Updates will now appear more frequently for your iPhone, iPad or Mac

Apple announced the new update strategy at its WWDC 2022 developer conference and has been implementing it since 1 May 2023. From now on, bugs and security vulnerabilities in particular will no longer remain until the next major update. You will now have to carry out updates more frequently, which Apple does not call updates. In return, however, the download and installation time per process will be shorter.

Quick security measures between regular updates

On the iPhone, the new iOS version has the version number 16.4.1 (a). The a in brackets is the reference to the fast security measure. As this is not an update in Apple's logic, the numbers remain unchanged. They will only change again when new functions are added with iOS 16.5. The next regular update is currently in the third beta version.

About eight weeks pass between Apple's major feature updates. Apple no longer wants to wait that long to fix bugs or even security vulnerabilities and is now releasing them in between under the new name. On the iPhone they should only be around 80 megabytes in size and on the Mac just under 300 megabytes. In addition, the installation process should only take around 30 seconds. Furthermore, the battery does not need to be charged to at least 50 per cent. Apple hopes that this will increase the willingness to update the software.

Apple is not revealing exactly which errors the quick security measures fix or which security gaps they close. Unlike major updates with new functions, there are no release notes.