Latest update to iOS 17 put a big gray poster background with white font on each of my contacts. Unless they used a custom photo, it is nearly impossible to read.
For clarification, I’m an older adult and my eyes aren’t what they used to be so most of my settings are set to a black background with a gray font.
Has anyone figured out how to change that gray poster box without having to do it on each contact one at a time?
I called Apple support and you can change the background color by hitting edit one the contact then the edit picture and then chose color or for some of them I didn’t have that option so had to hit monogram ( put the first letter in the first circle) then pick the color you want. Each one has to be done individually but for my 95 year old mother I had to do it. Fortunately her iPad and phone are connected so at least I only had to do it on the phone.
I feel exactly the same because I have AMD (macular degeneration). I have tried the suggestion about changing the background but the letter just takes on some of the background colour & that’s worse. Pale text is a trendy outrage & shows no awareness of those with vision impairment.
Like everyone else I find this apple update bordering on insane. Do I want a grey background on my contacts ? No I don’t. I am 75 and struggling to read the screen. What is the point of this? Apple please answer this question. Just revert to the screen we had previously. In the words of many others “If it’s not broke don’t fix it”.
vlotfi wrote:
Me too. It is a horrible color. What is wrong with Apple these days! Don't they pretest such changes before pushing them out.
Apple does in-house alpha testing, developer beta testing and public beta testing. Just because you don't like a featured doesn't mean it wasn't carefully considered. And other people may like it. Other people may have submitted lots of feedback requesting something like it.
You can submit your feedback to Apple here:
You can also participate in the public beta releases.
Dostoyevsky2001 wrote:
The design is an absolute mess. No-one uses photos for contacts (except maybe for your wife/gf/bf etc.)
The number, which is the key reason for going into contacts, I now need to scroll down on my phone because 3/4 of the screen is taking up by this giant useless photo thing at the top. Crazy design idea. And not conducive to quick use of contacts as now have to scroll down (just checked my other older iPhone, and the number was instantly available). How can you re-design something, presumably test it, and actually make the functionality 100% worse. Very very odd
Tell Apple:
dezinrtom wrote:
I wonder how long it will take for Apple to figure out and fix this . If you need better designers, please contact me.
Apple does not read here for feedback or suggestions. You can, however, let them know your thoughts here:
If you want to get a job with Apple, start here:
Me too, and hopefully they’ll do an update that fixes this and allows people to choose to put the gray if they want it. Us older Folk needs the darker easily readable screens, and we’re not hanging out on them 24 hours a day. But when we need them we need them and we can’t read them if they’re gray!
I did tell Apple too, for what it's worth (probably nothing). I find it odd that you prefer a design which requires an extra step (scroll down) to access the telephone number, which is the primary purpose of Contacts. If photos are the primary purpose of the Contacts app, then forgive me, I've been using the apps the wrong way around, and maybe I need to start looking in Photos for telephone numbers?? Illogical at best. Terrible design at worst.
I shared this on Facebook and also realized that I could not bulk changed them either. Also when the phone rings the gray background is present and buttons were moved to the bottom. Two rows, three columns that confused me. I’m still confused when people call or I have to call.
To your point, in asking the customers, there have been studies showing that customer centric companies are more successful than those who aren’t.
Unfortunately, the only other option is android which is far worse than apple and they know this. So they do whatever is it they please without any regard to the customer.
Brandnewuserid wrote:
How soon will Apple fully respond with actual programming to this negative feedback regarding IOS 17 Contacts graphics and features? Days? Weeks? Months?
No one here in this user-to-user forum would know the answer to that.
Is there a genuine possibility of very quickly and temporarily reverting iPhone programming to the previous Contacts programming, roughly matching IOS 16 features, and then after that slowly and carefully releasing any further changes to contacts?
If you're asking if you can downgrade to iOS 16, no, you can't. If you're asking if Apple could reverse the changes, I'm sure they could if they decided they wanted to. But, again, no one here would know anything about that.
It's not just older people complaining.
I'm an older person and I have no problem with it. So, not all older people are complaining.
Meanwhile, have you submitted feedback to Apple?
TMoffatt23 wrote:
The initial view of CONTACTS in IOS should be as minimalist as GOOGLE’s home SEARCH page. As untroubled with clutter as possible, and as laser-focused on USE as possible.
You can certainly let Apple know what you would like.
But "should" really doesn't enter into it. This is a matter of taste and preference.
y210 wrote:
The main theme and request is don’t change the aesthetics. Focus on functionality. How hard is that? Evidently too hard for some young fellows or ladder climbing folks who want to impress their bosses with some off the wall coding.
Apple does not read here in this user-to-user forum for feedback or suggestions. You can, however, let them know your thoughts here:
lacomi wrote:
If one is sufficiently offended, can't one restore from a recent iOS 16 backup? I'm considering doing just that.
No. Downgrading has never been supported. iOS is not part of the back up.
DaWilens wrote:
Agree. This update doesn't work for me. I liked the old contacts just the way they were. Give us the option to use the full screen to show the contact details (for those of us that like photos / emoji, etc) or just the name as it always was and with a lot less space being allocated to something people may not want.
Apple does not read here in this user-to-user forum for feedback or suggestions. You can, however, let them know your thoughts here:
Not true. I showed above I have done it to all my contacts but VERY time consumming. Ones without pictures I use a simple graphic I made. And if I can do it, Apple can change it easily. Poor chices Cupertino!
NB4022 wrote:
Apple needs to fix the screwup they made with 17 it’s ruined everybody’s contacts
and you cannot see them in the evening after daylight is gone etc.
It's ill-advised to assume that everyone has the same needs and preferences that you do and to presume to speak for everyone. My contacts are not "ruined" and I have no trouble reading them.
Just spent an hour and a half at the Apple Store for them to tell me they have no contact with Apple on such issues and they cannot fix it. This is ridiculous and the ??? Engineers on updates need to be fired or fix this in the next 24 hours
You can tell Apple how you feel here:
But nothing is going to change in 24 hours and no one is going to be fired. Take a breath.
iOS 17 Default Contact Screen Difficult to Read
