American Flag keyboard icon removed.

The flags are gone for all keyboard countries with the latest MacOS 12.4 update. Instead we have this very ugly lettered ICON that for many countries is hard to read and distinguish , especially if you use several keywords ( French, English, italian, Portuguese, etc ... ). Apple, this is not a political statement. You need to restore them ( all ) . Countries are recognized by their flags, allover the world. Do the right thing.

oldmackbook wrote:

After installing the latest Monterey version 12.4 update, the keyboard icon for the American Flag has been changed to a dark grey box with US in the box. Please allow the original American Flag icon to be placed in the icon as a Choice for those that prefer the American Flag icon.

Thank You.

you can submit your Apple Feedback Product Feedback - Apple

you are posting in the user to user forum

or https://getsupport.apple.com/

MarioMorin wrote:

You need to restore them ( all ) . Countries are recognized by their flags, allover the world.

To have Apple see your comments, you should repeat them at

http://www.apple.com/feedback

(I would emphasize the legibility issues. Countries are certainly recognized by flags, but languages aren't owned by countries, and it's not hard to see why many users would not always want to see a particular flag when typing a particular language.)

We are all understand that people are curious about polite differentiation, but what about user experience?

I'm suggesting to make it optional and possibly custom icons:

Get back flags (or custom icons) for inpu… - Apple Community

stan_fisher wrote:

Same trouble. I switch between languages very often and it's too hard to figure out which language is on. It makes me look up every time

There are some apps to fix this for you if you want.

New Icons for Input Sources/Keyboard Layo… - Apple Community

CalvinLee8 wrote:

I would also like a change back,

Let Apple know via

Product Feedback - Apple

Links to apps that give you flags back are at

New Icons for Input Sources/Keyboard Layo… - Apple Community

wonderer2 wrote: I don't quite like the current way, it's very unergonomic...

These are user to user help forums, so to make sure Apple sees your comments, best to repeat them via

http://www.apple.com/feedback

Include a link to this discussion so they can see your graphics.

I don't quite like the current way, it's very unergonomic. "US + US" means (or at least supposed to mean) "US English", but looking at the "US" icon alone and the icon + title combo (which is "US + US") doesn't make this clear. Perhaps there needs to be some indication that it is "US and English" in both icon and title. Ditto for "GB + British". I'd say language indication should be "the main part" of the icon and the country flag the secondary to differentiate between, say, US English and UK English.

Attaching a mockup image how this can be improved. In essence that would be a mixture of old and new ways. The icon can be bigger if needed (e.g. same height, twice as wide).

Color is very important aspect here, e.g. when switching keyboards quickly you can look at the text you are entering and just notice a color change by your side vision to know you are using correct keyboard without actually looking in there (*). Without color this is impossible, you really have to move your focus of attention away from text, onto the menubar, in there you have to figure out where exactly is the keyboard icon (because there are quite a few icons and they are all similar) carefully change between some cryptic "XY" and "YZ" and after that return back to text. Repeat again next time you need to switch the keyboard. Quite a torture and a distraction.

(*) By this logic black background is perhaps a bad idea either, each language should have a color (even if randomly selected) to easily (i.e. by the side vision only) differentiate between, say, "CA. French" and "CA. English" keyboards.

oldmackbook wrote:

Please allow the original American Flag icon to be placed in the icon as a Choice for those that prefer the American Flag icon.

While waiting for action from Apple, you can install a custom layout with that icon yourself with the Ukelele app.

oldmackbook wrote:

Thanks Tom, but Ill wait for an Apple Update for the fix.

Personally I doubt there will be one, they have been moving away from flags for years, and Russia's war on Ukraine gave them another reason to go all the way.

MarioMorin wrote:

Countries are recognized by their flags, allover the world. Do the right thing.

Of the three languages I know (and I use that term rather loosely in two cases), I recognize the flag of one, the U.S. I have only a vague idea of what the Russian flag looks like and I was taught Spanish by a Bolivian. So, while flags may work for you, they many not, if fact, work for everyone.

artalwil wrote:

I wholeheartedly want to join you in this request!

Besides, it is simply unpatriotic to remove the flag option from the doc!

Alex

I think we have enough patriotism to go around to be honest, even if we are talking about the menubar not the doc.

Apple has been systematically reinventing all the Skeuomorphism which was once the 'golden child..."

going back to 2013 —Jony Ive Explains Why He Decided To Gut Skeuomorphism From iOS 7

After installing the latest Monterey version 12.4 update, the keyboard icon for the American Flag has been changed to a dark grey box with US in the box. Please allow the original American Flag icon to be placed in the icon as a Choice for those that prefer the American Flag icon.

THANK YOU ......

That was very helpful but I can't remove the previous English layout if I add a new one with the flag. Could you please tell me how the bundle has to be created or provide me with the link to the correct English layout with the flag icon.

I waste time and my focus scrolling one extra language. I assume that there is can be a solution because I can remove the English layout without flag as I the Remove button becomes active when add another layout from the English group of layouts. So if the imported layout had the same properties as the default one then the default layout could be removed. But these are just my assumptions, unfortunately you can be right.