apps…
I don’t think the iphone works that well with macs…
I don’t think my phone is that useful anymore — 2015 has been a horrible year for me with my love of Apple… the love affair has become sour…
So for me… Apple really need to step up the game… stop coming out with unfinished products, to stop playing it safe, to stop being behind the competition, they need to innovate, inspire, and say “forget about the other products, this is the only one worth looking at!”
Videos app: Landscape orientation on all iPhones, and a toggle to switch TV Binge Mode on or off.
Notes app: Access to all installed fonts.
iBooks app: Again, access to all installed fonts. Failing that, at least some better options than the handful of (mostly awful) selections already available.
I’m still shocked that Apple hasn’t added an APIs for Siri control for 3rd party apps. I thought this was going to happen years ago.
I’m thinking that it’s time to overhaul the home screen completely, enabling better integration with and display of data inside the apps. Steal some of the nicer Windows features, let me put apps, data, contacts, etc. directly on my home screen.
Wholesale Siri integration would be great, along the lines of what we’re seeing on AppleTV, but with even greater flexibility in terms of what she’ll hear and understand in and out of first- and third-party apps.
Also, speaking as a developer, UITableViewCell could use a big update. It’s the cornerstone of so many applications. It’d be great to see more built-in styles, the ability to reposition the pre-generated labels, better support for self-sizing, the ability to edit data in a cell (seriously, we’ve been rolling our own cell subclasses for *eight years*, in many cases, just to make cells editable…), that kind of stuff.
I think another key aspect is to bring the stock apps to the app store, so apple can innovate and update them a lot faster, instead of waiting until every major ios update to update the stock ios apps
Gif support in photos. Then I’m all good.
If Siri is to be considered an App, then I want to have Siri capable of recognizing some foreign language in a sentence. Typically, if Siri is set to French, as it is for me, and I ask “Jouez Driver’s Seat” where “Driver’s Seat” is a song in my library, Siri does not understand it even if I spell it very carefully or spell it like it was a French word, which is quite awkward. Reverse is true if Siri is set in English and one asks for a title in French (be it music, movie, book…). Very annoying and makes Siri almost impossible for me to use regularly.
The most important “new” feature should be a workable Airdrop. It always take at least 10 min to connect two devices via Airdrop. It is as bad as how Mobile Me was
I would love to be able to share my phone-screen with someone via ‘Face Time’.
On so many occasions I have to explain certain things, like how to setup this and that, to e.g. my parents and it would be awesome to have such a feature, as I would no longer have to have all the steps in my mind.
Further this could be used to discuss keynotes etc. for business matters.
Music has been a complete train wreck since Apple Music came along. And why can’t I add a song from the iTunes store to my Apple Music library? It’s a baffling muddle of incoherent, contradictory, and random design choices.
Podcasts is ugly, new episode badges disappear if you so much as glance at a new podcast, and syncing between devices is still 95% broken.
Mail is another train wreck. Amazing it still doesn’t work properly with GMail after all this time. Every other mail app works with GMail.
Phone needs a way to block all calls from numbers which hide their caller ID. Android has been able to do this for years.
Shared Photo albums should sort photos based on the photo’s data metadata, not by the order they were added to the shared library.
Photos is absurdly slow and basically broken on the Apple TV 4.
Video Podcasts never show artwork. This worked on the (superior) previous version of Podcasts.
iTunes on Mac/Win… well there’s a book waiting to be written on what a disaster zone it is. Just scrap it and start over.
Basically Mosberg is right, Apple’s internal apps are a bug ridden mess and filled with nonsensical design choices.
It would be really great if the default Music app player would contain those two +/- 15sec quick skip buttons on the sides of the standard set of rewind/play/stop/ffw buttons. I miss this functionality especially when I listen to 2hrs DJ sets – it’s a bit of hell to try to move with progress bar back or forward and search for a favourite part of the set.
How about apple getting rid of the huge volume adjuster display that comes up in the middle of the screen every time. Why can’t this be moved to the edge?
Along the lines of your thinking on the “Clock” app, I’d like to be able to set an actual app as my alarm. You touched on this with Apple Music, but I want to take it a step further. I’m not sure how you would accomplish this, as it requires a level of integration I’ve not seen in ANY app, but here’s my scenario:
I listen to SiriusXM radio, primarily through the app on my iPhone. It works great when streaming in the car via Bluetooth or USB. It’s great to stream to my AppleTV at home for a room full of sound. It also allows me to queue up some of their programming On-Demand, so if I’m looking for a particular talk show, I can stream that without having to worry about tuning in live.
What I’d like to be able to do is tell the Clock app to open the SiriusXM app at 6:30 every morning when I wake up and start streaming the latest episode of my favorite talk show (or pick up where I left off yesterday). Most likely this would require the ability to create a playlist in the SiriusXM app and somehow queue that up via the Clock app. Heck, even if I could just tell it to start playing a particular station would be great.
I know Apple would frown on this because they would prefer me to use the Apple Music app for my radio, but I’m sure other people could find uses for launching apps as their alarms. What if I could launch the Calendar app and have Siri say something like, “Good morning, Vincent. Today is March 8, 2016. The temperature outside is 36 degrees. You have a doctor’s appointment at 10:00 a.m. It is Jason Conroy’s birthday today.” Something along those lines. Just something to get my day started aside from the same tired song or ringtone. Amazon seems to be honing in on this with their Echo. Have Siri read me the latest headlines from the Apple News app. I’d love to get the latest 9to5mac headlines in the morning.
There’s so much potential for app integration, it’s amazing it’s taken Apple this long to capitalize on it.
I use the square photo option for almost every single photo I take! This is because all social media is geared towards the square photo, namely Instagram.
How about doing a Google and taking the apps out of major OS updates, relocating them to the appstore so we don’t have to wait months for updates. Apple engineers would be able to introduce features to experiment and get feedback more easily. Then, if these features weren’t well received, they could be pulled in a quick update.
I only have one request: Get syncing right. Allow me to choose the master device in every case. For photos, it’s my iPhone. For music, it’s iCloud. For mail and calendar, it’s my PC. Just get this right and I’d have a lot more hair.
I’d quite like to see iTunes match get upgraded for family sharing, i’d be happy to pay more too, but in the same pricing methods IE annually not monthly. If they can do it with Apple music they can do it for iTunes match i reckon…
Also if a user is in family sharing, iCloud storage should be able to be shared too, to prevent having to pay multiple times for various accounts
Some good requests! Confused on something though. Aren’t there already Shared iCloud photo Albums?
When you select a group of photos, you can share it an iCloud photo album, select which contacts you want to be a part of it, select whether they can upload to that album, and also get notifications on comments and when they’ve subscribed.
Isn’t that similar to one of the features you are asking for?
For the messages app, I’d love for this new feature: hold send button for high priority message, regular tap for a regular message. When on Do Not Disturb only high priority messages come through as a notification.
I want group FaceTime calling! They already have it in Google Hangouts.