Sept. 12, marked one of the year’s most highly anticipated days for iPhone users: Apple’s release of iOS 16.  Every year, people wait excitedly for Apple Inc. to release a new model of their iOS operating system, each model promising exquisite additions to the face of Apple devices. As one of the many excited iPhone users, I rushed to my settings app to download the new update. However, I was quickly met with an array of disappointments.

One of the most advertised aspects of iOS 16 is the ability for users to personalize their devices. Wallpapers can now be decorated with widgets. Screens can be modified to the pleasure of its user: colors, fonts, designs simply changed with a tap. However, beneath the aesthetic face of the new iOS system, behind the pledge to personalization, lie the many faults of the new operating system. 

To begin, Apple sacrificed their original, convenient notification system to attempt a more aesthetic design. Before iOS 16,  notifications were a simple affair. Users would be notified through a ring and their message would appear at the top of their home screen, within easy viewing vicinity. However, iOS 16 has stripped its users of any feasibility when it comes to notifications. Texts and other messages now appear at the bottom of the lock screen— if at all— tucked away from sight. Why should practicality ever be negotiated for looks? Though I understand Apple’s attempts to please the generations of “aesthetic-driven” individuals, they have sacrificed the integrity and appreciability of their notification system in doing so.  Notifications belong on the top of the lock screen, like they have always been. The good days of practicality have been washed away by iOS 16, and its prioritization of visuals over effectiveness. While users are given the ability to change their notification “stack style,” the physical placement of the messages are out of their control. If Apple preaches “Personal is Powerful,” then why can’t users personalize the location of  notifications on their homescreens?