Move iPhone search bar to top after iOS 26 update

Pacmanrules wrote:

I run 3 software businesses and if I were to make a change like moving search bar, I would certainly make it an option to change it back even if we were passionate it should move. but not to give the option to move it back to the top is mind blowing. When you have a huge community of pre-existing users using your software and you decide to improve it, you have to make things optional even if you decide that this is the way you wanted it to be for all your new users. Please can you follow this suit for all other upgrades? This ensures you have very Happy users who will keep using Software and not move to other platforms

You must be under the impression you are writing anyone at Apple, by posting here? You're not. This is a user to user only forum, which Apple neither participates nor reads for user feedback.

If you want to share your thoughts with Apple, use this link --> Feedback - iPhone - Apple

Pacmanrules wrote:

I run 3 software businesses and if I were to make a change like moving search bar, I would certainly make it an option to change it back even if we were passionate it should move. but not to give the option to move it back to the top is mind blowing. When you have a huge community of pre-existing users using your software and you decide to improve it, you have to make things optional even if you decide that this is the way you wanted it to be for all your new users. Please can you follow this suit for all other upgrades? This ensures you have very Happy users who will keep using Software and not move to other platforms

Does the customer base of all three of your companies combined come anywhere close to Apple's? How about your annual revenue? Have you considered the possibility that Apple knows what they're doing? That they have vast amounts of consumer usage data? That they have considered how many people might be unhappy and how many people won't be?

Readers of this thread may have noticed that the same question is asked over and over, and the same answers are posted over and over, even though the answer would be clear to anyone who read the thread they posted to before adding their comment. Unfortunately, from long experience it is clear that most new posts are from users who did NOT read the thread before posting, so the choice is to tell these new posters to read the thread, or to just answer again and again.

Of course, people who DO read the thread before posting usually don’t post, unless it is to add insight.

I'm new to this forum (based on my points alone), but not to apple products. I am unsure who you are except you participate a lot and have lots of points and a high level (or highest). I'm guessing you have some connection to apple but if not could you explain your role? I am being objective as I build software for both mobile devices and desktops. I am not just complaining because I don't like it, which I don't, I am complaining because I am a user, regardless if I am 1 of 30,000,000,000 users, and for Steve jobs, this was important. I understand that software must evolve but where there are borderline cases and the functionality has been used for a long period of time, it should be implemented as an option, and by default could be automatically changed for all users but should have the capability of switching boarder line functionality back to how it used to work. When you have a user interface that simply works, don't change it just because the upgrade department has to prove their existence being pushed by the marketing department. The size of my business is irrelevant, I'm not disputing that Apple is not successful as they are clearly a global player. With new functionality you can play around with it without too much harm but if it core UI, you should make it optional, full-stop. In this case its not just about apple moving its location, its more than that. If you notice carefully there is a subtle but annoying difference apart from location. The old location was at the top, and the search bar was not ON-TOP of other text, now its at the bottom , its ON-TOP of text (in MAIL app), and my eye reads whats left, right, and behind it. It puts me off when I am typing. The previous search bar had no clutter behind it. This is my take it on, regardless if i run an inferior shop. If any apple people read this please make those type of borderline important GUI changes optional. I have already posted this to apple via the link you highlighted.

Helpful? When scrolling for something, the item will finally appear just above the search bar. When I tap the item it keeps registering a tap to the search bar. I find it irritating like many of the cosmetic changes that came with iOS 26 that we have no choice but accept.

Like the juvenile motions in messages and animated screen openings.

Buttertart wrote:

Helpful? When scrolling for something, the item will finally appear just above the search bar. When I tap the item it keeps registering a tap to the search bar. I find it irritating like many of the cosmetic changes that came with iOS 26 that we have no choice but accept.

Like the juvenile motions in messages and animated screen openings.

You know you can turn off the animations, right? Settings > Accessibility > Motion > Reduce Motion

I agree with this major point. It is not a matter of moving your finger to the bottom of the screen. It is a matter of finding it to begin with. As an older person who wears bifocals it is very difficult to find the search bar that is way below our vision level. also since it is on top of words from Apps instead of being in a clear space, it is very confusing. When you pick up your phone you are automatically looking toward the top of the phone. Wearing bifocals and having to move your head to a different position in order to just find the search bar is frustrating..

Fibrplnr wrote:

I agree with this major point. It is not a matter of moving your finger to the bottom of the screen. It is a matter of finding it to begin with. As an older person who wears bifocals it is very difficult to find the search bar that is way below our vision level. also since it is on top of words from Apps instead of being in a clear space, it is very confusing. When you pick up your phone you are automatically looking toward the top of the phone. Wearing bifocals and having to move your head to a different position in order to just find the search bar is frustrating..

I'm in my 70s, astigmatic and nearsighted. I wear glasses, which are bifocal (progressive) and have absolutely no issue seeing the search bar. If you're having issues seeing it with your current prescription, perhaps you need to visit your ophthalmologist.

its very simple: you scroll from the bottom up. Having the bar at the bottom is too close to the start of a scroll. The natural progression and clear separation of the two highly used tasks is to have the bar at the top.

Fibrplnr wrote:

When you pick up your phone you are automatically looking toward the top of the phone.

That's just habit. You will eventually automatically look to the bottom.

Wearing bifocals and having to move your head to a different position in order to just find the search bar is frustrating..

I think you may need to have your prescription checked. The focal distance (unless you're holding your phone at a very unusual angle) is almost identical.

Note that progressive lenses may cause issues. They are also implicated in falls. I've stopped wearing them for this reason.

what you are asking for user to do is to create habit for MULITPLE different platforms.

For those who has time to retrain every single, that might not be a thing.

For those who constantly needs to search/type something between all platforms, it gets very inconvenient.

TimmyPig wrote:

what you are asking for user to do is to create habit for MULITPLE different platforms.

Human beings are, perhaps surprisingly, capable of multiple habits. I drive both manual and automatic transmission cars. Different muscle memory. I play both the piano and the violin. Different habits. I use Mac and Windows computers. Different habits.

For those who has time to retrain every single, that might not be a thing.

You don't have to retrain every time you switch from an iPhone to a Mac. You already do lots of things differently on both platforms. For example, most people use an onscreen keyboard when using an iPhone. But, they successfully switch between that and a hardware keyboard without having to relearn how to type on each device every time.

You only have to retrain once - on the iPhone.

For those who constantly needs to search/type something between all platforms, it gets very inconvenient.

As I've said, you'll get used to it.

One thing I have learned through hard personal experience is that it's much harder to learn new things if you're angry about it. Take a breath, relax. This is one of the thousands of new things you'll need to learn. But I believe you can do it.

You clearly do not have arthritis! On the bottom is much harder because you have to bend the fingers and thumbs. Anyway, what does that matter? Why not provide some flexibility for users to do what is comfortable or preferable for them?

For starters, the search bar is almost transparent on most of the apps and functions. This greatly affects someone with vision impairment.

Now to address the finger issue, my thumbs are hovering at the bottom a

pf my phone. Every time I personally go for the search bar I’m expecting it at the top because that’s where it’s been for YEARS! Now it’s transparent, blends in and oh UNDER MY THUMBS so I don’t see it until I get aggravated and flip my thumbs up

in the “raised armed”equivalent.

Just a short comment to what mlasaga wrote:

Your statement is not warmhearted. Please think about people like me autistic with ADHD. I have severe dificulties with distractions and environment changes.

So why is it not possible to make the searchfield adjust- and moveable.

From a development perspective it is indeed possible. An the effort is a a company with maybe two or three hundret people involved in creating such a solution. In real live we have millions of users with differen disabilities who will benefit from the work of a few hundret. I think this is a way to think about that's wort it. Wit thith attitude, we make the world a better place for all.

Warm regards