Comments on Sidebar on iPad

Beta Community Apple Beta
#1

Tried out the new navigation sidebar a bit on iPadOS. As we use Channels on iPad more than any other device this is appreciated!

A few issues/comments:

  • Swiping from the left side of the screen to display the sidebar does not work in the guide. It does work in other views.
  • The way sidebar overlays work is backwards from the native behavior (e.g., in Mail on narrower displays) — you swipe over the sidebar itself to close it versus swiping over the other (dimmed) content. This confused me a lot as I was used to the native behavior.
  • Overall the sidebar animations seem a bit too fast and "twitchy", not quite as organic as others in iPadOS.
  • I find having to tap/swipe and tap to change sections less usable than before. It would be useful if the sidebar could be shown all the time.
  • The tap targets are smaller/closer together than the standard iPadOS sidebar, which also slows me down. Here's an example of the Safari sidebar:

image

versus Channels:

image

BETA: Craft your own experience with Personal Sections on tvOS and iOS
#2

This is tricky as the system is using your swipe to control the scrolling of the view, and disregarding the actual swipe. We'll have to look deeper into if the swipe gesture can be a priority.

Swiping left on the sidebar will dismiss it. You don't need to swipe on the dimmed content, just tapping it dismisses it. You might have thought your swipe was doing it, but it was just the act of tapping it that was doing that.

As this was made for both iPhone and iPad, the interactions are the same. Obviously this isn't a good idea on iPhone, but we can investigate how a persistent sidebar might work or feel on iPad.

Again, this was made for both devices and to fit the available navigation option count (14), they're closer together. But you're right, there's a little more room for them to breathe on iPad. We'll look into it.

Thanks for the feedback!

#3

Sorry, I may have been unclear here. Here's an example of a native overlay sidebar on the left and Channels on the right (sorry for the literal spam, was trying to find an email folder that I didn't have to redact!)

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If I drag anywhere over the dimmed portion of the display (with the email message), the sidebar follows my drag and collapses into the side of the screen. This is not just a tap gesture as I can drag back and forth to move the sidebar; if I drag to the right it'll even expand the sidebar to display the mailboxes. This has the benefit of expanding to nearly the entire screen/app the area in which I can drag the sidebar closed. Of course this is only useful/necessary if the sidebar is an overlay, not permanently displayed!

#4

Yeah, the sidebar isn't using the native sidebar on iPadOs, in order to be cross platform. Additionally, the way Apple changed sidebars and tab bars for iPadOS 18 is why we're not using them.

The navigation sidebar in Channels also doesn't have the same functionality that an app like Mail has, which actually shows content that you would like to persist. It's just navigation, not content, I don't think the two are comparable.

#5

Yeah, I realize they're not quite the same but my muscle memory thinks they are :slight_smile: And don't get me started on the iPadOS 18 changes… sigh.