The Give and Take of New Features: WWDC ’15

Every WWDC brings unexpected changes, and this year is no different. While I’m excited about many of the new announcements this year, I quickly realized that one of my favorite Loose Leaf features will breath its last with the launch of iOS 9 later this month: swipe from the edge to turn the page.

Up through iOS 8, you can quickly peek through pages by swiping two fingers from the left or right edge of the screen. In iOS 9 however, that same swipe from the edge will bring up the new split-screen multi-tasking view instead! I can’t even count the weeks I spent developing and testing that custom bezel-gesture, so it’s particularly sad for me to see it go. Even more – I’m discouraged that custom bezel-gestures are entirely out-of-scope for app developers from here on out – iOS system gestures now cover the top/bottom/left/right bezels.

There are plenty of my fellow note/sketch apps in the store who’ve also lost their page-turn gestures, so now the rush is on to fill in the new gaps in our UI. Luckily there’s plenty of other gestures in Loose Leaf to switch between pages – pinching to list view or simply turning the pages with two fingers, but the peek is gone, and I’ll miss it.