A long-overdue overhaul makes iCloud.com something Apple customers might actually use.
Apple’s iCloud interface has always been a great backup resource to access anything related to your Apple services. However, its simple design held it back as a primary hub for using things like email, calendars, photos, cloud storage, and applications like Pages and Numbers. But that’s all changing with a new interface.
Earlier this week, Apple introduced a new iCloud web beta that looks and feels much better than what came before. The current iteration of the iCloud website is a simple row of icons for Apple’s cloud-based apps. Everything in the legacy version of iCloud.com is accessible and functional, to be sure. But nothing about it is particularly useful apart from accessing your stuff when you’re away from your Mac.
The new beta version of the iCloud website actually feels like a useful hub with all your stuff in a centralized web location. Instead of picking through icons and switching between windows, you have all your photos, email, cloud storage, notes, and more right on the home page.
By default, the new iCloud home page puts previews of your camera roll on top, and a view of your Mail inbox and Drive files is underneath. And beneath that are your app icons and previews of your most recent notes. This is all very convenient and gives you an at-a-glance view of your stuff that you don’t even get on the iOS or macOS interfaces.
It’s all highly customizable too. You can rearrange tiles, remove app previews, and make the layout precisely the way you want it. The overhaul will come in handy for Apple users who are away from their home computers and those who may only own an iPhone and want more convenient access to their iCloud content.
