Once you get past the oohs and aahs of iOS 7’s flattened icons, parallax homescreen, and polished apps, it’s the new features Apple has introduced that really make the upcoming update a thing of beauty. One such feature is improved multitasking with app previews. When Apple showed off the new approach to cycling between open apps I found myself become overly giddy. Then I had to stop and ask why.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m still super excited about the new multitasking experience, but maybe that’s because I come from the background of an Android user. I was floored two years ago when Google debuted a very similar look to multitasking with the Ice Cream Sandwich update for their mobile operating system. But I won’t accuse Apple of copying, no. Because not even Google was the first to scheme up the method for interacting with multiple opened apps.
The roots of both Apple and Google’s mobile multitasking can be traced to Palm’s “card” system first introduced with the ill-fated webOS. If anything, Apple’s take seems to skew more closely to what Palm built than does Android’s. But that shouldn’t take anything away from either platform. After all, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, or so they say.
The fact is, while Apple’s old system using only an app’s icon worked sufficiently, a card preview of an open app provides much more visual feedback. You can see where you left off and more easily manage open applications. An icon alone doesn’t provide nearly as much. It’s like the difference between standard definition TV and HD. Either will work, but one is just that much better.
So maybe I realize why I am so excited for Apple’s new approach to multitasking. I’ll just come out and say it: they’re initial implementation didn’t work on the same level as what other mobile platforms already achieved. The method seemed a bit clunky and very un-Apple like. But with iOS 7 the next step has been taken, and soon we will all be able to multitask with the best of them.
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