In good news for iPhone users sick of buggy iOS software, Apple is revamping its entire development schedule to focus on perfecting what it’s got instead of relentlessly churning out new features. This is conversely bad news for people who like said flashy new features since they’ll have to wait a bit longer to get it.
There have actually been Bloomberg and Axios reports suggesting this change of pace before. The former is now back with a new article diving into even more details about how this decision came about. Apple has so far stuck to a punishing annual schedule for its engineers, forcing them to cram major updates into a single iOS release.
This hasn’t been working out so well for Apple since many tools end up getting delayed, such as sending money through iMessage in iOS 11. There have also been random autocorrect bugs which change the word I to A, calling bugs which don’t allow iPhone X owners to pick up calls, and plenty of app crashes.
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Apple apparently wants all this chaos to end as much as its fans do, which is why it’s apparently decided to focus on 2 years of phased updates to the iPhone and iPad. Everyone will still get their annual iOS fix in September, but engineers will have the power to push back features which aren’t ready to the next year.
This will hopefully give way to better quality. The risk here is that consumers in a competitive environment won’t be satisfied with minor changes and jump ship for something more innovative, but it’s a chance Apple will have to take if it wants to hold on to its reputation of superior software.
As for what is coming up in 2018, iOS 12 (codename: Peace) will allow third-party apps to work across iPhones, Macs, and iPads. Animojis are set to worm its way into FaceTime so people can put on virtual masks while chatting with friends. It’ll also get new characters to play around with and a more easy-to-navigate menu.
Other expected highlights of iOS 12 include a redesigned Stocks app, deeper Siri integration into search, more options in Do Not Disturb to automatically reject phone calls and silence notifications, and multi-player AR games. iPad owners will have to wait till 2019 to run multiple windows in a single app just like tabs in a browser and try out new Apple Pencil skills.