Quick Today Widget Access in iOS 9?

In iOS 8, Apple introduced widgets in the Today menu of the notification shade, and this was met with both criticism and delight on the part of users. On the one hand, iOS finally had third party widget support. On the other hand, they aren’t easy to get to.

As such, I wonder if Apple will implement some sort of quick gesture to pull down the notification center into the “Today” screen for widget access in iOS 9 (or whatever it ends up being called). Perhaps they could use the two finger swipe down gesture from Android that is used to access the Android quick toggles, since that is not a mapped gesture in iOS yet.

Of course, we must consider that Apple has so far focused on one-handed used in iOS, and a two finger pull down requires two hands no matter how hard you try. Perhaps there is another gesture that they could use, then. Or, an alternative would be that this is only a feature on 5.5" screen devices and above (iPhone 6 Plus, 6 Plus S, iPad). Those devices require two hands to operate anyway, so this wouldn’t be a major concession.

This is a feature that I have sorely missed, and is something that I think holds back the utility of the widgets in iOS. Most of the time I want to have notifications on pull down, meaning that an extra swipe is required to see widgets.

One reason why Apple may consider doing this is that the next generation iPhones (and the current generation iPad Air) are rumored to include 2 GB of RAM. This should theoretically allow Apple to keep the widgets updated better, making them more useful, and making the experience of a quick pulldown to widgets gesture work well and smooth.

Let me know what you think about the subject via comments. If you liked this post, consider giving it a “recommend” and share so that others can see it.