iPhone 17 Does Apple install malware to slow your old phone down?

[Merkava_4]

This (unsubstantiated and unverified) former Apple software engineer says that Apple installs malware on your phone for the purpose of slowing it down during a software update to entice you into upgrading to the latest model.

Fake propaganda or true?

https://twitter.com/x/status/2052015524549398589

 

[MacCheetah3]

Extremely unlikely. Foremost, there’s no need. New features and general advancements — I realize those choice words are debatable by some — in software are extra difficult/impossible for previous/older hardware.

 

[iHorseHead]

I can't find her name, so it's impossible to confirm whether or not she used to be a former software engineer at Apple.
I don't believe this though. I guess I've experienced too many low and mid budget Android phones and they've really slowed down. I had a Motorola phone that loaded Uber app for example for 15 minutes before it opened and it lagged.
I've never even had such issues with the iPhone 5s. My iPad mini 2 is still quite snappy on iOS 12, unless I browse the web, which I can't do anymore anyways, because Cloudfare doesn't let me visit any site.
I don't really know… I am still happy with my MacBook Air M1 Base model and iPhone 14, iPhone 12 mini and iPad 9th generation. All of them are way faster than my parents A-series phones and their old laptops.

 

[baconcat_8964]

I don't think "malware" is a proper word for this. Indeed newer softwares run slower on older hardwares, but it usually related to more complicated features, which requires faster chip.

The only thing I could think as "malicious software", is Apple intended to add "wait(6000ms)" code when running on older devices.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

 

[Apple_Robert]

She is full of hot air.

 

[eyoungren]

This (unsubstantiated and unverified) former Apple software engineer says that Apple installs malware on your phone for the purpose of slowing it down during a software update to entice you into upgrading to the latest model.

Fake propaganda or true?

https://twitter.com/x/status/2052015524549398589

Let me consult my primary phone, an iPhone 11 Pro Max running iOS 26.4.2.

My phone says…nope.

 

[MacInTO]

I wouldn't put it past Apple. They were sued previously, and lost, for throttling older phones. Has everyone forgotten about that already?

 

[Tagbert]

I wouldn't put it past Apple. They were sued previously, and lost, for throttling older phones. Has everyone forgotten about that already?

No, we haven’t forgotten when they put code into one phone, the iPhone 6, to slow down when the battery aged to a certain point that it couldn’t supply power quickly enough and the phones would crash. The chemistry of the phones turned out to have a problem so they added software to check for an aged battery and limit the current draw.

It was a reasonable solution to a technical problem but they didn’t handle it well by making it public so when it came out some people thought that Apple was making phones slow to get people to buy new ones. That never made sense, what kind of marketing makes a product less appealing to get people to buy more?

The fact is that in those days, phone processors and performance were getting much faster each year. Software that was mainly written using newer devices would sometimes run slower on older devices because they had weaker processors. Remember when the “S” phone was the one you wanted because that one had the faster chip generation in it. Now, each year’s phone chips, while certainly faster than previous years in absolute terms, doesn’t feel that much faster because the old ones are still running strong. That why you don’t see this happen as much anymore. Most years the new OS works just fine on phones that are several years old. Tahoe is somewhat of an exception due to the added processing for the transparency and optical effect that can feel a little sluggish on some older processors.

 

[James6s]

No. My partners 14 Plus with the A15 chip is running surprisingly fast on the latest iOS 26.4.2 with no slow down.

My 16 Pro Max is running top tier and no slower than my previous iPhone 17 during my daily usage.

I have an old iPhone 8 in the house and that too is running surprisingly well on its last version of iOS 16, battery life is terrible though lol.

 

[racerhomie]

A bunch of nonsense. iPhones from 2015 are still perfectly usable.

 

[Harddrive]

Keywords former which could indicate disgruntled employee who could still be in violation of her NDA she probably signed as a software engineer at Apple just food for thought most will not cross that line unless she was not and the story was fabricated then she may still be in legal trouble over a fabrication.

 

[kitKAC]

No, thank you.