I will start by saying the ability to sync all custom folders and subfolders from Apple Mail on a desktop or laptop to an iPhone.
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When I move a photo to an album, I would like to be able to delete that photo from the Photo Library. (I know. I know. It isnāt really in the album.) But thatāsā where I want it!
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I have noticed too that the Photos app can become a bit confusing with regards to where things are actually being stored. This is even more true when you are using iCloud to sync to an iOS device. Sometimes I will think that Iāve deleted something from my iPhone in order to free up more space, and yet there it still is, probably because it is in iCloud.
Donāt often āme tooā a comment, but I would absolutely love this too.
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Many folks have a mistaken idea about how photos are stored. Unlike files, there is NO hierarchical organization of photos. A photo album is merely an index pointing at several photos in the library. One photo can be in many albums. So, any album requires a trivial amount of storage, only enough to store the list.
It would be nice on IOS if the info panel would display the albums that the photo is in and that one of the pre-defined collections would be the set of photos not in any album.
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Encrypted local backups to a trusted computer without having to enter the PIN every time. Like in every iOS before iOS 16.
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Michael, this page might be of interest to you:
https://bombich.com/kb/ccc6/frequently-asked-questions-about-encrypting-backup-volume#
No, heās talking about backing up an iOS device to a local Mac. Your link has nothing to do with that.
The removal of about half of them.
OK, the ability to remove about half of them. Goes for macOS too.
To me, they are more clutter than āoperating systems.ā
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Itās not a feature. Itās not a bug. Itās a huge UI failure, 5 years old.
Apple, please remove that annoying āSleep | Wake Upā section from the top of the Alarms sheet. If I donāt want it and donāt need it, it shouldnāt eat up 1/4 of my Alarms list.
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I literally have a list of almost 100 ongoing issues with iOS.
If I had to pick one it would be a simple toggle to prevent auto/pre-loading of ANY media (links, audio, video) before tapped, just like Mail can. This means in Messages or anywhere else. This alone could save us from numerous security problems past-present-future and could make older phones and iOS safer instead of automatic doorstops due to the unfixed vulnerabilities.
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While it is an extreme example of what you propose (and I agree what you propose would be useful), for the purpose of allowing an older phone with an unpatched OS not to be vulnerable, there is lockdown mode right now. Itās extreme, yes, but going forward it would allow such protection from message preview link fetching, plus protect against WebKit vulnerabilities, while still allowing almost every other use of a smartphone.
How about Settings go back to where I last had it instead of repeatedly punting me back to the updates page to show me the update Iām not interesting in presently downloading? And havenāt been the last 20 times it forced me to look at that page instead of the page I wanted to go back to?
Or better yet, give me an ignore update option like MacOS X used to offer. You know, back when the user and their usability was considered more important than Appleās marketing urges.
How about an option to speed up the GUI? Even on the latest and greatest iPhone, at times the GUI is just sluggish to react. If I can think and tap faster than the GUI is moving, I want the GUI to speed up.
How about an option for Mail to drop back to the parent mailbox after putting away a message rather than just jumping to the next message, read or not?
How about a lock screen that makes use of its vast space to show battery and weather widgets where you can actually decipher the text instead of 1-mm tall characters to save huge blank space for the display of notifications Iād never allow to pile up on my lock screen?
I donāt need five different ways to launch the camera. But Iād appreciate if I could use that lock screen space for a button to launch perhaps an app I often use ā unlike camera.
I want the top part of the screen to show me all the details (including wifi calling) and not hide it. I donāt want to have to open CC just to see if wifi calling is active. Make the font or the icons smaller if you have to get around that gargantuan āDynamic Islandā, but show me the information I actually want to see.
How about a CC widget that allows me with just a single tap to activate my AirPods? Like my Mac.
How about Safari let me double-tap a link to have it open in the background?
How about Wallet notifications that actually show up in a timely manner instead of a day later?
How about a precipitation radar chart that actually shows me all data at any time scale without tiling and refusing to draw the part closest to me that Iām likely most interested in? (canāt believe that bug has made it all the way from 16 to 17).
How about the CC toggle for DND remembers to stay open and show me all its options instead of me having to regularly tap the ellipses first to get it to reveal the relevant options I actually use? With all Appleās incessant raving about AI and ML, youād think iOS would have learned by now that Iām interested in selecting āuntil next morningā after seeing me do it about 853 times. I guess they do use lots of A, just not so much I. Like so many tech bros who like to crow about AI.
How about an option to remove that Mail filter button I NEVER USE and instead use that for a button I would constantly use.
How about having App Store reopen the one page I always go to and hence last used, check for updates? Instead of throwing me back to some page where they try to advertise to me some silly garbage app Iād never in a million years ever download for free, let alone pay for. When did Apple turn into some kind of Facebook-like ad whore? Oh yeah, āservicesā. Right. Spend lots of $$$ on our fancy hardware first to then have it used to be advertised to as if it were some kind of garbage Chinese Amazon device. āWe think youāll love it.ā
Fix the iOS 17 Safari bug where it interrupts you from entering a URL because of some background page load.
Give me an option to dismiss notifications right when they pop up without having to leave what Iām doing and without leaving any trace of that notification in notification center.
How about a force reload button for Calendar since syncing is GLACIAL? And nuke/restart just to get it to talk to Google and sync calendar is a caveman technique.
How about an option to simply add music, photos, and movies when an iPhone is connected to a host Mac for sync? Drag and drop in addition to the usual rigid iApp sync. Also, I want to play video that comes in all kinds of weird formats. VLC is great, but Apple should stop trying to throw their weight around and support playback of pretty much any format that exists. They donāt need to do that for creating media (there they can be as conservative as ever), but playback should be super open and without hassle.
How about Apple fix auto correct so it finally stops suggesting complete non-words? (nice example here) Wasnāt iOS 17 supposed to be the crĆØme de la crĆØme of auto correct?
I could go on for daysā¦ I wonāt though since I donāt enjoy annoying others. 
But next time somebody asks me when an iOS device will replace my Mac, youāll excuse me for falling over laughing. 
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Valid point. But also the reason why I chose the toggle for auto/pre-loading of media as my #1 feature. So much simpler and does not require the extreme Lockdown Mode. This assumes your device can run iOS 13+.
OK, since Simon made a list (yes, I am āblamingā you 
), here are a few features off-the-top-of-my-head:
- Persistence of incoming Alerts if button or screen is touched: Currently, if any number of Msg or Alarm notifications try to activate at the same moment you press a button or hit certain controls on the screen, you may never see that alert. I just re-confirmed this yesterday in testing. It is the #1 reason I have missed important notices. Conversely, if you are in the middle of an important communication and an Alarm pops up, the Banner can block/interfere with what you are doing. Getting rid of that Banner is far too easy and you can lose it. Default dismissal action should be Snooze/Delay vs Cancel/Abort.
- Custom Voice Macros: Ability to record a short voice sample (ie. ācommandā) and have a quick series of actions be the result when spoken. Siri Shortcuts do not ācutā it and have far too many limitations. These commands should be local only and not require the almighty Cloud. We need the ability to ārecordā actions like the old AppleScript system did. Basically, I am waiting for these genius $700-$1200 pocket devices to have the same capability as DragonDictate and other voice macro apps had in the 1990s on Pentium I and 68k chips. I have been waiting for this on the iPhone and have not really seen it yet.
- Undo: Near global Undo has every other OS has.
- Initial vs. follow-up Alert sounds: This means, when the first text comes through from an individual/group beyond a set timer, you hear the normal sound. When a flurry of them come through within a smaller timeframe, the 2nd or 3rd alert uses a secondary, more subtle sound (or just vibrate) so you know it is just the same person and not 20 people trying to urgently get your attention to flee a burning building.
- More control of Messages Alerts The āHide Alertsā toggle in a conversation is too extreme. It would be helpful to slience the sound but NOT the onscreen alerts, for example.
- Full Volume controls: It is very difficult to manage the different volumes in iOS. For many years Android has had the ability to see ALL volume controls on one screen so you can adjust what you need instead of guessing, as you have to in iOS.
- Net Block toggle per App: Ability to block an app from accessing the network in ANY way. Currently not entirely possible.
- Mail attachment limits: Ability to attach more than 5 photos to Mail. (Or at least use a total size calculation warning instead of the arbitrary 5-item limit.)
I will stop here. 
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One switch to strip out all the fripperies.
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A button to force a sync between iCloud and any app that needs it.
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The thing I have missed far more than anything else is a global undo. I donāt care if they need to add a button to implement it. With a touch interface it is very easy to touch the wrong button and occasionally end up in a different and undesired place. Resuming what one intended can be time-consuming. This has gotten much worse since so many of the controls are overloaded to use duration of press to distinguish different actions (something I hate, frankly). Too bad they got rid of 3D Touch.
The lack of global undo has been dangerous on several occasions since the FAA has allowed iPads to be used in the place of paper charts in an airplane. In turbulence a number of years ago on an instrument approach to my home field I accidentally touched something and the approach chart - containing essential information - disappeared. Fortunately I had been flying that approach for 30 years and had the data memorized. In a different scenario it could have been dangerous.
I have many problems with iOS (which I really donāt like much, if truth be told) but a lack of a global undo is by far my biggest complaint.
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Iād like to see all settings for an application within the application itself rather than having to dig through all app settings in the settings application like we do now.
Iād like to be able to easily add music or videos by drag and drop if I connect to the phone (last I know the music was still encrypted somehow).
A single place to go for volume controls. All of them in one place so you can see how the blazes you have them all set for different purposes.
Iād like my photos not to be hidden in the depths of the ~/Library folder so I can actually back them up easily.
My $0.02
Perhaps Iām misremembering, but I thought this was initially a very conscious decision on Appleās behalf when they came up with iPhone OS. They wanted user to focus on the app and interaction in the app. So settings got relegated to a central location away from where features are actually used.