It looks like Apple will revamp the way it tests future versions of iOS.
Following the release of iOS 13, as well as its first few buggy versions, Apple is reportedlychanging the way it develops internal builds of operating systems. This is important, as iOS 14 is already underway using the new approach.
Per Bloomberg, Apple engineers would ‘cram’ features into daily builds of iOS versions before they were fully tested. This meant that using test devices on these internal versions became a nightmare, with the system running so many different branches of components at different levels of stability.
As such, it became nigh-impossible for Apple to note the actual state of its software.
With iOS 14, the new plan is that all work-in-progress features for OS builds are disabled by default and have to be enabled using a special configuration menu. This approach should allow Apple to keep better tabs as to the progress of its operating system, as well as allow the software to be more flexible. In short, features that are not yet ready to ship can be easily removed.
The revamped approach will also apply to iPadOS, watchOS, macOS, and tvOS development. Apple is expected to use iOS 14 to offer a feature-packed release, but is also rumored to be ready to delay some features to iOS 15 if need be.
It was also noted that Apple apparently noticed that its testing was not up to snuff ahead of the June Worldwide Developers Conference event:
By August, realizing that the initial iOS 13.0 set to ship with new iPhones a few weeks later wouldn’t hit quality standards, Apple engineers decided to mostly abandon that work and focus on improving iOS 13.1, the first update. Apple privately considered iOS 13.1 the “actual public release” with a quality level matching iOS 12. The company expected only die-hard Apple fans to load iOS 13.0 onto their phones.
Read the full report over at Bloomberg.