For years Apple has taken the view that you tell customers what they want, rather than waiting for them to ask. In terms of UI, this meant picking out the “right” option for interface elements, as opposed to allowing users the ability to edit them themselves.

That may be changing in iOS 8, as the beta code of Apple’s new mobile operating system suggests that Apple may also be including a funky variant UI — complete with alternate font and orange and purple color scheme.

Prior to this development, the only notable customizable element of iOS was through its native accessibility settings, which allowed visually impaired users the ability to adjust tones to make for a more comfortable viewing experience.

The more extreme alternate UI was discovered by Hamza Sood, who tweeted tgat:

Here’s iOS 8’s internal “Alternate UI”. Purple tint, orange switches, funky font. I have no idea why Apple made this pic.twitter.com/Fy2SYb56XP — Hamza Sood (@hamzasood) June 9, 2014

While there is no guarantee that this alternate take on the iOS interface will show up in the public release of iOS 8, there’s little disputing that the past month has shown Apple taking several steps that would have been unlikely under Steve Jobs — from the jokier “geek humor” tone of WWDC, to reports that the company may look to put on a friendlier PR face to tech reporters going forward.

And while Tim Cook may have dismissed Android’s fragmentation as a “toxic hellstew” during his keynote speech at WWDC, there is no doubt that Apple has been happy to borrow Android features where they can add to the iOS user experience — with customizability being a big selling point of Google’s mobile platform.

Would you like to see more customizability options, such as alternate UIs, in iOS 8? Drop us a comment below.

Source: Redmondpie