iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27

Re:iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 by pwagland on Monday September 14, 2026 @04:58PM (#49703908)

This, and then, if you notice, and backspace to remove the 'e', it doesn't put chess back into the search results, since it figures that everything that matches 'che' also matches 'ch', and so doesn't update it. Sometimes, if you add the 'e' again, it _will_ find chess, sometimes you need to type the 's', or even the final 's' before it gives you chess back again.

And sometimes, it finds what you want, but before you can select it, it decides that it has found something better, and places that in the place where you wanted to select, causing you to select the wrong thing. And then it thinks that because you selected this, it must be what you want, and starts to push it to the top…

Search is definitely frustrating.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 by docjay on Monday September 14, 2026 @08:23PM (#49706108)

Weird, the same stupid crap happens with Windows. I’ve had to learn the exact N character search to find the things I use often; any more or less and the result with that name is buried. It’s like Microsoft and Apple are just pip installing same broken search package.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 by qsi on Monday September 14, 2026 @08:37PM (#49706203)

On Windows I use PowerToys' Alt+Space command bar which does a much better job. In fact, it's the only search I use on Windows.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 by docjay on Monday September 14, 2026 @11:28PM (#49707364)

Good info, I’ll check it out. Thanks!

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 by Daneel_ on Tuesday September 15, 2026 @07:53AM (#49711141)

I switched to Everything for search a while ago and haven’t looked back. For the start menu I replace it with Open Shell, which seems to find apps much more reliably.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 by Melatonic on Tuesday September 15, 2026 @03:17AM (#49708918)

Always turn off searching the internet as much as possible on both. Helps a ton. I think I set both windows and iOS to only search local applications and settings

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 by anthonyrstevens on Tuesday September 15, 2026 @10:48AM (#49713409)

I don't find this to be the case at all.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 by dTal on Tuesday September 15, 2026 @07:47AM (#49711093)

Firefox's "awesome bar" behaves the same way. I guess it's either inherent to the problem somehow, or else everyone is sharing a library (unlikely), or else everyone just makes the same mistakes.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 by nomel on Monday September 14, 2026 @08:07PM (#49705978)

It's worse than this! You Type C-H-E then you go to press enter, and it changes the results as you're pressing it, opening the wrong thing! I've turned off all the search targets, except for applications and folders.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 by sroussey on Monday September 14, 2026 @10:20PM (#49706921)

I have the same problem when i touch a result and it changes the result line at the exact moment.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 by LASR on Monday September 14, 2026 @11:31PM (#49707377)

Changing the results just when you are going to action on them is a fundamental UX sin.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 by bdamm on Tuesday September 15, 2026 @03:32AM (#49709035)

Yes. "UI Speed" should be a configurable thing, so that if the UI changes as you're choosing an item, it acts instead on _what was there_ at a brief moment in the past, e.g. 20-50ms ago.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 by ngcazz on Tuesday September 15, 2026 @03:44AM (#49709120)

I'm hit by this problem often. I wonder why UI updates which could well be incremental instead just replace the whole results from under your fingers!

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 by nomel on Tuesday September 15, 2026 @01:20PM (#49715700)

Don't worry, airdrop does it too! I've accidentally sent airdrop requests to strangers from their profile picture moving under my finger as I'm approaching to touch someone else's. The single most idiotic design I've ever seen in UI. I don't use airdrop for anything sensitive anymore, obviously.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 by RileyJames on Tuesday September 15, 2026 @12:37AM (#49707761)

Absolutely. The mac spotlight search / bar was one of my favourite features, maybe 10 years ago? But now it’s useless.

It also has some strange behaviour when it’s not in focus, but hasn’t been closed.

I just leave every application open and command tab to them now.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 by prawn on Tuesday September 15, 2026 @11:27PM (#49721769)

I found people suggesting Raycast to replace Spotlight search and that's been far better and more consistent for me since I switched.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 by ycombinete on Tuesday September 15, 2026 @01:06AM (#49707957)

This one drives me particularly crazy.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 by sicktriple on Monday September 14, 2026 @07:47PM (#49705815)

For me the big one is whenever I type "sys" to get system settings, it pops up for a half second and then for some reason the top result is like "reset some system setting" and then I invariably get flashbanged because it turns off dark mode and there's no confirmation dialogue lmao. Maddening.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 by drewbeck on Monday September 14, 2026 @09:36PM (#49706646)

Typing “sound” and end up with some obscure sound setting as top option and the general “sound” control panel nowhere to be found. Every time.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 by eastbound on Tuesday September 15, 2026 @01:19AM (#49708040)

I've deactivated every single type of data in Spotlight except Applications. It goes out of its way to still suggest files like C system files or header files, like "system_library.c". It didn't wait for AI to turn against us.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 by microtonal on Tuesday September 15, 2026 @03:35AM (#49709050)

I was trying to see what happens here. It does give the Sound settings panel as the first hit. But when I then press Return, it opens System Settings, but does not actually go to the Sound settings, but General.

Also, search inside the Settings app has been broken for many releases now. I always wonder if anyone inside Apple is actually using macOS or iOS.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 by pishpash on Monday September 14, 2026 @07:39PM (#49705759)

'calc' used to bring up calculator, but now it becomes some widget to calculate distance inside the spotlight box. The worst thing is you can't even backspace out of it.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 by grvbck on Tuesday September 15, 2026 @04:43AM (#49709573)

I'd take the widget! For me typing "calc" finds the "com.apple.calculator" folder. If I continue to "calcu" etc, it suggests "com.apple.ncplugin.calculator" instead. Brilliant intelligence right there.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 by y1n0 on Monday September 14, 2026 @10:15PM (#49706895)

I wish all this shit would just stop trying to search as I’m fucking typing. It’s like that person we all know that can’t hold their tongue for five fucking seconds and let you finish a sentence before the blurt something out.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 by probablyStimmed on Tuesday September 15, 2026 @01:08AM (#49707971)

I feel attacked, but it’s probably the same reason, we both think we know the answer before you finished.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 by ncr100 on Tuesday September 15, 2026 @01:36AM (#49708150)

This seems like a general UI bug.

Q: For those amongst us who are UI experts, what is it called when dynamic lists populate unpredictably while a finger-tap is in-progress?

a) start query and see initial results

b) start finger-navigation, moving finger over initial results

c) start finger-tap descent

d) underlying list is updated, replacing future finger-tap destination's UI element with another

e) finger-tap meets different element than intended

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 by ctidd on Tuesday September 15, 2026 @01:45AM (#49708226)

It’s called layout shift.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 by ncr100 on Saturday September 19, 2026 @12:30PM (#49767899)

Than You! Been looking for this. Cheers

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 by danaris on Tuesday September 15, 2026 @05:52AM (#49710050)

Ah, but hitting enter now takes you to the top result! Therefore it has to search as you type, so there's something to activate as soon as you hit enter! /s

...I've been seeing this search style in more and more places recently, and I hate it. Let me type my search, then hit enter, then you can go find what I asked for. Don't slow everything down by searching on every character I type.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 by skydhash on Tuesday September 15, 2026 @07:16AM (#49710760)

It’s called incremental search and it’s useful, but only when there’s some debouncing involved and the search results is presented at once or the items are sorted by the order they are found.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 by eastbound on Tuesday September 15, 2026 @01:15AM (#49708011)

Don't they perform user testing?

- Do "normies" perform better with this behavior?

- Or is the goal to disturb the user and make something impractical like in Google, so that people click on ads? Software has turned into a curse. The machines have risen.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 by uncle_kostya on Tuesday September 15, 2026 @01:44AM (#49708224)

For me search has been that way since the first MacOS 26.0 upgrade and apparently never fixed.

But speaking of quality overall (outside of the search glitch) - I use dual 5k LG monitors with my work MacBook and can get the MacOS Display Manager process to crash if I just enable variable rate refresh and put the computer to sleep, then wake it up. Apparently a known issue for a few years, still not fixed.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 by bdavbdav on Tuesday September 15, 2026 @02:10AM (#49708394)

I always assumed that was intentional to save you arriving through options. I find that behaviour quite useful as I can hit anything beginning with CHE just by typing more letters.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 by kgwgk on Tuesday September 15, 2026 @02:51AM (#49708703)

I don’t get it. How is it useful that typing CHE you won’t see Chess even though it was visible before you got to type the E?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 by bdavbdav on Tuesday September 15, 2026 @05:28AM (#49709908)

Because you watch as you type. You may not find it useful, I very much do for apps with colliding names.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 by kgwgk on Tuesday September 15, 2026 @06:31AM (#49710324)

>> the only way around it is to search like “C”…wait for results…”H”…wait for results…

Some people don’t like that. I don’t know why you like having to wait but if they showed Chess for CHE you could still find other apps if you kept typing.

Maybe there are also people who like the lottery of results changing the instant you click on the app you want because it adds excitement to their lives.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 by xaksnTMu2 on Tuesday September 15, 2026 @02:57AM (#49708757)

> I’ll get to the C-H and it’ll show the Chess app, but enter that next -E and it’s totally gone

It "works" exactly the same on Windows. How is that even possible?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 by siva7 on Tuesday September 15, 2026 @03:32AM (#49709034)

Either same guy got promoted over and over again or someone thought we must copy this genius search bar as is

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 by smelendez on Tuesday September 15, 2026 @09:02AM (#49711923)

So many platforms with search have a variation of this problem now.

The other issue with Mac search is that it never tells you when it’s done, so you can’t tell if it searched and failed to find something or is still searching.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 by bee_rider on Tuesday September 15, 2026 @09:41AM (#49712404)

I find this theory pretty compelling: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49703471

Maybe they are overthinking it.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 by mike_hearn on Tuesday September 15, 2026 @12:34PM (#49715058)

It's probably asynchronous reranking doing something weird. My guess is that the underlying ranking algorithms in these desktop search bars are very ropey, and they can't debug or diagnose because privacy reasons means the developers don't get to see what results were generated for different query/index combos. Also search is probably just not staffed most of the time.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 by Thlom on Tuesday September 15, 2026 @04:37AM (#49709519)

I can't search for Apples own Notes app. I've tried the name in my local language, I've tried the original english name of the app. Nothing. It will show me OneNote which isn't even installed anymore, but not the Notes app. Very strange.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 by etrvic on Tuesday September 15, 2026 @04:49AM (#49709615)

I had this problem on Spotlight, I solved it once and never happened to me again, there is a setting to reindex all the files, which solves the issue. On iOS however I still have this problem.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 by whstl on Tuesday September 15, 2026 @07:51AM (#49711122)

I really wish apps stopped doing that "search on type" thing in search boxes. You either need to have only a couple miliseconds of response time, or you need to confirm that you want the search process to start. Or maybe at least have some feedback showing "more content is loading, watch out, don't click".

The amount of misclicks daily because of crappy slow-but-should-be-fast search probably offsets by 10x the amount of time required to hit "enter" for the search to start.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 by johnwalkr on Tuesday September 15, 2026 @10:24AM (#49713029)

The best part is when you click on or press enter when you see "chess", but this is just as "cheese.com" is appearing so you open that instead.

[ Parent | on HN ]