Apple's Craig Federighi has confirmed that relatively minor updates being released multiple times every year. However, those updates often take weeks to reach all s, resulting in annoyance and frustration.
Updates are a contentious issue for all software, including operating systems like iOS, Android, Windows and macOS. While some people like auto-updates because they are easy and hassle-free, others like to have complete control over their own devices and would rather updates manually in their own time. Either way, most people generally want their updates as soon as possible, so waiting for it weeks on end might be a frustrating experience.
While manually updating iPhones is faster to get all the new features and bug fixes, many people simply let the auto-update feature in their device take care of the heavy lifting. However, folks relying on auto-updates for their iPhones and iPads have often complained that their updates are delayed by weeks, although Apple has never explained the reason behind that. However, that has changed, with the company's senior VP of software engineering Craig Federighi saying that delayed auto-updates are very intentional. Replying to Redditor u/Kechoopix's email about the slow auto-updates, Federighi is believed to have said that s wanting immediate updates should manually update their device rather than wait for the auto-update to kick in.
Apple Rolls Out iOS Updates Incrementally
Federighi further said that Apple rolls out its iOS updates incrementally by first making them available to s who are looking to update their devices manually before rolling them out to s with auto-update enabled one to four weeks later. In the meantime, the company collects from early adopters and fixes any bugs or problems with the new software. The incremental update helps the company avoid problems on a mass scale if a critical error somehow slips through the net. It also prevents the company's update servers from getting overloaded from trying to push out updates to hundreds of millions of devices at once.
Meanwhile, many Redditors wondered why app auto-updates also sometimes take a long time to come through. While neither Federighi nor Apple has answered that question yet, the chances are that it is for the same reason. Incremental updates likely allow app developers to fix any issues with the outgoing software while also protecting their update servers from critical overload. Whatever the reason, iPhone s now know that they will need to manually updates rather than wait for the automatic update if they want the fastest access to all of the latest features and functions in Apple's operating systems.
Source: u/Kechoopix/Reddit