What do we actually want out of the next big WP update?

[bsayegh]

I know a lot of people are expecting a lot of magic out of the next WP 8 update. We know about Cortana and the Notification Center, but we have to assume that there are other upgrades coming. Personally I want to see something bleeding edge. Something new and interesting. Something that hasn't been done before.

While I want them to innovate, I don't want them to innovate just for the sake of it. I am not all that impressed by finger print scanners or videos that stop playing when you look away from the screen. Those are nice little options to claim you have on your device, but I cant imagine people really use them that often. They are the kinds of things you might show off to your friends but lose novelty pretty quickly.

What sort of innovations do you actually want to see?

For one thing, I would like to be able to use the shutter button as kind of a camera shortcut. Any camera application that meets certain criteria can be set to open with it and take advantage of the shutter itself. The native camera isn't always the best one, but it is the easiest one to open when you need to take photos quickly. If I could open FotoRoom or the Nokia pro camera instead, it would be great.

Another camera option would be to save setting templates. There are certain settings I set for lowlight, backlight, and action shots that aren't simply using the automatic settings provided by the software. I have found certain settings that I think work better for those scenarios. It would be nice to be able to save those settings to a list of templates, then just select the template rather than going back to change all the settings again. It would be like creating your own "Scenes".

Another idea would to change settings quickly from the lock screen. I would want to be able to do this without unlocking my phone. Essentially when you pick up your phone, a few icons for like WIFI, Bluetooth, and maybe a few others show up on the screen. Instead of tapping on them, you would have to press on if for 2 seconds or something (the idea being that you wouldn't accidentally hit the buttons when you pick up your phone). When I am in the car it is a huge pain in the **** to get to my Bluetooth settings. I don't want it on all the time.

Speaking of which, I would like Ford to integrate with the phone better. One thing that would be nice is if I could set my phone to only turn on Bluetooth in the car. If I leave my car, turn it off. When im in the car, turn it on. It might require MS Sync and MyTouch, but I think it would be helpful. Bluetooth can be a battery hog so I try to leave it off during the day. It would be nice if my car would just know when I want it on.

Those are my ideas, what about you?

 

[engineermoore]

You can already change which app the camera button opens

 

[bsayegh]

My god the future is here! You cant do that with my WP7 phone=(

 

[shmsnh]

Just a little tip: you can actually set Nokia Camera to start by pressing the camera shutter button.

 

[Boris Lozac]

While i want something new and exciting, i also want something that's missing without any reason at all.

I want text-reflow for browsers, PDF viewers etc, inexcusable as to why it isn't already there..
I want a live-tile that is actually live, want a big clock widget for example that updates, wait for it.... every minute?
Want at least a word about it, explanation, not to mention a fix, for an obvious battery problem with the system. Numerous threads about battery drain are talking for themselves.. or at least an app that can tell us WHAT is causing it.
Some minor stuff like more colors for the tiles etc..

 

[bsayegh]

Yeah the live tiles aren't as exciting as they used to be. How often do you really glance at your phone for just a second? Reading the first few words of a sentence or text usually doesn't cut it for me. I like the layout of the tiles and its nice to see them moving around, but I wish there was more use for them. They are just images picked up from a url at regular intervals, so I am not sure what more they could do right now.

 

[Letros]

I'd like much better X1 integration, all the apps that support sharing to Xbox try to link to Xbox 360 Smartglass. I would like to be able to "Play To" from the "..." context menu similar to the charms bar on W8. I feel like all MS devices work well together, but WP is off on its own and not a huge incentive to own within the MS ecosystem.

 

[Dadstar0410]

Yeah the live tiles aren't as exciting as they used to be. How often do you really glance at your phone for just a second? Reading the first few words of a sentence or text usually doesn't cut it for me. I like the layout of the tiles and its nice to see them moving around, but I wish there was more use for them. They are just images picked up from a url at regular intervals, so I am not sure what more they could do right now.

I cannot wait when Blue releases the interactive live tiles to my 8X. Is this what you mean? Also, I wish that the live tiles came with more transitions and animations, like the one in W8.1. I would also like developers to have larger access to live tile SDK (or whatever it is) so they could update live tiles every five minutes or include animations found only in stock WP8 apps (like People or Me). The innovation everyone is talking about is the live tiles: they just need to make them perfect. It's pretty close right now. They have to keep making them better.

 

[N_LaRUE]

Just a little tip: you can actually set Nokia Camera to start by pressing the camera shutter button.

You can launch the camera via the camera button even if you have a PIN. However, if you have Nokia Camera set as default you can't bypass the PIN.

 

[Talk4Lig]

While i want something new and exciting, i also want something that's missing without any reason at all.

I want text-reflow for browsers, PDF viewers etc, inexcusable as to why it isn't already there..
I want a live-tile that is actually live, want a big clock widget for example that updates, wait for it.... every minute?
Want at least a word about it, explanation, not to mention a fix, for an obvious battery problem with the system. Numerous threads about battery drain are talking for themselves.. or at least an app that can tell us WHAT is causing it.
Some minor stuff like more colors for the tiles etc..




I agree with you but pdf viewer is already here (Adobe reader)

 

[N_LaRUE]

Let's all hope that the carriers are not pricks and we all get WP8.1, otherwise MS will have to provide some means for us to get it. For those of us with L920 or other phones launched around that time we're in a position where we may not get the update due to carriers not being bothered.

 

[scourgev]

My desire is very simple. Gapless Playback.

 

[AV2RY]

I guess I'm not missing anything on my L928. But having
1. Notification Center like on Android and iOs
2. Ability to chose default browser
3. Ability to upload photos on photo sharing websites ...
would be nice I think.

 

[bsayegh]

I'd like much better X1 integration, all the apps that support sharing to Xbox try to link to Xbox 360 Smartglass. I would like to be able to "Play To" from the "..." context menu similar to the charms bar on W8. I feel like all MS devices work well together, but WP is off on its own and not a huge incentive to own within the MS ecosystem.

I don't have an Xbox One (probably will after they release a "slim" version), but I totally agree. If WP integrated really well with the Xbox it would be a huge selling point for people. What if you could send commands to your Xbox while you are away? Since its always on (even when its "off"), maybe you could tell it to start the camera and record whats going on in the living room or start recording a show if you forgot to set it on your dvr. Actually what would be really nice is if you could buy a game and start downloading and installing it by sending it a message from your phone. I don't know how it works now (I guess you are supposed to play the game while its downloading, but haven't tried), but on the last gen consoles it was always a pain in the ****.

 

[kokola95]

A much better multitasking

1. Background task numbers are so limited
2. Only 7 apps can be handled inside the multitasking switcher
3. Loading and resuming screen are annoying

Seriously, this makes most of IM apps aren't working well.

 

[badplanet]

As a developer of the Pebble Watch Pro app I want the following so that WP8 users can have a better smart watch experience:
1) Ability for 3rd party apps to run continuously in background (not the every 30 minute tile updates).
2) Access to incoming phone call, SMS and email information to send on to the watch.
3) Better control over music under the lock screen.
4) Better Bluetooth API support for additional profiles and Bluetooth 4.0/LE.

 

[Letros]

I don't have an Xbox One (probably will after they release a "slim" version), but I totally agree. If WP integrated really well with the Xbox it would be a huge selling point for people. What if you could send commands to your Xbox while you are away? Since its always on (even when its "off"), maybe you could tell it to start the camera and record whats going on in the living room or start recording a show if you forgot to set it on your dvr. Actually what would be really nice is if you could buy a game and start downloading and installing it by sending it a message from your phone. I don't know how it works now (I guess you are supposed to play the game while its downloading, but haven't tried), but on the last gen consoles it was always a pain in the ****.

They said we would be able to purchase from phone and download while away at launch, but it is not there yet...sound familiar? lol. I also started downloading Ryse and it said I could play, so I launched it and it was stuck at "installing" within the game until the full game was downloaded...

 

[Dadstar0410]

Is it just me or does Skype and Facebook not fully integrate with the Me tile? I click on invisible or available, and they sync with Skype, but Skype doesn't have the other chat statuses. And Facebook is always showing me as online regardless of my chat status. I would love for the main sns's and Skype to be more fully integrated. And in W8.1, isn't there a way to swipe up from the lockscreen to directly answer a Skype call? I thought they mentioned that during the announcement.

 

[jmshub]

I'd like the ability to change phone settings with NFC. It'd be great to be able to turn Bluetooth off and on with a tap.

 

[AndyM72]

None of the ideas so far are innovative enough. I don't want a "notification centre" that copies Android, or the useless crap that's in iOS 7. I want an "activity log", that shows me a timeline of actions I do (like checking the weather), notifications, calls, locations I have moved to (when my long lat co-ords don't change much in 15 minutes, you can treat that as a "location"), and even some pre-emptive entries.

The pre-emptive stuff can be learnt behaviour. Here's an example. WP8 would need an option in Settings for me to choose which days are "work days" and which are not, with different do not disturb settings for each. The phone then analyses the log and spots that I first unlock it at certain times of the day on work and non work days, and that I check the weather, a news app and Facebook after that first unlock. So wouldn't it be good for the phone to pre-emptively grab the weather forecast, the main news headline, and a summary of my FB newsfeed posts since DND started, and stick them on the activity log ready for me when I wake up?

The other pre-emptive behaviour would be more location awareness. Geofenced To Do reminders is an obvious one. But how about location aware Calendar appointment reminders - the phone known where you are, where you have to be, and uses a travel time estimation algorithm to warn you "you really should be setting off, pal".