Apple's release of iOS 14 may seem like just a few new additions to the home screen, but for anyone following the ongoing ``iPhone vs Android'' debate, it's huge. Adding widgets, picture-in-picture mode, and the ability to remove entire home screens might not seem particularly revolutionary, but it's actually a big change in terms of how people are used to it. to use their iPhones, and this is a (necessary) change for Apple. If you go back to the early days of smartphones at the end of the last decade, the iPhone home screen was a simple grid of apps with a limited scope for users to change too much, where Android targeted the user who wanted to fully customize their experience. If I wanted to be negative about it, the iPhone's design was boring and Android too complex. However, with iOS 14, Apple removes one of the barriers it has put up for users who wanted to personalize their iPhone experience. Yes, there are still a lot of barriers to keep you from messing around with your iPhone too much, but by allowing widgets in the app grid... well, iOS looks a lot like Android as it did a few years ago. Where once you had a wall of app squares, now you have widgets mixed in with apps, and you can even remove entire home screens and still find all your apps in the library at the bottom of all screens... you know, just like than the app drawer that Android phones have been using for years. Apple clearly believes that the world is just looking for its smartphones – this stripped down simplicity is no longer enough. This richer, more detailed information can't be contained on one side of the home screen (where all the widgets lived before); that users want to do more. By incorporating customizable size and detail widgets into the app grid, Apple is embracing one of the core features that made Android so much fun to play, and you have to wonder why it took so long. Even things like new app clips, the small sub-10MB versions of apps that you can quickly access in specific scenarios are similar (if not completely identical) to Google Instant Apps - it's impossible to see the new version of iOS and does not see a path already traveled.
Will it be the first account?
![Widgets de Android]()
Android has been using widgets for some time (Image credit: Future). While Android users can only snarl at Apple now, including features they've had on their phones for a long time, Apple will argue that the time has come to offer users more customization options. Apple has built its reputation as a smartphone by bringing functionality at the moment that feels right. It claimed that it delayed the launch of a smartphone with an OLED screen, something Samsung had been offering for years, until the technology could deliver what it wanted to offer to users. Its Live Photos feature, launched in 2015, was very similar to the HTC Zoe feature that never really took off on phones like the HTC One M8. But, instead of being a separate and complicated app, Live Photos still takes pride of place in the camera app and is a nice touch that users seem to enjoy. Apple could easily say that these additions are just the culmination of bigger screens, more power, and a growing smartphone audience, and that it mimics the powerful features its users love on iPad and Mac. (In fact, I still don't see picture-in-picture video playback a useful feature on a smartphone Samsung has been trying to do this since 2012 on the Galaxy S3, and at first it was too messy FaceTime video chat while browsing which I can get on with , but it seems that being able to watch a movie or a sports game while doing something else on the phone will simply overwhelm users' brains).
A dice roll is required
Like any brand that changes up a familiar system, Apple plays around by mixing up home screen design options. Of course, there is no obligation to use these widgets: they will always live to the left of the default home screen, so if users want it, the grids will be as usual.
![La nueva biblioteca de aplicaciones.]()
The new App Library (image credit: Apple) But Apple's reputation for simplicity is under threat here: the distinction between widgets on the one hand and apps on the other is something many users are perfectly content with, and its trickle is probably why Apple has been so slow to follow Android's lead. And for all you Android users out there posting amazing reactions on Twitter that Apple has released something that offers so many features you've been used to for years, that's a good thing. When Apple makes a big deal out of new features, the half-hearted smartphone user will suddenly take notice. Like when Apple embraced wireless charging and wireless tablets suddenly became much more widely available, developers will suddenly be encouraged to create smarter and more useful widgets for both platforms. Android smartphone makers may also be asked to get more creative with user interfaces to offer something more to users who want more, instead of going relentlessly towards a standard grid layout. In essence, Apple just paid Android the highest possible compliment, now let's see where the world of smartphones leads.