During the iOS 17 segment at the WWDC 2023 keynote, Apple spent most of its time highlighting its in-house apps: turn yourself into a live sticker on Messages, leave video messages on FaceTime, log your daily moods on Health, collaborate on playlists on Music, and more. So after the 20-odd minutes Apple spent on iOS 17, I couldn’t help but wonder why an iPhone owner must wait to download a nearly 3GB annual update to experience what Apple could’ve dispatched from the App Store.
Though you can find Apple’s in-house apps like Notes and Maps on the App Store, the iPhone maker never updates them there. Instead, it refreshes them once a year as part of its grand annual iOS release. In the last few years, app-specific improvements have dominated Apple’s annual iOS updates as opposed to any core OS updates that truly affect how you use your iPhone. If, like me, you don’t exclusively live inside the Apple ecosystem, there’s little to be excited about in recent iOS updates. But this approach may be doing more harm than good — and it’s time for Apple to move on and follow Google’s lead.
