This cool iOS 11 concept would bring more power to your iPhone’s Lock screen

Various iPhone 8 and iOS 11 concepts have been proliferating lately, with app developer Matt Birchler jumping on the bandwagon with mockups of his own. We’re liking some of the smart ideas presented in his batch of thoughtfully done renderings that envision a much more useful Lock screen on iOS 11.

Going beyond simple things like checking the date and time, launching the camera, accessing your favorite widgets and seeing notifications that have arrived since your last unlock, Birchler is proposing a Lock screen with Apple Watch-like complications, user-selectable app shortcuts, alert bundles, smart notifications that could be augmented further with optional location information and so forth.

“All changes are based on things I think Apple can actually accomplish this year,” wrote Birchler. “This is not one of those mockups that suggest Apple should just throw everything out and start over.”

Notifications get a huge upgrade

Notifications for incoming texts have always appeared on iPhone’s Lock screen. As Apple brought us Notification Center in subsequent iOS releases, alerts from other apps could appear on the Lock screen as well. With iOS 10, Apple has implemented rich notifications that can be interacted with easily on devices that support 3D Touch.

Birchler’s idea for Lock screen notifications on iOS 11 would bundle each app’s notifications together rather than render them on the Lock screen in chronological order. That could be a great feature, especially knowing iOS 10 has inexplicably removed the option from Settings for optionally grouping notifications by apps.

“This solves the issue with Android’s implementation of this feature where bundled notification can’t be unbundled and managed one at a time,” he said. A gear icon shown upon swiping an alert would let you configure alerts for that particular app.

Moreover, a location marker could appear next to alerts for folks you’ve added through Find My Friends, letting you see see where they are messaging you from. To protect your security, embedded location information would only appear after you have authenticated yourself on the Lock screen by resting a finger on Touch ID.

Other improvements could include persistent notifications that stay on the Lock screen until they’re cleared and smart notifications triggered by your location, time and activity. In the example above, Fantastical presents an alert on the Lock screen because it knows the user has an appointment at 11am.

“Theoretically this could also have access to Apple Maps’ transit information and would calculate travel times based on my current location and change its display when it knew I needed to leave,” according to Birchler.

And lastly, more powerful notification markers on apps like Snapchat and Tweetbot would go beyond telling you how many alerts you have. In the case of Tweetbot, for example, the app could break down your alerts better than before.

Pressing a notification bundle for other apps might reveal such things as your latest tweets, the remaining time in the current episode, the time of your next event and more.

Apple Watch-like complications on iPhone and iPad

Birchler posits that Apple should bring complications from watchOS over to iOS 11’s Lock screen. On watchOS, as I’m sure you know, complications are tiny visual elements from your favorite apps that can be added on a watch face that supports them in order to communicate important information as soon as you raise your wrist.

iOS complications could bring similar functionality to your Lock screen, like weather previews along with the current temperature and conditions. Not even Android has implemented complications on smartphones so bringing those glanceable pieces of information to the iOS Lock screen would definitely make sense.

Your favorite apps on Lock screen

Your Lock screen offers access to Handoff and Siri-suggested apps (via the widgets screen, revealed via swiping). Birchler envisions a scenario in which icons for user-selectable apps like Spotify, Snapchat and Tweetbot would appear on the Lock screen.

“This would be made even better with iPhone 8 able to authenticate with your face and would not require you to use Touch ID before letting you launch the app,” he said. And if Apple embeds a next-generation Touch ID into the screen, you would authenticate just by tapping on these app icons.

Do you like his concept?

If so, you’re wholeheartedly recommended to check out a set of renderings imagining iPhone 8’s rumored function area. Another batch of mockups envisions iOS 11’s rumored Dark Mode on iPhone 8‘s allegedly bezel-less design.

And be sure to check out an augmented reality Siri concept, seen below.

Apple will shows us what we’re getting in iOS 11, macOS 10.13, watchOS 3 and tvOS 11 at its annual developers conference, which kicks off with a keynote on June 5.

How do you like this iOS 11 Lock screen concept?

Source: Matt Birchler via The Loop