[DigitalToday reporter Jae-won Choi] iPhone users can find themselves playing an unnecessary guessing game whenever they try to change settings for a specific app. Some settings can be changed in the app’s own settings menu, but others require leaving the app and moving to Apple’s separate Settings app. The problem is that it is hard for users to know from the start where to look. On Aug. 10, IT outlet 9to5Mac pointed out that Apple should organise the structure more consistently at the operating system level.

Users open the hamburger menu (commonly, the three-line menu at the top of an app) and comb through settings, only to find the option they want is not there. Only then do they close the app, open the iPhone Settings app, search for the app again and change the setting. They then have to return to the app they were using. The process is cumbersome, and the inconvenience grows because users must guess from the outset whether to check inside the app or in Settings.

Apple’s default Camera app is no exception. The latest iPhones offer a feature for the 1x lens that Apple calls the Fusion Camera. The default field of view is 24mm, but users can use automatic cropping to set 28mm or 35mm as the default. They can also choose whether pressing the 1x button cycles through different focal lengths. But these settings are hard to find inside the Camera app. Users must open the Settings app, find the Camera entry, and then go into the photo capture section and the Fusion Camera menu. They even have to guess again whether Apple apps appear as standalone entries in Settings or are grouped inside the Apps section.

There is a way to reduce the inconvenience slightly. Using a separate third-party shortcut created by Quinn Nelson (퀸 넬슨) of Snazzy Labs, users can move more quickly to the settings page for the app they are currently using. If they add an app-settings shortcut to Control Center, they can open Control Center from the top right of the screen and press a button when they need a separate setting while using an app. But this is only a stopgap. It does not solve the underlying problem of having to guess whether a setting is inside the app or separately in Settings.

The outlet said, "A fundamental solution must be presented directly by Apple." It suggested requiring an item such as "See more" at the bottom of every app’s settings menu, which would automatically take users to the relevant page in the Settings app when pressed. Even if users cannot find an option inside the app, one more tap would take them to the exact location.

Apple already provides an API that allows developers to open a specific page in the Settings app. The problem is that not many developers use it. Apple therefore needs to make the feature a mandatory standard rather than an option. It is time to end the guessing game in which iPhone users go back and forth between apps and the Settings app just to change a single setting.