Apple was finally loosening its grip on default apps
In the autumn of 2020, Apple quietly extended a kind of digital trust to its users — not through grand announcements, but through features tucked beneath the surface of iOS 14, waiting to be discovered. The update marked a subtle but meaningful turn in Apple's philosophy: a company long known for curating every corner of its ecosystem began, in small ways, to loosen its grip and invite users into a more self-directed relationship with their devices. For those willing to explore, the iPhone and iPad became something closer to their own.
- Apple's long-standing insistence on Safari and Mail as non-negotiable defaults finally cracked — users could now choose their own browser and email app, though a restart bug threatened to undo those choices overnight.
- Home screens cluttered with rarely used apps could be hidden entirely, with the App Library acting as a quiet backstage where nothing is lost, only moved out of sight.
- Small frustrations dissolved: emoji search arrived after years of absence, hidden photos could finally be made truly invisible, and FaceTime learned to fake eye contact so conversations felt more human.
- Picture-in-Picture video floated freely across the iPhone screen for the first time, and a YouTube workaround let the feature stretch even where it wasn't officially invited.
- Back Tap turned the physical back of the iPhone into a shortcut surface, while iPad's Scribble let Apple Pencil users write directly into any text field without ever lifting their hand to the keyboard.
- Taken together, these features signaled less a product launch than a quiet philosophical shift — Apple moving, incrementally, from control toward choice.
Apple's iOS 14 arrived in September 2020 with visible headline features, but its most consequential changes were the ones buried in settings menus and accessibility panels — tools that rewarded curiosity and quietly reshaped what an iPhone or iPad could be.
The most significant concession was the ability to set default apps. For years, Safari and Mail had been immovable fixtures of the iOS experience. iOS 14 changed that, allowing users to designate Chrome, Outlook, or other third-party apps as their primary browser or email client. The rollout wasn't seamless — a bug reset preferences on every restart, and developers had to update their apps to participate — but the gesture itself felt meaningful for anyone who had long felt confined by Apple's walled garden.
The App Library offered a quieter kind of order. Entire home screen panels could be hidden with a few taps, sending rarely used apps into a digital drawer rather than deleting them. New downloads could be routed there automatically, keeping carefully arranged layouts intact. Meanwhile, the emoji keyboard finally gained a search function, and the Hidden Album — previously easy to stumble upon — could be made genuinely invisible through a settings toggle.
Picture-in-Picture, already familiar to iPad users, came to iPhone. A swipe while watching video would shrink it into a floating window, movable or tucked off-screen for audio-only listening. YouTube required a workaround through Safari, but it worked. FaceTime, meanwhile, gained an eye contact correction feature that subtly adjusted a user's gaze to simulate direct attention — a small illusion that made video calls feel more present.
Accessibility saw real invention. Back Tap let users trigger system actions — screenshots, Siri, Control Center — by tapping the back of the device two or three times, with the phone distinguishing intentional gestures from accidental contact. On iPad, Scribble transformed any text field into a handwriting surface for the Apple Pencil, converting script to typed text in real time and letting users reply to messages without ever setting the stylus down.
None of these features dominated the news cycle. But together, they traced the outline of a company beginning to trade control for flexibility — offering users more room to shape their own experience, if they were willing to look for it.
Apple's iOS 14 arrived in September 2020 with the usual fanfare—widgets on the home screen, an app drawer, privacy controls—but the most interesting features were the ones you had to hunt for. Buried in settings menus and accessibility panels were tools that fundamentally changed how you could use an iPhone or iPad, if you knew where to look.
The most significant shift was Apple's decision to finally loosen its grip on default apps. For years, the company had locked users into Safari and Mail, treating them as non-negotiable parts of the iOS experience. With iOS 14, that changed. You could now set Chrome or Edge as your default browser, or swap Mail for Outlook or Hey. The catch was that app developers had to update their apps to support the feature, and there was a bug that reset your choices every time you restarted your device—a flaw Apple acknowledged and promised to fix in a future update. Still, for anyone who had chafed under Apple's walled garden, it felt like a genuine concession.
The App Library, meanwhile, offered a quieter kind of freedom. Instead of maintaining multiple home screens cluttered with apps you rarely opened, you could hide entire panels with a few taps. Long-press an empty area, tap the page indicator, and uncheck the screens you wanted to remove. The apps didn't disappear; they moved to the App Library, a digital drawer you could access whenever needed. For those who had spent hours curating their home screens, there was also a setting to send newly downloaded apps directly to the App Library instead of cluttering your carefully arranged layout.
Smaller features proved surprisingly useful. The emoji keyboard finally got a search function—a feature that seemed obvious in hindsight but had been missing for years. Hidden photos, which had always been stored in an easily discoverable Hidden Album, could now be truly concealed by disabling the album's visibility in settings. Your private images would remain on your device and in iCloud, but there would be no obvious way to access them unless you knew to turn the setting back on.
Picture-in-Picture mode, long a staple of iPad, came to iPhone. You could swipe up from the bottom of the screen while watching a video in apps like Twitch, and the video would shrink into a floating window you could move around or hide off-screen if you just wanted the audio. YouTube didn't support the feature natively, but there was a workaround: watch the video in Safari in full-screen mode, then swipe up. The video would stay in the corner as you moved on to other tasks.
FaceTime gained an eye contact feature that had been promised in iOS 13 but never shipped. The camera would adjust your gaze to make it appear you were looking directly into the lens, even if you were staring at the screen. It was subtle, but it created the illusion of genuine attention during video calls.
For accessibility, Apple introduced Back Tap, a feature that let you trigger actions by tapping the back of your iPhone twice or three times. You could launch Siri, take a screenshot, open Control Center, or activate any number of system functions with a simple gesture. The phone was smart enough to distinguish between intentional taps and accidental ones from putting the device in your pocket.
On iPad, Scribble converted any text field into a writing surface for the Apple Pencil. Your handwriting would automatically convert to typed text, and you could even pull down incoming messages to reply without putting down the stylus. For people who worked with the Pencil regularly, it eliminated the friction of switching between stylus and keyboard.
These features weren't flashy enough to make headlines, but they represented a shift in how Apple thought about its operating systems—less about controlling the experience and more about giving users options, if they were willing to dig for them.
Notable Quotes
Apple is finally giving up some control over your default apps— CNET reporting on iOS 14's default app settings
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why would Apple hide these features? Wouldn't they want people to know about them?
Some of them aren't really hidden—they're just in settings menus where most people never look. But the bigger ones, like default apps, Apple was probably still getting comfortable with. They'd controlled those for so long that releasing them felt risky.
The bug that resets your default app choice every time you restart—that seems like a pretty big problem.
It does, but Apple acknowledged it and said they'd fix it. What matters is that the feature existed at all. For years, people had asked for this and been told no. Suddenly it was yes, even if the execution was rough.
Picture-in-Picture seems like it should have been there from the start.
It was on iPad for years. Bringing it to iPhone felt overdue, but the YouTube workaround shows how Apple was still being cautious. They weren't ready to let YouTube bypass their control, so users had to use Safari instead.
What about Back Tap? That seems like a gimmick.
It could be, but it's genuinely useful if you have accessibility needs or just want faster shortcuts. The fact that it doesn't trigger accidentally when you put the phone in your pocket means it actually works.
So these features matter because they give users more control?
Exactly. They're small individually, but together they suggest Apple was starting to listen to what people actually wanted—choice, privacy, flexibility. Not all at once, but it was movement.