iOS 11.3 - Delete Message Confirmation

But the reality is that they never could be "accidentally" deleted. It was already a 2-step process, and if someone did delete them they took 2, distinct steps. There was no way to accidentally hit a message and delete it. That would be bad UI design. That is not what existed before.

Yes, in your test sample of 1 they could not be accidentally deleted. In the real world that Apple deals with and tests with they could be easily accidentally deleted since when you swipe left your finger is poised right over the delete button. Hence the large volume of people posting here about accidentally deleting them. I've done it because I'm not perfect like you.

ericole wrote:

But the reality is that they never could be "accidentally" deleted. It was already a 2-step process, and if someone did delete them they took 2, distinct steps. There was no way to accidentally hit a message and delete it. That would be bad UI design. That is not what existed before.

We absolutely understand that you believe this to be bad UI. Many of us disagree with you. But it doesn't matter. Only one opinion counts in the end.

Here’s the reality...

Regardless of how right, wrong, insightful, effective your points are, this is not a place for them.

We can’t debate Apples decision to implement what they choose to implement.

Your only channel for feedback is the one provided numerous times here.

Your entries are futile.

Please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please, please, please, please, fix this now!

No, it doesn't at all if your finger is just above the touch screen. And we have evidence that lots of people do it. I did it once while a passenger in a car. The problem you are having is instead of using a population sampling with a cross section of people you are using yourself as the sole measuring point and you have made it clear that you are perfect. But since many more people who are not perfect in every way use the iPhone than you Apple needs to consider its vast majority of users.

ericole wrote:

I find it amazing that someone can perform a 2-step operation and "accidentally" delete a message. That takes some real skill there.

The fact that you find it amazing doesn't mean that other people don't have the problem. What I find amazing is that some people can't understand that their own needs, desires and beliefs are not universal.

Lawrence Finch wrote:

And it is a HUGE benefit to most users. Just a few hours ago I nearly deleted a text that contained a tracking number that I need. This new feature saved me.

No, Lawrence it is not a HUGE benefit to most users. The overwhelming number in this thread alone do not like it. There are only about 5 or 6 of you that keep saying it is the best thing to happen to Messages. Just this thread alone shows that more people don't like this change than do like it.

Again I say, the former process was a 2-step delete. To say someone "accidentally" deleted something is not really accurate if they had to take 2 conscious steps to do it. They may have mistakenly deleted something, but that's not the same thing as an accident. The accident would be caused by bad UI design that allowed it to happen when the user didn't want it to happen. These messages people are deleting didn't happen because of the UI, but because of the user.

The things people are complaining about now IS the UI and the extra step required to do something that used to be simple. In this case, the user can't do anything about it, and that is the frustration. Apparently the masses are being punished with extra steps because of a minority that goes around deleting (the wrong) messages and then wants a way to get them back.

ericole wrote:

Lawrence Finch wrote:

And it is a HUGE benefit to most users. Just a few hours ago I nearly deleted a text that contained a tracking number that I need. This new feature saved me.

No, Lawrence it is not a HUGE benefit to most users. The overwhelming number in this thread alone do not like it. There are only about 5 or 6 of you that keep saying it is the best thing to happen to Messages. Just this thread alone shows that more people don't like this change than do like it.

The number of people posting in this thread is very, very small. But, none of this matters. Apple has made a decision. If you don't like it, tell them.

How many people in this thread are saying they don't like it? 50? 75? Are we into the multimillions yet?

I can tell you there are far, far more posts here with people accidentally deleting texts than there are people here complaining about it. And are you saying that when the car I was riding in hit a bump and my finger touched the screen that was not an accident?

Just so everyone that comes here is clear, there are mainly six people on this thread that think this change is good (gail from Maine, Lawrence Finch, LACAllen, rbrylawski, IdrisSeabright, and Philly_Phan 😕 - I may have misspelled some of them). For those six people who apparently know a lot of people who consciously followed the previous 2-step process and deleted messages, or did it themselves (and some have admitted), then said it was an accident, this is a great thing for them. I'm not really sure how though, because as I pointed out earlier, the visual interface of this new third step doesn't show you what you are deleting and give you a chance to double check, unless you hit "cancel" and start all over.

Most everyone else that finds this threat hates the change and merely wants one thing - for Apple to provide an option to turn it off so it will work the way it did before. 😉

The arguments the six have given for why this is the greatest thing are all over the place, while the arguments for why it is not and Apple should at least give us an option are simple - it wastes our time and breaks a LOT of muscle memory doing something completely unnecessary (going from a 2-step process to a 3-step process just to delete a message).

So just a word of warning, if you come here because you googled looking for a way to stop this behavior, like most of the rest of us probably did, you will learn you can't change it. Also, one of those six will probably tell you it's a great feature and it works just like Apple planned it - so deal with it and you are a crazy person to voice your opinion here or to complain. 😐 You should also know how to provide Apple feedback on this, and that link has been provided many times in this thread. So yes, send that feedback to Apple to please provide an option to turn that extra step off.

My statement isn't based on a need, desire, or belief. It is a simple fact that you had to first swipe left, then lift your finger and tap delete. That's a two step process. At least on my iPhone SE it was. Now it is a 3-step process.

ericole wrote:

Just so everyone that comes here is clear, there are mainly six people on this thread that think this change is good (gail from Maine, Lawrence Finch, LACAllen, rbrylawski, IdrisSeabright, and Philly_Phan 😕 - I may have misspelled some of them). For those six people who apparently know a lot of people who consciously followed the previous 2-step process and deleted messages, or did it themselves (and some have admitted), then said it was an accident, this is a great thing for them. I'm not really sure how though, because as I pointed out earlier, the visual interface of this new third step doesn't show you what you are deleting and give you a chance to double check, unless you hit "cancel" and start all over.

I worked, for twenty years, in front line customer support for a major U.S. cellular carrier. Yes, I have a very good sense of how many people delete things by accident. And how much it upset them. Until you have had someone through a Samsung Note at your head because you couldn't get their deleted texts back, you don't get to say that almost no one cares.

Most everyone else that finds this threat hates the change and merely wants one thing - for Apple to provide an option to turn it off so it will work the way it did before. 😉

I notice you didn't bother to count how many people posted in this thread who didn't like the feature. Even if the number is ten times, even 100 times the number in this thread who think it's a good feature, that number will still be very, very small compared to the number of iPhone users. Keep in mind also, that people are far more likely to come to a forum like this to complain than they are to drop by and post, "Hey, love the new feature, Apple! Keep up the good work." And then, there are the even greater number of people who just don't care one way or another. So, what we have is a very small number of people who don't like the new feature who keep arguing that they're ideas are better than anyone else's it in a place that Apple isn't reading.

ericole wrote:

My statement isn't based on a need, desire, or belief. It is a simple fact that you had to first swipe left, then lift your finger and tap delete. That's a two step process. At least on my iPhone SE it was. Now it is a 3-step process.

It's based on your belief that the way you want the iPhone to be designed is the only right way. I agree that the current set up is more steps. And I think that's a good thing.

My touch screen works fine but as you have well described when I slide over to reveal the delete section my finger is extremely near the screen. If you hit a bump it can cause the finder to touch the screen just like it can cause a coffee spill, etc. Apparently you have never experienced this.