Feel slow? Consider downgrading your apps

[Ganoninc]

For those who feel iOS 9 became laggy on their iPhone or iPad, I say you should seriously consider downgrading your apps.

Indeed, maybe Apple is not as guilty as you think when talking about planned obsolescence.
Let me tell you my story.

Like a lot of members of these forums, I updated my iPhone 6 to iOS 9.3.2 because I was harassed by the update available popup.

Soon after that I was getting upset because facebook messenger became very laggy. The app was slow. The keyboard lags brought me back to the time when I found my iPhone 4S too slow because of the same keyboard behaviour.

In the beginning I told to myself "iOS 9.3.2 is really laggy, I thought minor updates were not a danger for my iPhone's performance". But I started to figure out that only Facebook Messenger was very slow...

So I googled how to downgrade an iOS app and I found this article : http://www.idownloadblog.com/2015/12/25/how-to-download-older-versions-of-ios-apps/.

Eventually I'm now using Facebook Messenger version 22. it uses two times less disk space and is incredibly fast while providing the same most important features without the recent useless additions.

My conclusion is don't hesitate to downgrade your apps. They often use more and more memory for things that are more and more unrelated to their primary goals.

Thanks for reading me

 

[keysofanxiety]

My conclusion is don't hesitate to downgrade your apps. They often use more and more memory for things that are more and more unrelated to their primary goals.

Absolutely do hesitate to downgrade your apps. Granted, a lot of updates with apps mean they become more cache-heavy, feature rich, and slower as a result. However, they also include stability updates, bug fixes, and security patches.

 

[arvs47]

For those who feel iOS 9 became laggy on their iPhone or iPad, I say you should seriously consider downgrading your apps.

Indeed, maybe Apple is not as guilty as you think when talking about planned obsolescence.
Let me tell you my story.

Like a lot of members of these forums, I updated my iPhone 6 to iOS 9.3.2 because I was harassed by the update available popup.

Soon after that I was getting upset because facebook messenger became very laggy. The app was slow. The keyboard lags brought me back to the time when I found my iPhone 4S too slow because of the same keyboard behaviour.

In the beginning I told to myself "iOS 9.3.2 is really laggy, I thought minor updates were not a danger for my iPhone's performance". But I started to figure out that only Facebook Messenger was very slow...

So I googled how to downgrade an iOS app and I found this article : http://www.idownloadblog.com/2015/12/25/how-to-download-older-versions-of-ios-apps/.

Eventually I'm now using Facebook Messenger version 22. it uses two times less disk space and is incredibly fast while providing the same most important features without the recent useless additions.

My conclusion is don't hesitate to downgrade your apps. They often use more and more memory for things that are more and more unrelated to their primary goals.

Thanks for reading me

Thanks for the info

 

[Ganoninc]

Absolutely do hesitate to downgrade your apps. Granted, a lot of updates with apps mean they become more cache-heavy, feature rich, and slower as a result. However, they also include stability updates, bug fixes, and security patches.

If security issues would exist, editors would update their APIs, so old apps couldn't connect to their servers.
They still allow old apps because they are not a danger for their users and the proof is they don't revoke their access with updated APIs.

I'm sure you beleive Nintendo when they say "System stability improvements and other adjustments" about the multiple 3DS updates.

 

[keysofanxiety]

If security issues would exist, editors would update their APIs, so old apps couldn't connect to their servers.
They still allow old apps because they are not a danger for their users and the proof is they don't revoke their access with updated APIs.

It's really not as simple as you're making it sound. Your conclusion that because old apps can still connect to the servers, it must mean there aren't any security vulnerabilities in that app, is inherently flawed.

The onus is on you to prove why this would be perfectly safe, as currently your reasoning is based on conjecture. Of course, if it works for you, it works for you -- I just think it's bad advice to give to others.

 

[Yun0]

more myths?

 

[Ganoninc]

It's really not as simple as you're making it sound. Your conclusion that because old apps can still connect to the servers, it must mean there aren't any security vulnerabilities in that app, is inherently flawed.

The onus is on you to prove why this would be perfectly safe, as currently your reasoning is based on conjecture. Of course, if it works for you, it works for you -- I just think it's bad advice to give to others.

Because if I were a big app editor such as facebook, in case of a security issue, I wouldn't allow people who have an iPhone 4 to connect to my servers even if they can't update to the latest available version. If I would find a big security issue, I would filter the incoming connexions by their app's version.

You don't fix a security issue if you don't update your APIs to force clients to use the latest app's version.

 

[M. Gustave]

Facebook is as close to a virus as you can get in iOS. Delete.

 

[keysofanxiety]

Because if I were a big app editor such as facebook, in case of a security issue, I wouldn't allow people who have an iPhone 4 to connect to my servers even if they can't update to the latest available version. If I would find a big security issue, I would filter the incoming connexions by their app's version.

You don't fix a security issue if you don't update your APIs to force clients to use the latest app's version.

Again, no actual proof. You're providing abstract and hypothetical reasoning. If you can even show a list of some under-the-hood changes which were applied with each update, and why it wouldn't be a risk to roll back to an earlier version, I'm more than happy to change my stance.

You must appreciate that all I'm reading right now is: "An earlier version runs faster, and I can still connect to FB, so it must be fine, otherwise FB would have blocked it. And because I can still connect, anything they've said about security vulnerabilities and patches must be taken with a pinch of salt, else they'd have blocked the app if it was that serious."

 

[Shirasaki]

If downgrade is for speed, especially on older hardware then it is fine.
There are still a huge number of PC's using Windows XP, Windows 2000, or even Windows 3.1.
Some game developers force you to upgrade to the latest version, otherwise cut out your connection to server. In this case, you simply CANNOT downgrade otherwise game will not work, even though older version is more friendly to hardware and system.

 

[vertsix]

How about you don't do this silly shenanigan and just restore as new?

 

[Mlrollin91]

Because if I were a big app editor such as facebook, in case of a security issue, I wouldn't allow people who have an iPhone 4 to connect to my servers even if they can't update to the latest available version. If I would find a big security issue, I would filter the incoming connexions by their app's version.

You don't fix a security issue if you don't update your APIs to force clients to use the latest app's version.

Do you know the backlash FB would receive if they prevented older iPhones from connecting to their servers? If you are unable to provide updates to older hardware and then cease to allow older versions of the software from working, FB would be in a world of hurt from both stockholders and 'customers'.

FB makes their money by more people using their apps and have accounts, by preventing older iPhones from connecting, they would lose a lot of business. Money comes before anything else in the corporate world.

 

[Ganoninc]

Do you know the backlash FB would receive if they prevented older iPhones from connecting to their servers? If you are unable to provide updates to older hardware and then cease to allow older versions of the software from working, FB would be in a world of hurt from both stockholders and 'customers'.

FB makes their money by more people using their apps and have accounts, by preventing older iPhones from connecting, they would lose a lot of business. Money comes before anything else in the corporate world.

Do you really think they would risk to have written everywhere in the press that users' private data were stolen because they intentionally let opened a security breach to allow a maximum of users to access their network ?

Facebook needs the trust of their users to survive. It couldn't exist without it. I'm sure Google+ and Twitter would be very happy to find a security breach and prove that their service is more reliable and respects its users.

 

[Jayson A]

I don't use any apps on my iPhone... so how do I downgrade the stock apps to get the speed back?

 

[Ganoninc]

I don't use any apps on my iPhone... so how do I downgrade the stock apps to get the speed back?

I hope in iOS 10 they will allow us to manage those apps.

By the way, old versions of apps are more safe than when they were released because they use the OS's APIs, so as soon as you run the latest version of iOS, security breaches are fixed, even for your old apps. They benefit from Apple work.

After many days passed with Facebook Messenger 22, I'm still happy to enjoy a faster version that doesn't need to received all the previous messages of all my conversations before being able to send messages. It loads as fast as the web version, even with a full night of airplane mode.

My version also doesn't contain the code for the Apple Watch app, the flying hearths, the colored conversations, the basketball game, the flowers bubbles... I think messenger is becoming the new Windows Live Messenger.

 

[vista980622]

For those who feel iOS 9 became laggy on their iPhone or iPad, I say you should seriously consider downgrading your apps.

Indeed, maybe Apple is not as guilty as you think when talking about planned obsolescence.
Let me tell you my story.

Like a lot of members of these forums, I updated my iPhone 6 to iOS 9.3.2 because I was harassed by the update available popup.

Soon after that I was getting upset because facebook messenger became very laggy. The app was slow. The keyboard lags brought me back to the time when I found my iPhone 4S too slow because of the same keyboard behaviour.

In the beginning I told to myself "iOS 9.3.2 is really laggy, I thought minor updates were not a danger for my iPhone's performance". But I started to figure out that only Facebook Messenger was very slow...

So I googled how to downgrade an iOS app and I found this article : http://www.idownloadblog.com/2015/12/25/how-to-download-older-versions-of-ios-apps/.

Eventually I'm now using Facebook Messenger version 22. it uses two times less disk space and is incredibly fast while providing the same most important features without the recent useless additions.

My conclusion is don't hesitate to downgrade your apps. They often use more and more memory for things that are more and more unrelated to their primary goals.

Thanks for reading me

Sadly, while Apple is not the only party to blame for this issue, Apple is partially involved in the degrade of app performance.

Apple ships new iOS SDK with updated version of Xcode to app developers. For new App Store submissions, apps must be compiled with updated versions of iOS SDK.

The same app, built with a newer SDK, even if minimum changes are involved, the performance of the same app is often worse when compiled with a newer SDK compared to an older SDK.

 

[Jayson A]

Sadly, while Apple is not the only party to blame for this issue, Apple is partially involved in the degrade of app performance.

Apple ships new iOS SDK with updated version of Xcode to app developers. For new App Store submissions, apps must be compiled with updated versions of iOS SDK.

The same app, built with a newer SDK, even if minimum changes are involved, the performance of the same app is often worse when compiled with a newer SDK compared to an older SDK.

That's why the next hardware has to be a lot more powerful than the previous hardware, but runs exactly the same as the previous hardware on the previous OS.

 

[Mlrollin91]

That's why the next hardware has to be a lot more powerful than the previous hardware, but runs exactly the same as the previous hardware on the previous OS.

Exactly the same as the previous hardware? That statement is a little over the top, don't you think? My iPhone 6s is blistering fast compared to my iPhone 6. An iPhone 6 on 8.4.1 cannot keep up with an iPhone 6s on 9.3.2.

 

[nooaah]

Facebook is as close to a virus as you can get in iOS. Delete.

Yup, only recently discovered Friendly and never going back. I can message and look at the news feed in one app? This is revolutionary!

 

[Jessica Lares]

Stability and reliability aren't the same as security updates, when they say they've updated the app for that, it's optimization of the code - Facebook does it based on crash reports, which is why their updates are so frequent. Since they are a website, the majority of their security updates happen server side.

You wouldn't completely change APIs because of security issues either. The API itself isn't a problem, it's the misuse that is, and that's also something you change server side.

 

[stevemiller]

Exactly the same as the previous hardware? That statement is a little over the top, don't you think? My iPhone 6s is blistering fast compared to my iPhone 6. An iPhone 6 on 8.4.1 cannot keep up with an iPhone 6s on 9.3.2.

"blisteringly fast" is a little over the top too. i don't notice any massive jump switching from an iPhone 6 to an iPad pro, which if anything should be an even larger performance delta. i do notice a few more dropped frames on the 6 though, which is even more absurd when its things like scrolling through a text-only list.

my 4S on iOS6 will forever be the smoothest, most responsive mobile experience I've ever had. people can go on about features and security out the wazoo, but as an end user, that was my favourite.

 

[Mlrollin91]

"blisteringly fast" is a little over the top too. i don't notice any massive jump switching from an iPhone 6 to an iPad pro, which if anything should be an even larger performance delta. i do notice a few more dropped frames on the 6 though, which is even more absurd when its things like scrolling through a text-only list.

my 4S on iOS6 will forever be the smoothest, most responsive mobile experience I've ever had. people can go on about features and security out the wazoo, but as an end user, that was my favourite.

I have definitely noticed a speed increase from 6 to 6s. Even boot time of the device is a good 5-7 seconds faster. And that is an iPhone 6 on 8.4.1. I wish I still had the device on 8.4.1 and I would do a side by side comparison of an iPhone 6 with 8.4.1 vs a 6s with 9.3.3B. 6s is definitely a fast device. My 6s is significantly faster than my Air 2. And the Air 2 has a tri-core processor.

 

[stevemiller]

I have definitely noticed a speed increase from 6 to 6s. Even boot time of the device is a good 5-7 seconds faster. And that is an iPhone 6 on 8.4.1. I wish I still had the device on 8.4.1 and I would do a side by side comparison of an iPhone 6 with 8.4.1 vs a 6s with 9.3.3B. 6s is definitely a fast device. My 6s is significantly faster than my Air 2. And the Air 2 has a tri-core processor.

tested for myself. boot time of my pro is significantly faster yes. i'm not sure if boot times are going to be a huge factor in overall experience, and if they are, i wish more attention was drawn to the massive frame dropping that ALL devices exhibit upon boot up since iOS 9.2.

once up and running though, i did a side by side comparison of opening various apps. the a9 device beats the a8 by about a half second on first load, and on subsequent visits to the app the performance is perceptually identical (i'm sure the extra ram helps more stay in memory in the a9 of course). also worth noting though, exiting apps is consistently a half second faster on the a8, so if you're going in and out of apps a lot, the a9 will give you an advantage on first boot, but the a8 appears to give you a sustained advantage throughout.

but honestly, for me half second differences in an app loads/exits aren't the thing that drives me nuts, its when older devices take 3-5 seconds to call up a keyboard, and a half second delay is introduced on every. single. keystroke. YMMV i guess!

 

[Jayson A]

Exactly the same as the previous hardware? That statement is a little over the top, don't you think? My iPhone 6s is blistering fast compared to my iPhone 6. An iPhone 6 on 8.4.1 cannot keep up with an iPhone 6s on 9.3.2.

I don't believe that. I've used a 6s and it still lags more than an iPhone 6 on iOS 8

 

[Mlrollin91]

I don't believe that. I've used a 6s and it still lags more than an iPhone 6 on iOS 8

I don't have a single lag on my 6s. Not one. And I've very sensitive to frame rate stutters because I have a medical condition.