In the era of mobile Internet, while we consume data every day, we are also constantly "producing" data, including photos and videos taken by ourselves, sticky notes and text message records stored in mobile phones, etc. Our lives seem to have been inseparable from a variety of data information.
Considering the issue of data inheritance, allowing users to selectively pass on their account data to others, at WWDC 2021 in June this year, Apple released the digital heritage function. However, the release is released, this feature Apple has been "pigeon" for a long time, until the release of iOS 15.2 official version on December 14, the digital heritage function officially met with users.
In the smartphone industry, Apple is at the forefront of the industry in terms of digital heritage, borrowing Apple's perspective, we can understand in advance some of the practical significance of developing digital heritage functions in mobile phones.
There are limitations and highlights
It may be that many users speculate that Apple's digital inheritance is similar to ordinary account inheritance, which allows the heir to directly obtain the relevant permissions or passwords of the account. But in fact, Apple's digital heritage function is not simply to transfer users' data to others, but to divide many boundaries, or restrictions, the main factors of which include industry realities, and protect user privacy from the perspective of humanistic care.
First of all, Apple doesn't do much at the level of legacy contacts. Users can add up to five legacy contacts, which can be family, friends, or anyone you want to add, simply select a phone contacts friend, who doesn't have to be an Apple device user or have an Apple ID.
When you're done adding legacy contacts, you'll be prompted to print a paper key file. After the user's death, the estate contact needs to provide Apple with the key and death certificate to access the digital inheritance, however, the information that the heritage contact can access is limited to the Apple ecological application, such as photos, memos and Safari bookmarks in iCloud, rather than unlimited viewing of all the content in the account.
It should be noted that after the application of the inheritance contact is approved, it is obtained with a "special Apple ID" and the user's original Apple ID and password will no longer be available. At the same time, Apple has imposed restrictions on the time of inheritance, and the time for heirs to access inheritance data is limited to three years from the date of approval of the first inheritance account application, after which the account and data will be completely deleted. That is to say, Apple's digital heritage design idea is not simple account and password inheritance, but to let the inheritance contact download the data in the account, after all, the original account continues to exist may involve the deceased's work and other friends and other more complex interests, and the complete deletion is out of consideration for respecting the deceased.
Subject to copyright protection and third-party application ecology, heritage contacts cannot access content such as music, movies, and game equipment in the account, mainly because such content is bound to the user's Apple ID, and some content is protected by the copyright owner and cannot be directly donated. More critically, the "keychain" in the account is also inaccessible, meaning that the legacy contact cannot obtain the user's account number and password from other platforms through the keychain. This point Apple mobile phone users should have a deep understanding, in order to save the trouble of entering the password, directly save the login information of other platforms in the keychain.
Obviously, Apple's digital legacy feature is like a key to heritage contacts, but this key is limited to opening content on iCloud, and it is enough for some users to have access to pictures and videos. Earlier, a teenager died of illness and did not have time to tell his family the password of his mobile phone, and his father chose an Israeli company to unlock the iPhone after asking Apple for help without success, in order to obtain a group photo inside the mobile phone.
One of the great significance of the digital heritage function is to "pre-empt" the user's account authorization, which can not only reflect Apple's care for customers, but also avoid legal and moral hazards. The user sets the inheritance contact can be regarded as account authorization, this set of authorization system is based on the user's personal operation and confirmation (Apple attaches the most importance), Apple plays the role of data storage and inheritance contact review, the main reason is that if the user's own will to authorize the confirmation, it is easy to let the subsequent account opening dispute, perhaps some of the content in the account is not what the user wants others to see.
Of course, Apple's development of the digital heritage function has humanistic considerations, but Apple is also a commercial company after all, and there may be commercial factors in designing this function to ensure that users can always stay in the Apple ecosystem.
iCloud+ Digital Legacy Strategy?
Users familiar with Apple's ecology will know that iCloud is not a simple cloud disk, but a bridge connecting different Apple hardware. This digital heritage function is not exclusive to the iPhone, is based on the Apple ID of the expansion function, the function opening path can not be found in the mobile phone search bar, take the iPhone as an example, click settings, Apple ID, password and security, heritage contacts to open.
The significance of the existence of the digital heritage function is similar to the IP68 dustproof and waterproof of the mobile phone, which belongs to the function that is not strong in daily use perception, but will play a key role when it is used. Due to the existence of iCloud's serial attribute, the advantages of the digital heritage function can be maximized.
In the Apple hardware and software ecosystem, the user's photos, videos, files in the device folder and other information stored in the gallery will be uploaded to the cloud, and other Apple devices will be displayed synchronously when they log in to the unified account, which brings the main advantage of more data collection ports and more collection experience. For example, the photos edited on the iPad are saved to the gallery, and they will also be displayed synchronously on the iPhone, essentially different Apple devices are just the content display port of iCloud, and the data is actually on the cloud server (provided that the corresponding switch is turned on to ensure that the data can be shared in series).
It has to be said that the digital heritage should be valuable, provided that there is enough information stored in the account, and in the current Internet environment, the file sharing between different hardware and software is full of separation, and many users have many channels to store information. At the software and hardware level, the seriality of Windows computers and Android phones is low, until Huawei launched multi-screen collaboration, it attracted other manufacturers to pay attention to the interconnection of PC and mobile phones, but after all, the underlying system is different, and when storing files, it is still necessary to use the mobile phone manufacturer's software or third-party cloud disk App to increase the user's file upload cost.
The iCloud+ Digital Legacy strategy is to attract users to store information through the less visible experience of iCloud, providing more complete data for legacy contacts when needed, including information and files uploaded by iPhone, iPad and Mac devices. The current Android mobile phone manufacturers are difficult to achieve a three-terminal sensorless series experience, and more are making a fuss about mobile phone cloud services.
Apple's intention is obvious, trying to trap users with some unique features, so that they stay firmly within the Apple ecosystem, that is, to increase the sunk cost of users. In economics, sunk cost refers to "costs that have occurred in the past but have nothing to do with current decisions", and when applied to the matter of changing mobile phones, old iPhone users have stored too much photos and videos and other data on iCloud, and these "past data" have become sunk costs when replacing a mobile phone.
The most absolute thing about Apple is that the sunk cost of its design is high, which increases the "sense of loss" of users leaving the Apple ecosystem. When changing headphones, considering that other brands do not have spatial audio and head tracking functions, they continue to choose AirPods Pro, and when buying tablets, they take into account the flight, airdrop and FaceTime, so they choose the iPad series. Personally, I believe that the arrival of the digital heritage function has strengthened the walls of Apple's ecology to a certain extent, so that the sunk cost of users leaving has become higher, the world is unpredictable, everyone will worry about the occurrence of unexpected events, the existence of iCloud + digital heritage is like a backhand for users, at least to ensure that the information in their accounts can be "seen by the people they want to see", selectively passing their memory fragments to important people.
Will digital heritage functions go mainstream?
Before Apple officially launched the digital inheritance function, foreign social giant Facebook launched the account inheritance function as early as 2015. At the time, Facebook account successors had more privileges to edit profiles and upload images, as well as respond to greetings and concerns from friends and family.
In China, Sina Weibo launched the "deceased account" protection function last year, and Weibo is more concerned about the protection of the deceased than Facebook. When the account is considered to be the account of the deceased, the platform will set it to a protective state, the account will not be able to log in, publish new content and delete content, if the account is stolen, the platform will restore the basic information of the account.
As a special product of the digital development of society, digital heritage is gradually being valued by major software and hardware manufacturers. Mobile phones are a bridge for many users to use various digital services, and the efforts of mobile phone manufacturers in digital heritage may affect the enthusiasm of other Internet manufacturers to build digital heritage functions.
The difference between Apple's digital heritage function and other similar types of solutions is mainly reflected in the control of details. Perhaps in order to simplify the user's understanding, Apple only uses simple words to describe the digital heritage function, such as "special Apple ID" and three years of data access time, etc., all need to enter the official website details page to see, Apple wants to use the function more insensitively, play the greatest role when needed, and protect the privacy of the deceased as much as possible.
The attachment to detail seems to be an inherent tradition of Apple, on the one hand, some designs can enhance the user's sense of experience, on the other hand, Apple's partial attachment is also destroying the actual experience of users. The Lightning interface that has not been changed for thousands of years is a typical case, Apple wants to highlight its efforts in environmental protection by not attaching a mobile phone charging head, but it refuses to put down the income of MFi certification under the Lightning interface system. Therefore, digital heritage can also be seen as the new wall of Apple's ecology, regardless of whether digital heritage will become mainstream in the future, and it is not a bad thing for Apple to increase the relevance of users and its own software and hardware services in the system.