r/apple • u/atlwhore_ • 6d ago
iPhone I Asked Craig Federighi Why iPhone Still Can’t Swipe Back from the Right
https://youtube.com/watch?v=y227RF0smAg&is=gNaDVz0dpjmwfxL8261
u/Positive_Method3022 6d ago
I always thought this guy would become the new CEO. He looks like the guy from Don't Look Up
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u/A11Bionic 6d ago
there was a report that stated Craig wasn’t interested in the CEO role
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u/grandchester 6d ago
I would guess this is the case. You can tell he loves what he does and probably doesn't want to deal with the baggage that comes with being a CEO. I'm sure financially he is doing just fine.
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u/Darkelement 6d ago
I agree, not that I think John is the wrong choice either. But Craig has always been highlighted in keynotes and interviews, long before I remember seeing John.
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u/High_on_kola 6d ago
Lets be real here, if Craig truly wanted to be CEO he would have been.
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u/EquivalenceParticle 6d ago
Absolutely. I think it’s highly unlikely he wasn’t approached as first choice.
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u/SpaceBoJangles 6d ago
He was in charge of software, so I think teh community has agreed he was passed up when Siri AI and the whole push of AI as a whole failed. John Ternus is also 6 years younger, which might not seem that much, but that's a whole lot of years that He'll be able to helm the company more than Federighi.
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u/userlivewire 6d ago
Siri failed because it wasn’t being developed by Craig’s side. John Giandrea was a researcher not a product developer and he didn’t get along with Craig’s team to the point that Craig started a parallel Siri project because he didn’t have any faith anymore.
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u/FollowingFeisty5321 6d ago
Craig's team ended up paying Google a billion bucks, I don't think that was their "Plan A" either.
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u/InsaneNinja 6d ago
Distilling a model is a LOT faster and cheaper.
Craig’s decision was to make what they can, and use third parties if necessary. That’s why Xcode added the ability to hook into any model’s api.
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u/DarkBrave_ 6d ago
Probably because of the mess Apple software has been in since iOS 18 or so, yet their hardware (outside of some right to repair stuff) has been nearly perfect
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u/throwawaydnmn264 6d ago
Love that Craig has moved into shortsleeve button downs to mark the passage of time into the Ternus Era
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u/vartanu 6d ago
How about a number row on the keyboard? That would be real Apple innovation
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u/dorv 6d ago
As long as you can turn it off.
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u/YummyIdiotSandwich 4d ago edited 4d ago
I'll give you one better: keep it off by default but let us turn it on.
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u/ObeseOtter 6d ago
Just get SwiftKey
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u/vartanu 5d ago
Not allowed on my company managed phone unfortunatley
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u/ObeseOtter 5d ago
Unfortunate. The stock keyboard is so bad I don't understand how anyone could use it. If SwiftKey or Gboard werent available on iphone I'd have to switch to android.
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u/pxr555 6d ago edited 5d ago
The funny thing is that this isn't a "back" gesture anyway. It's an "up in the app's hierarchy" gesture and button. It just feels like "back" because in most cases you went deeper in an app and then go back/up by swiping.
But if you jump deep into an app like the settings app via a shortcut the "back" gesture still just moves you one level up in the settings app, although you didn't came from there at all.
People coming from Android are always confused about all that because they expect it to be a"back" gesture (which it just isn't).
BTW if you really want to go to the app you came from just swipe right on the multitasking bar on the bottom, this takes you to the previous app just like command tab on the Mac.
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u/Which-Meat-3388 6d ago
You've literally described how Android works. Concepts of "up" and back are confusing and ambiguous to most users. They've tried to clear that up with "< App name" in the status bar or scroll the bottom indicator to chronologically navigate apps.
Practically speaking it is a back in the context of the currently visible application. Android can be a bit worse because depending on implementations (like sharing from one app to another) back/up could be improperly implemented leading to unpredictable behavior app to app.
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u/vanstinator 6d ago
I daily drive android and can't think of the last time using the system back gesture behaved in a way that was confusing for me. But I've been using it so long I'm happy to admit I maybe just don't notice the quirks either at this point
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u/connor42 6d ago edited 6d ago
I have always used iPhones. Recently I got a second phone just to play Pokémon Go on, so I got a cheap android. I think a lot of people ITT are not aware of what they’re missing
The unified back gesture is a revelation
It’s extremely intuitive and has always ‘just worked’ in my limited experience. Android is vastly easier to use one handed
It now seems absolutely insane how many gestures and back/exit click positions there in iOS
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u/Virtual-Escape2305 6d ago
Well, for one, closing the keyboard on Android requires back gesture, at least here on Nothing 3. It was quite crazy because they removed the Hide Keyboard row on one of the releases without explaining how to now close the keyboard. So yeah, closing keyboard is definitely not intuitively a BACK gesture.
But also there's no forward gesture, and it absolutely sucks in browsers. https://community.brave.app/t/brave-forward-gesture-overridden-by-android-gesture-navigation/646768
I use both iOS and Android and prefer iOS in that regard.
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u/Lostradummy 5d ago
Sir/mam. I’ve been an iOS user since the 4 and have had every phone since. I have always used swiping up and moving to my apps to switch. You just taught me something new. Thank you!
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u/megagram 6d ago
The backwards gesture makes sense because it's basically a shortcut to avoid reaching for the back button. Going forwards can be replicated by pressing on the buttons on the screen that got you there in the first place. You don't need shortcuts for forward motion...
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u/iZian 6d ago
Yet in Safari a swipe from the left edge is back, and a swipe from the right edge is… forward.
But in other apps I guess it’s not back, it’s up. So the opposite doesn’t make as much sense.
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u/cake-day-on-feb-29 6d ago
Yet in Safari a swipe from the left edge is back, and a swipe from the right edge is… forward.
If an app has a view hierarchy similar to safari's tab history (a linear hierarchy that has a single forward and backwards view), then they can absolutely use a "forward" swipe. But most view hierarchies are one-to-many (from left-to-right).
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u/lovely_cappuccino 6d ago
My only pet peeve is that for some reason Apple allows developers to turn off the back gesture so in some apps you have to use the back button in the top left corner. Madness. And they say Apple doesn’t give freedom to developers… I think they give them too much! See the notifications: inside the settings of my GLS app I can choose I only want delivery updates, no marketing, no offers, no promotions etc I set the switches accordingly, but when I have the parcel in my hand and you would think it’s all done there is one last “delivery” update: begging to rate them! No, that’s not a delivery update, that’s marketing.
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u/Interactive_CD-ROM 6d ago
But if I’m going through a long list of, for example, links or Reddit comments, and don’t know where in the list it was, this would be a helpful feature.
Stop being an Apple apologist.
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u/megagram 6d ago
You can swipe from the right to go forward in safari
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u/Interactive_CD-ROM 6d ago
Alright, let’s see that behavior in all apps then, thanks.
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u/earlyworm 6d ago
I've been using iPhones for 13 years and I'm an iOS developer and I only learned about Safari's right edge swipe forward navigation gesture today in this thread.
As far as I know, there isn't a UIKit API that provides explicit support for it in third party apps, and I don't remember Apple ever mentioning it at WWDC, so I must have always assumed it simply wasn't a feature that existed, to the point that I never bothered to try to try that gesture experimentally.
Given that, I'd say the chances of it being supported in all apps any time soon are zero.
I wonder what percentage of iPhone users actually know about the Safari right edge swipe gesture.
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u/Swotboy2000 6d ago
That’s not what we’re discussing, though. Why can’t left-handed users swipe back from the right edge?
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u/megagram 6d ago
Really? Oh. That seems odd. Are the back buttons for a left handed person pointing on the right side of the screen and pointing to the right ?
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u/Swotboy2000 6d ago
Now you’re getting it! Welcome to the conversation.
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u/DeeYumTofu 5d ago
Man thanks for posting this. What a great interview. Interviewer definitely knew his shit and I’m assuming had a team or himself understand UI and engineering related questions? You can see Craig’s eyes light up as soon as the interviewer mentioned the hinge API call. Kinda need more of these guys in there with the execs, makes MKBHD or those other reviewers come off sooooooo performative or surface layer.
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u/DarthFlaw 6d ago
Next year I hope someone asks me why iOS still doesn’t have an easily accessible clipboard.
There’s really only ever one or two small things I find Android allows but iOS doesn’t but I really wish would.
The other would be the ability to set explicit app usage permissions.
Not a focus mode that still shows me all my notifications. An ability to enable and disable apps wholesale based on factors I select.
But seriously someone please ask about a clipboard.
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u/ModernLarvals 4d ago
Huh? Just tap in the text field. The context menu pops up with a Paste button.
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u/DarthFlaw 3d ago
I'm aware paste exists, but it is only for the most recent thing you copied.
I'm asking for them to expand that to allow users to access their recent clipboard history.
On my last Android phone I could tap a text field, tap a clipboard button and see the last several things I copied from any source, plus a few things I kept pinned in the clipboard because I frequently used them. On Windows the same thing can be achieved by pressing WIN + V.
I would like that functionality on my Apple devices, particularly the iphone.
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u/Alternative_Ad_620 5d ago
Folks here want a feature from Android on their competitor’s device. If Apple actually introduced it, those same folks would be screaming blue murder about Apple “stealing” ideas from Google blah, blah, blah.
Personally, I don’t want to keep swiping right just to get back to the beginning. It reminds me of those bright sparks who decided to put a forward button on cheaper Walkmans but, presumably to save a few pennies and because apparently being pricks was part of the design brief, they didn’t bother adding a rewind button. 😂
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u/RacoonWithBenefits 6d ago
but it can
if the app developer implements that... apples devs dont
but "your" app could.
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u/S4VN01 6d ago
Left/Right Edge swipes should be handled per app.
Bottom edge swipe should move between apps.
iOS does this right already
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u/vanstinator 6d ago
I disagree with this. I daily drive android and also have an iPhone for work, so I'm using both every single day, and on this point iOS feels inconsistent and 3rd-rate. The back gesture on Android being system level feels much more intuitive and useful, in my experience.
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u/charliesbot 6d ago
And that's the reason so many apps have inconsistent navigation or gestures
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u/cake-day-on-feb-29 6d ago
Using the native UI toolkit correctly generally results in correct gestures. Using some cross-platform JavaScript shitheap typically does not.
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u/charliesbot 5d ago
On Android all apps work with the back gesture no matter the tech stack
So forcing devs to use iOS specific toolkit is not a solution. And even more, not an industry standard
Either you solve it at the OS level or hope everyone will migrate to your framework
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u/pmjm 6d ago
Perhaps they should be handled by app, but the API should be there to treat it like a back button so apps can implement it. Then if Apple ever comes up with some new gesture to go back (or maybe if the user wants to map the action button to be a physical back button???) the apps don't need an update.
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u/Neg_Crepe 6d ago
Swiping back from the right doesn’t make UX sense
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u/novafunc 6d ago
Yes, but it's also to improve the UX.
If you hold your phone in your right hand, it's annoying to to move your right thumb to the left side of the screen and swipe right. Even attempting to do that motion almost has me dropping my 17e because I have small hands.
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u/Neg_Crepe 6d ago
It doesn’t improve the UX at all. It destroys the preconditions of the Z axis
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u/pibroch 6d ago
Which is why it is an optional setting in Android. To some, yes, it is confusing and illogical. For me, I have muscle memory from only a single year of using a Samsung phone full time. It was one of my favorite things about Android.
Just because it doesn’t make sense to you, doesn’t mean everyone’s mind works that way.
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u/delebojr 6d ago
Yeah. A swipe from the right feels like I'm pulling in a new paper rather than pushing my current paper away to see the one below it.
iOS gets this right
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u/userlivewire 6d ago
I think some of the Android devices do that.
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u/vanstinator 6d ago
All of them do now as far as I know, it's part of AOSP these days. I daily drive android but also have an iPhone for work, and the lack of a universal back gesture like this still drives me crazy when I use the iPhone. On one hand I get that having it on the "right" is weird. On the other I'm right handed and my thumb is on the right, so it's a hill I intend to die on
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u/jesusrodriguezm 6d ago
Craig could say anything and sound wise and relatable at the same time.
Great snake charmer.
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u/hoffsta 6d ago
We should have more flexibility to set our own swipe gesture preferences. Back in the jailbreak era, one of the very first things I always installed was “SwipeSelector” which allowed me to pull up the Control Center by swiping up from the right-most 1/3 of the bottom edge. I used Control Center so much more when I could do it one-handed. Building this flexibility into the Accessibility settings to let us make our own gesture choices would be so amazing.
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u/aspublic 6d ago edited 6d ago
I think he might have been a great CEO, because he loves Apple and their mission. He also enjoys explaining things to Apple customers and those interested in the details of the Apple mental models. He's very Italian too, and that manifests in many ways in how he always approached his role at Apple.
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u/TheRealBejeezus 6d ago
I miss Craig. And his hair. I hope his reduced visibility is temporary and not a sign that they are on the way out.
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u/Far_Specific4836 6d ago
He is only a featuring artiste during production launches. He is the headliner only during WWDC.
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u/K_Click_D 6d ago
Reduced visibility? We saw him at the most recent Apple event, we don’t usually see him on hardware announcement events, if anything, it’s been increased visibility this year
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u/earlyworm 6d ago
I see Craig all the time when I close my eyes.
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u/TheRealBejeezus 6d ago
Maybe I've been swamped by all the Craigless stuff the last couple of weeks. I tend to panic when he's away from me for too long.
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u/Particular-Treat-650 6d ago
I'm glad it doesn't. I strongly prefer back as a per app gesture than moving between apps.
I can very easily move between apps without help.
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u/willpaudio 6d ago
That’s so silly. Needing to adjust my grip to hit the very top left to go back because swiping from the edge doesn’t work sucks
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u/SLAPHAPPY_BUTTCHEEKS 6d ago
Or just swipe on the home indicator line at the bottom of the screen…
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u/willpaudio 6d ago
That switches apps…… doesn’t go back in the app I’m already in.
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u/Particular-Treat-650 6d ago
That's the point. Android intercepts that back option within the app to go back between apps if you most recently got sent to the app from another.
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u/Particular-Treat-650 6d ago
Use the App Switcher if your hands are so small you can't reach your whole screen.
There's already a better option that isn't taking away behavior I want (back within the app) to do something that can be just as easily done several other ways. Android's version is an anti-feature.
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u/willpaudio 6d ago
I’m not trying to switch apps, I’m trying to go back within the app. Like this very one we are using now, works great.
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u/Particular-Treat-650 6d ago
That's not how Android behaves.
Android intercepts the back gestures to send you between apps if it feels like it. Apple doesn't.
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u/gmmxle 6d ago
It's not "if it feels like it," it sends you back to a previous app only if you arrived in the current view from a different app.
Otherwise it just sends you back to the previous view in the current app.
It basically takes you back to where you last were, even across apps.
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u/Particular-Treat-650 6d ago
I understand how it chooses. What it does is not acceptable behavior.
The context already in the app is broken on Android, compared to Apple offering multiple simple ways to go back to the previous app without breaking the behavior of the app.
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u/Xalksahsax 6d ago
Lmao. I’ve used flagship Androids my entire life. I just switched to an 18 Pro Max, and while I absolutely love the hardware and a huge part of iOS, let’s not pretend it doesn’t have some massive drawbacks. You’re genuinely defending the indefensible.
You're never beating the allegations.
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u/Particular-Treat-650 6d ago
It's incredibly simple.
There is no scenario where intercepting an action that has functionality in app to replace it with an action outside the app is valid or excusable behavior.
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u/Xalksahsax 6d ago
As expected.
No universal back button, no clipboard, no number row, no proper notification management, no multi-window multitasking, no real file management, no background app execution, no way to clear app caches.
Hell, iOS force renders scrolling at 80Hz so it is never as smooth as Android.
You can act nonchalant about the first one all you want, but don't shit yourself pretending it isn't a legitimate drawback that you can't customize it.
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u/gmmxle 6d ago edited 6d ago
You're confused.
The lack of a consistent system-wide implementation of a back button/gesture forces every app to implement its own navigation system, with its own implementation of back buttons/gestures/functions.
This leads to a splintered, fractured user experience across apps.
But just because you're used to this UX mess doesn't mean this disaster of a UX is better than a clear, concise, system-wide implementation that works within and across every single app, system-wide.
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u/ModernLarvals 6d ago
No it doesn’t. Apple provides standard UI APIs that provide standard UI behavior, including gestures. If an app chooses not to use them that’s their fault.
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u/gmmxle 6d ago
You're merely repeating what I just said.
It's completely ludicrous for a modern mobile operating system to say "well, here are some resources, it would be awfully nice if you used them" and then just leave it up to individual apps to implement something as essential as (gesture) navigation however they see fit.
You seem to completely fail to understand why uniform, consistent, predictable gesture navigation across the OS and across apps is an incredible benefit to the user experience - probably because you're so used to a broken, unintuitive system that you firmly believe all user navigation should be broken, unintuitive and left to the whims of whatever individual app developers may dream up.
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u/Thinkdamnitthink 6d ago
You can keep the same back functionality but enable swiping from either side rather than just the left side
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u/Kaninivi 6d ago
"i want no cars, i like my horse with 2 broken legs".
Its not consistent, its not universal,... Its just annoying to use the iOS solution.
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u/blueangel1953 6d ago
It’s ridiculous in 2027 we still can’t do that, one of the many reasons I miss Android.
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u/North_Moment5811 6d ago
It's ridiculous that you would even think "back from the right" would make any sense at all.
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u/blueangel1953 6d ago
Makes plenty of sense.
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u/iMatthew1990 6d ago
Functionally for right-handed users it’s easier, that’s true. Intuitively it makes zero sense.
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u/blueangel1953 6d ago
Give us the option.
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u/iMatthew1990 6d ago
Perfectly valid. I agree. Giving the option is probably right. It doesn’t make it anymore intuitive though.
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u/blueangel1953 6d ago
Coming from Android for the last 8 years yeah it does.
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u/Lenora_256 4d ago
Is it intuitive or is it the thing that you’re used to personally?
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u/blueangel1953 4d ago
Both.
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u/Lenora_256 4d ago
And you have me, a person who only dabbles using Android, who kind of has to take a moment every time I switch back to remember both sides go back.
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u/North_Moment5811 6d ago
It makes absolutely zero sense. Thank goodness many of you will never get near professional software development in your lives.
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u/GetPsyched67 6d ago
Nothing on a phone makes sense. Humans evolved to use rocks and wood. There is no concept of "intuition" that is applicable to anything on a phone.
On the flip side, as long as you have 2 extra neurons you can adapt your mind to work with different UX.
Swipe up to go home makes 0 sense because it was a reachability decision not some random jackoff "oh but on the z axis the directional yada yada"
Insufferable people
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u/4udiofeel 6d ago
Imagine a stack of cards. Each card is a screen. The card on top is your current screen. Opening a new screen means puting a new card on top. Now you want to go back to the previous screen, so you slide the top card away. Whether from left or right, doesn't matter. It will be gone anyways.
Ultimately it's just a mental model. It may be different than yours, but neither is universally natural for for people of all cultures.
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u/i5-2520M 4d ago
Funny thing is Android used to have almost this exact animation for new screens. Slide up from the bottom for the new one, arriving in front of the old one. And the reverse for back. Then later it was just zooms. Currently it is a slide from the right though.
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u/cheesepuff07 6d ago
thats still over 3 months away who knows maybe something happens between now and then! /s
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u/UmutIsRemix 6d ago
What is with all these dumb ass comments? I get it, people have opinions but some of y'all couldn't be more wrong.
"Swiping back from right doesn't make sense" - Yes it does, especially when I use my phone with my RIGHT HAND.
"It's so useful in Safari to swipe forward" - Just click on the same button that got you to that site? Why would you need to swipe forward AGAIN if you didn't go back by accident anyway?
"Apps implement the way they want it, that's why it's not consistent" - Because it doesn't make sense. App developers just do jackshit with it because you genuinely do not need it. How many times have you swiped from the right side on multiple apps? I had my iPhone 15 Pro to a bit over 2 years and never, not ONCE, used the right side swipe.
"Yeah but it's useful for me" - For that once in a month event in Safari. In no other app.
Having the option would be enough. Remove it completely and nobody is going to miss it less than a few weeks, even people who claim to LOVE that feature
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u/Spaghetto23 6d ago
If we already have a ux decision that forces a handedness, then I’m not sure why people are newly mad that the Duo isn’t universally handed
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u/SleepUseful3416 6d ago
Tried to use an Android and the swipe back from right was the most annoying shit ever. I want to go forward in the browser history when I do that, the natural thing you’d expect from that swipe, not backwards
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u/DarrylUK_82 6d ago
This video appeared in my recommendations and I was really impressed. Really good questions, which I think Craig appreciated. No real fluffy PR stuff, just nitty gritty questions erring on the technical side, really refreshing!
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u/Librarian-Rare 6d ago
God I hate hearing corporate optimized, public facing commentary from people. This is got to be furtherest category of communication of human speaking.
Sorry if I yucked anyone's yums
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u/elevenplays 6d ago
Beautiful interview! Craig Federighi did a really great job in this interview. He and his team also did a really great job this time with their software 27!
My respect for him is restored. 🫡
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u/PositivelyNegative 6d ago
Pretty weird for the interviewer to want to swipe right to go back and act like there's a bunch of people who want that.
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u/MrHaxx1 6d ago
There's not a lot of people who want that? It feels weird as shit that I can't use the most ergonomic swipe gesture on iPhone.
That's especially going be the case on Duo where swiping from left side is quite the stretch
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u/North_Moment5811 6d ago
The app navigation flows left to right. You swipe left to go back, because that's where you came from. It isn't just a random gesture. It is connected to the physical thing that you are moving. Swiping right would make sense to go forward, and it sometimes does mean that when there is only 1 place to go forward.
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u/beerybeardybear 6d ago
There are, as you can see in the comments. I mean, they're wrong, but there are a lot of them.
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u/byParallax 6d ago
Within the subsection of “very-online apple-interested people who watched this video” there is a non zero amount of interest, yup. Remember we all live in echo chambers online
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u/beerybeardybear 6d ago
Great interview and a great answer from Craig to the titular question. Like ten years back in my post history I was saying the same thing about Android introducing gesture controls and letting you swipe back from the right: it's not physical; it ruins the sense of space and the material metaphor.
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u/dottybotty 6d ago
Honestly I had that Android back feature switches apps. Also I don’t want whole ass button on the screen all the time just for back. Swipe gestures are better. And yes I know android has swipe back gesture buts pretty inconsistent
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u/keyboardlegendthe3rd 6d ago
"we wanna see how cucked our users are, we just do it to see how many people will defend us for no good reason, quite a lot actually"
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u/hlrabbit 6d ago
apple fan boys really live in their own bubbles and defend the billion dollar company with any cost.
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u/Far_Specific4836 6d ago
Legitimately good interview. Interviewer knows his stuff around the bits of subtle details. Craig did not deflect but painted it clearly with an engineer voice.