The drawer comes back.
Two weeks earlier I approved a standard sidebar for iPhone and iPad as how it should have been from the start. Then I used it.
In late September I approved moving the iPhone and iPad apps to Apple's standard sidebar layout. I'd looked at it described and drawn, and it sounded right. It was, I said, how I should have done it from the beginning.
Then I lived with it
On October 3rd I used it on my phone and changed my mind. On an iPhone, that layout turned the list of conversations into a full-screen stack you had to navigate through, which made chatting feel heavier. I wanted the old slide-out drawer, always, on iPhone. Two days later the iPad got the same verdict: I didn't like the sidebar there either.
What's true now
- iPhone and iPad use the slide-out drawer.
- The Mac keeps the sidebar, where it feels right.
What I learned
I approved a layout from a description. It looked fine in words and wasn't fine in my hand. So from now on, when there's a layout choice to make, I look at actual screenshots, not sentences. It is a small rule, and I should have had it from the start.
The public build already used the drawer, so nothing changes for people who downloaded Neeos from the App Store. This was a fix on my side of the line.
Written October 21, 2026 from the build log, and dated to when this happened.