Developers Frustrated at Apple for Just One Day's Notice to Submit Apps Ahead of iOS 14 Release Today

[leesweet]

Yeah, I thought the same. WTF was going on all summer with the betas. Didn't know you can't do anything without the final version of XCode, etc., either. Okay, then, who wants to load the final version of the software on a production phone and not be able to use all your apps? I saw a few of mine come through with updates this morning (must have worked late last night), but good grief, Apple....

 

[jasonkeeven]

Not the tools to submit an iOS 14 compatible app.

Ahh that makes sense then.

 

[gaximus]

As a Developer, I find this pathetic. Not that apple released iOS14 quicker than anticipated, but that these devs are whining that people will get iOS 14 before their app is submitted? What difference does it make for apple to hold back iOS 14 for a week really? I haven't seen anything significant with my apps compiled on iOS 13 running on iOS 14, so it's not like their apps are going to suddenly fail. So your users have to wait a day or two to put your widget on their Home Screen. What else? Your users won't know the difference.

Notice though that these are all "twitterati" complaints, does twitter allow much else but outrage anyway?

There are several apps that do not work on iOS14 that were compiled for iOS13. The Ikea app for one, and had they submitted an update yesterday (first available time) it'l still take 1-2 weeks to make it though Apple's approval process.

 

[frankdogg]

I get what everyone is saying and I hear what the developers are saying and why they are frustrated. But with every new major iOS release, the majority of the apps that I use (not Apple's) I've had to wait for those apps to be updated and released days/weeks later especially when a new resolution was introduced. So while I get the developers frustrations, we can wait for the updates.

If iOS 14 breaks your app completely and it's unusable, then that's a whole different story.

 

[rokit88]

A lot of people seemed to have missed the point and think devs are being whiny. Devs aren't upset because iOS 14 "surprised" them--they're upset because after months of getting our apps ready and testing Apple's betas they didn't give us the tools needed to update them until the same day the end users got iOS 14. Each summer Apple releases several betas of the next versions of iOS, XCode, and often MacOS in preparation for a mid-September public iOS update. We all know the cycle. The beta iOS requires a beta version of XCode, which usually requires a beta version of MacOS. At the end of the beta cycle, there is a GM Seed cycle as Apple stabilizes the release. There are usually more than a dozen betas and several GM Seeds over a course of months. You cannot submit an app to the App Store with these tools though--Apple would auto-reject any attempt to do so. You have to wait for the Gold Master version of the next XCode and iOS, which is usually released 2 weeks before the public gets the new iOS version. You also cannot submit your app to the store using the older version of XCode because those tools don't even know about the next version of iOS so it wouldn't even compile. Once you submit, the app waits in a queue for several days before Apple will approve it. The problem is in this case, many apps will crash for a week while waiting for approval because Apple released iOS to the public on the same day it released the tools we need to upload it to Apple for approval. During this time end users who experience crashes will usually 1-star the app thinking the developer didn't do their job getting it ready. At the same time, Apple aggressively pushes users to upgrade to the new version of iOS so the dev has to temporarily remove the app from the App Store to prevent a wave of 1-stars and support emails. These negative reviews and app store removal directly affect our income and can ultimately kill an app, pushing its sales below the point where it's no longer financially possible to maintain it. It can also take months for revenue to recover from even a 1-week removal from the store. So everyone who has an iPhone should care about this process being executed smoothly.

 

[PickUrPoison]

Ahh that makes sense then.

Yeah, Xcode only just went final yesterday.

 

[317342]

Didn't we have 3+ months of betas? OMG, how infantile.

 

[blodyholy]

Those of you complaining, and saying "boo hoo" to the dev's in this thread, I'll echo what others have said; you need to test against the GM (or final, which is usually the same), which wasn't released until yesterday. This is a giant fubar on Apple's part to those that develop for iOS.

 

[Luis Freire]

Well, that is indeed unfortunate for developers and I deeply appreciate their hard workings in this process. However, as a consumer, I have a right to use and enjoy all the features the latest public release of system software (iOS/iPadOS 14 in this case) can offer. And at the same time, developers also have to make sure their applications to be optimized and work as expected under the most recent public release. I sympathize with developers for testing apps in such a short time frame and understand that Apple should take some or major responsibilities in this.

However, as a customer, I am not here to judge whose fault is for causing uncertainties in apps optimization/developing under new system. Actually, It is even not customers’ obligation to be involved between the 2 parties Apple and developers. I only know that customers are rightfully entitled to use apps in latest public release. If the latest system software works well but the apps fail to bring their promises, I will only uninstall those apps but not downgrade the system to “accommodate” developers’ incapability. If possible, I will even look for better and more optimized apps to replace those which perform miserably under the latest system software.

Remember, there are always better alternatives in app market. Only by keeping updating apps with new features and developing in accordance with latest guidelines, developers can remain competitive. Best wishes to you.

You're assuming the the apps stop working as expected with iOS 14 but that's not the case with this new iOS version. It's just that you'll not be able to find any apps using the new features on the first day, like Widgets or App Clips. It would be nicer to download iOS 14 and get updates from your favourite apps with Widgets and App Clips...

 

[nt5672]

Based on this news story and thread alone can someone explain the whole Beta process? I don't get how you get 8 various betas that span over 2 months (From WWDC to today) and developers are complaining they only had a day with IOS 14. No they didn't only have a day. They had 2 months. And when they do update the apps the notes are basically going to be "Compatible for IOS 14" or "Bug Fixes". I would be more sympathetic if developers actually used the betas as they were designed and not be lazy in terms of update descriptions. You guys had 2+ months.

1. Apple's development tool betas are even more buggy than the OS beta or final releases. For the most part our experience is that it is not worth the effort for small developers to try any Xcode development betas. For Xcode 12 our Apps exposed difficult os bugs prior to Beta 6 and we did not try Beta 6. Now if you have a QA team of 10 people that you have to pay regardless of what they are doing, then wasting a lot of time with development betas is just fine. Small developers don't have this luxury.

2. Apple make changes at the last minute before release. Any testing you have done before has to be re-done completely from top to bottom. Now if you fixed everything and Apple did not change anything then you are good to go, but that has not been our experience. Apple wants secret features to be not known to the general development community. They also make unannounced API changes to make these secret features work. It has always been this way. And Apple's idea of what the value is in secret is that it is all secret. (OK that was an exaggeration, but not by much.)

3. Apple's automated testing sucks. We have tried for several years to use it and we spend more time adopting changes in the way the automated testing works, than we do with changes and improvements in our code. This means that real complete testing takes a few days with real people actually using our Apps.

4. Apple does not make any detailed release notes available. Yes, there is a document called release notes for the development tools, but it focuses on the obvious and ignores 100s of development tool bugs. Small developers don't have time to spend days trying the solve a problem only to find that it is an OS problem. Especially, when we personally have dozens of OS bugs that have gone unresolved for years.

5. In this last release, the Xcode 12 GM release of the development tools was weeks older than the last release of Xcode 11.7. How can a new release for 12 be weeks older than 11.7 and have all of the latest bug fixes. It can't and it does not. This release was rushed out or previous releases were delayed and overlapped the marketing schedule. As always Apple forces the marketing schedule regardless of the quality issues.

 

[slooksterPSV]

You developers had whole summer to update your apps! Stop finding an excuse to bash at Apple.

Focus on 14.1 that will be dropping soon.

Damn. I’m running macOS Big Sur Beta and XCode 12 beta. Sure devs can push their software but you may get beta or debug remnants that could bloat it. I need to update XCode it looks like.

 

[ct2k7]

As a Developer, I find this pathetic. Not that apple released iOS14 quicker than anticipated, but that these devs are whining that people will get iOS 14 before their app is submitted? What difference does it make for apple to hold back iOS 14 for a week really? I haven't seen anything significant with my apps compiled on iOS 13 running on iOS 14, so it's not like their apps are going to suddenly fail. So your users have to wait a day or two to put your widget on their Home Screen. What else? Your users won't know the difference.
Notice though that these are all "twitterati" complaints, does twitter allow much else but outrage anyway?

I don’t think you understand what the complaints are about, or have worked on a large enough app to understand the reasoning if you can’t see the obvious issue with untested software.

 

[Z3roFlaw]

This. People who don't fully understand the software development life cycle don't seem to understand why some developers might be upset with this mic drop release date and being caught off guard. Yes,it seems the Public and Dev beta 8 was the same GM build that is going out later today. So no changes if you already checked your app in the update releases last week.

HOWEVER, like many have said before, Apple won't let you submit your iOS14 app until there is a final version of XCode and that didn't happen until they announced the GM version of iOS 14 and all the tools.

So once that happens everyone now needs to rush to do last minute checks again (but likely nothing should have changed since it's the same build), but the submission review time is where they're going to get you. The time it will now take for apple to review all the incoming apps means developers may have to wait a few days to even a week before their app is approved and available for users to update. Meanwhile, their app could have issues and not even run at all in the meantime.

 

[Mlrollin91]

You're assuming the the apps stop working as expected with iOS 14 but that's not the case with this new iOS version. It's just that you'll not be able to find any apps using the new features on the first day, like Widgets or App Clips. It would be nicer to download iOS 14 and get updates from your favourite apps with Widgets and App Clips...

If what you are saying was true, there would be no need for this thread: iOS 14 Broken/Buggy Apps

iOS updates do have the ability break apps. Several apps that I use have been down all summer, hence the reason why I have not jumped on the beta train this year.

 

[Obi-WannaDraw]

Chiming in as a beta tester, not a Developer. Apple could’ve waited at least a week to release this final version, no matter how stable it is. Maybe I can complain less as a beta tester because I’ve had time to play with iOS 14 and it’s features. But c’mon, the majority of users wait until the public version is released anyway, so they’re used to waiting. And isn’t the new version of at least iOS usually released the week of an iPhone announcement? If I’m not mistaken it usually comes out the week the devices ship. So I’m not sure what their rush was.

 

[compwiz1202]

Ah was curious about the widgets, but since developers didn't get the needed time to submit apps by Apple I'll hold off till next week or later.

I'm excited to see if Shop will get a widget since they don't charge you after like one or two tracking numbers like Parcel

 

[ct2k7]

Didn't we have 3+ months of betas? OMG, how infantile.

Read the thread again. It appears you have a lack of information about the software development lifecycle that’s common in apps nowadays.

3+ months of beta where everything keeps changing. New changes, new breaks. New workarounds. Workarounds that don’t work between betas.

Oh and no ability to submit iOS 14 compatible apps until yesterday mid afternoon.

 

[slooksterPSV]

Sorry? Developers had NINE betas and several months to test their apps. As always.

You don’t get it. You’re not a developer. If we’re using Beta versions we can’t guarantee something didn’t change for the release version. This could cause bugs or the app to just not work. You never deploy using beta. You should always use the standard release to deploy software.

 

[ct2k7]

Sorry? Developers had NINE betas and several months to test their apps. As always.

No.

 

[1bcoolrob]

Thanks apple

 

[rgbrock1]

Here’s an appropriate analogy related to people blaming the developers here. Imagine if a construction company was building a house over the summer, then a real estate company sells the house in mid September. Then the day before the owner moves in the house, a giant storm floods the house and they have to do more work on it. The owner then complains that they had the entire summer to get the house ready before sale.

That’s kinda what’s going on here, developers had the entire summer to make their apps, but have barely any notice to address any issues or curveballs in the final build.

A very good analogy for the simple-minded. (Of which there appears to be many of, commenting on this thread.)

 

[AxiomaticRubric]

Wait till people start moaning when they download an app and it doesn't work.

I think many of us are overreacting. I’ve had the public beta installed on an iPhone 7 for over a month and I didn’t notice any issues with the apps I use.

 

[fredrik9]

Except it doesn't work that way. We always had a week to 10 days to test our apps with the final build.

You also can't be submitting to the store with beta builds of Xcode. We only got the final version of Xcode yesterday and when this happens review times always go way up. So if our app does not work on iOS 14 it could be days to over a week before we can submit a build with iOS 14 that corrects those issues.

Here you go folks. Wait with the update at least a week.

 

[davidjschloss]

You developers had whole summer to update your apps! Stop finding an excuse to bash at Apple.

Focus on 14.1 that will be dropping soon.

That's not the problem. You can't submit an app that has iOS 14 features to the App Store until Apple tells developer that iOS 14 is going to ship. It takes developers a while to make a final build that's acceptable to Apple. And it takes Apple days or *weeks* to approve these apps.

In this case, Apple didn't even seed a final Grand Master (the version of the beta that's assumed to be identical to what ships to the pubic) until yesterday. Which means developers could NOT test their apps for final iOS support even if they wanted to because Apple hadn't released the Grand Master build.

As a result, you've got a whole developer community that could not have an app ready for iOS 14. So if you install iOS 14 and you want to use a new feature in your app, you can't. All those iOS 14 widgets that devs can make? Wont be ready. The ability to see general location not exact location? Not supported.

What normally happens is that Apple gives a launch date, developers get their final builds ready and uploaded to Apple to be approved for launch. And then the iOS update launches, and the apps are in the store the same day.


This is akin to the IRS announcing today that tax day is tomorrow and saying "why didn't you just prepare your taxes." Because you make your taxes based on the date it's due.

 

[slooksterPSV]

I think many of us are overreacting. I’ve had the public beta installed on an iPhone 7 for over a month and I didn’t notice any issues with the apps I use.

Apps cannot be submitted using Beta tools

GM could have changes that cause rework or fixes to the app

Apple has to review the new apps before they can be posted on the store.