iOS 7 for iPhone, iPad and the iPod Touch was demoed at Apple's annual Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) yesterday. Although many have not taken too fondly to its overall design, it did bring some much-needed features that were sorely missing from previous versions of the mobile operating system. But it doesn't have everything we had hoped for. Here are a few things Apple probably chose to park for the future. 

Share Sheet access to 3rd party apps
One of the biggest requests from users all across the world (myself included), has not been heeded to in iOS 7. Share sheets in iOS 7 still consist of default apps such as Facebook, Twitter, Email, and Messages. So, say I'm in Safari and I want to add a page to a 'Read-it-later' app such as Pocket, there's no direct way to do that. Or if I want to share a pin in Google Maps to a user on WhatsApp, it still cannot be done in two simple taps.

No Gestures to Dismiss Items in Notification Center
One of the pain points with Notification Center has been the teeny-tiny 'x' button used to dismiss an item that many people find too small to press. Although Notification Center did get an overhaul in iOS 7, the button still remains. Dismissing notifications in Android 4.0 is as simple as swiping them. And it's not like Apple did not introduce swiping gestures in iOS 7 to dismiss stuff — you can swipe up apps to close them in the multitasking menu, and even swipe sideways to close tabs in Safari. But it is unfortunate that the archaic 'x' button method still exists for the Notification Center in iOS 7.

No Quick-Reply Bubble Notifications for Messages
This has been another hugely requested feature. At the moment if somebody sends you a message in iOS, a small portion of the screen on top displays it, and disappears in a few seconds. Now to reply, you have to tap that message bubble, after which you're taken to the app where you can type your reply. 

Now imagine having to constantly switch to the messaging app to type a tiny reply when you're doing something else on the device. A 'Quick-reply' bubble would have been much appreciated, where you just type right there, without having to leave the app you are on. The funny thing is OS X Mavericks for Macs that was also showcased yesterday has this exact same feature implemented.

No Default App Choices
It is quite improbable that this feature would get Apple's seal of approval, but when you have such fantastic 3rd party apps available, you can't help but wish for it. For example, Mailbox is a fantastic email app for the iPhone or Google Maps is way more reliable than Apple's own mapping app. But if I want to send an attachment from within any app, Apple's Mail client is the only thing that will open. There's no way to choose a 3rd party app as the default one, even now.

Still no Files.app
Imagine this — you receive an email to which you have to reply with an attachment of say, a spreadsheet file saved in your phone. Guess what, there's no way you can attach anything other than a photo or video to that reply. You'll have to go to the app that stores the spreadsheet, hit the 'Share' button and choose 'Email as attachment'. This creates a new email in the mail client. 

This has been a problem with iOS since the beginning. I'm not saying it's an easy one to fix; iOS apps encapsulate files within themselves, that's why there's no one single place that houses all your files (think Windows Explorer or File Manager in Android). But a drawback is a drawback, no matter what the reason. Thus iOS users will still want this feature, even 10 years later. 

Final words
Even though I'm upset that the above features were not part of iOS 7, I am glad to see how the 7th generation of Apple's mobile OS has opened up functionally. I take this as a sign to a more 'open' Apple and hope that iOS 8 next year will find a place for these requests. 

(Rohan Naravane manages the content for PriceBaba.com. When he’s not writing about technology, he likes to talk about it and will ramble on if he finds you remotely technological. His other recent endeavours include getting back in shape, and marathoning TV shows and movies.)

Tags : Mobile Phones, Apple, iOS