
iOS 12 introduces new features to reduce interruptions and manage Screen Time - el_duderino
https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2018/06/ios-12-introduces-new-features-to-reduce-interruptions-and-manage-screen-time/
======
lalos
This is game changing, one thing is accepting a weakness or a negative side-
effect and another is implementing features that mitigate that. Props to
Apple, this is some impressive work that will have a net benefit for users. It
is almost as if they care. Of course, they can do this since it does not go
against their incentives like other companies that make money on the time
spent of the platform (video watching, website browsing for ad clicks, etc).
It is a good step in the right direction way better than nothing or sitting on
the sidelines until regulation steps in.

~~~
lern_too_spel
> Props to Apple, this is some impressive work that will have a net benefit
> for users. It is almost as if they care. Of course, they can do this since
> it does not go against their incentives like other companies

This post reads like parody, considering that these features are copied from
Samsung [1] and Google [2].

[1]
[https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/...](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/the-
switch/wp/2018/01/19/smartphones-finally-tackle-addiction-with-a-little-help-
from-arianna-huffington/)

[2] [https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnet.com/google-
amp/news/go...](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnet.com/google-
amp/news/google-creates-new-android-controls-to-take-on-phone-addiction/)

~~~
megablast
I don't get your point. Is he saying these are unique to Apple? Should we not
celebrate Apple doing good work, even if others have done it before? Should we
not be happy that Apple is improving iOS?

~~~
sundvor
[Non-Apple] people are annoyed because whenever Apple introduce features
they've copied/amalgamated from others, they always manage to spin it like
_they_ are the ones who came up with these fantastic designs.

------
mseebach
I'd love for both Android and iOS to find a way to be smart about audible
notifications.

Low-hanging fruit seems to be to disable, or drastically reduce notification
volume when the device is held in a hand and the screen is on. I get nervous
ticks when someone is texting in a public space with loud notifications.

Another feature that might make sense is somehow detecting when the owner of
the phone is out of earshot. Phones left behind in an open plan office,
getting notifications, ringing etc is very annoying.

~~~
ljm
I'd love to see Handoff become more clever, and for Apple to choose a more
gentle sound for calls and notifications, along with the vibrations. I had a
colleague once who left his iPhone on full volume and he seemed to get a lot
of messages. One 'DING/BRRRRR!' was okay but when you were trying to work and
all you could hear was 'DING DING DING BRRRBRRBRRRBRBRBRRR DING DING DING
DINGDING' in a tone that penetrates all walls and earbuds, it's too much.
Meanwhile, the person who has suddenly become popular is listening to music in
their insane-impedance headphones so they don't hear shit, they don't know how
fucking annoying their phone is, and they don't put it on silent.

Make phones silent by default. If you need the notifications to be audible it
has to be a choice.

~~~
brisance
You’re asking Apple to cure obnoxiousness.

~~~
mauriciob
Maybe. But there is room for improvement on the notifications, there is no
reason why the phone needs to ring and vibrate on every notification.

If it notified the user a few seconds ago, it should have a delay until the
next ring/vibration.

~~~
alsetmusic
> If it notified the user a few seconds ago, it should have a delay until the
> next ring/vibration.

Multiple rapid notifications in a short window of time alert me to
emergencies. Phones should be on vibrate in public, of course.

------
hownowbrowncow
I’m thrilled about this change. Been trying apps to block for time such as
Freedom, but it’s difficult to time blocklists, find how to block apps, and do
all of this on a schedule. After a while I’ve realized every feature to
effectively manage screen addiction while still remaining a good experience
really needs to be baked into the OS. The direction Apple is taking looks
fantastic—the only thing I hope for is specific Safari blocks in a addition to
the app level timers.

~~~
Aditya_Garg
I solved this problem a few years ago by setting up a parental restrictions
block and intentionally forgetting the password.

I may not be able to install new apps anymore, but at least I don't reddit on
my phone anymore.

------
Lx1oG-AWb6h_ZG0
> CarPlay adds support for third-party navigation apps displayed right on the
> car’s dash — joining music, messaging, calling and automaker apps.

woohoo! Can I finally use google maps in my car then? I don't understand why
the Apple Maps team has been so slow on features

~~~
threeseed
> I don't understand why the Apple Maps team has been so slow on features

Have they ? Every major iOS update has major updates to the Maps app.

It is slowly bridging the gap with Google Maps and the issues are still mainly
with POIs which Apple arguably can never fix. Unless of course they do their
own Street View and invent their own captcha system.

~~~
jonknee
Google Maps gets new features all the time, it's weird Apple waits to give
Maps an update annually. Apple would be better served decoupling a lot of the
default apps from OS level updates.

~~~
abritinthebay
The odd thing is Google Maps routing algorithm seems to actively be getting
_worse_.

It tries to be too clever, resulting in often frustrating and silly route
adjustments

~~~
things
It also seems to reset fixes. One example: when asking for cycling directions
into the city from where I live, Google maps tried to send me down a staircase
in a local park. I notified google and it was fixed a few months later. Now
it's back… I've seen it for other fixes too.

------
checker659
My app's name was ScreenTime. Oh well, time to change it I guess.

[https://tryscreentime.com](https://tryscreentime.com)

(PS: Please don't buy my app or anything. It's not 'released' yet.)

~~~
giarc
Hmm I would have thought screen sharing was a native feature of FaceTime.
Great idea to add it if it's not already there. If you don't want me to buy
it, is there somewhere I can leave my email address so I can find out when I
should buy it :)

~~~
ejdyksen
It's not a native feature of FaceTime, but it is a native feature of macOS--
specifically iMessage.

Just start an iMessage conversation, then click "ask to share screen" or
"invite to share screen" from the Buddies menu.

[https://i.imgur.com/vRtuIQM.png](https://i.imgur.com/vRtuIQM.png)

~~~
checker659
That doesn't work if the other person is, say, on an iPad.

------
ljm
This is a fantastic nudge towards encouraging better boundaries and healthier
habits with tech, and having it at the OS level is far more effective than
using an app that might not have the access it needs to properly do the job. I
hope to see more ideas in this area as things like phones practically become
an extension of our livelihoods, where leaving them at home can in extreme
cases feel like you've lost your connection to the world, as if your entire
life has to run through Instagram and Snapchat and Telegram.

That it's also subtle and configurable means it remains a sensible nudge and
not an imposition. I would love to see more developments towards building tech
that gives you some space instead of constantly vying for your attention and
engagement.

For a slightly tangential example, it would be nice to sign up to a service
and not be inundated with daily onboarding emails, upsell emails, weekly
newsletters, account management requests, and Intercom chat popups because the
marketing team doesn't have any chill and has to inflict this bombardment of
utter tripe onto every unsuspecting user. Like an implicit condition of trying
out an otherwise decent app is to accept this torrent of bullshit that just
creates busywork.

I think some apps offer the ability to suppress notifications for non-
important things, which is a good start.

------
duxup
I really like the idea of giving users more ability to manage their devices at
the OS level.

Apps, websites (everyone wants to send me notifications) are not going to do
it as a group.

The more customization I'm allowed and options to be human with a device the
better.

------
ddtaylor
I'm hoping this is a good thing for us since it should give us the ability to
tell iOS how to manage screen time better. Our product pushes the idea that
screen time management is only half of the equation, since technically you
could have already taken the phone or tablet away from a kid, but most parents
don't do that because it creates an enormous emotional conflict. It's all
about agency.

There is an old child psychology example where a kid asks "Can I have a red
popsicle?" and the parent knows there are only blue ones in the fridge. If the
parent responds "No, there aren't any red ones left, but you can have one of
the blue ones" then you're instantly the villain and you only exist in this
world to deny them of their right to popsicles. But if you respond "Yes, you
can have a popsicle whatever color is left in the fridge" you're their hero
and it's the fault of the fridge for not providing their desired color of
popsicle.

Our system gives kids the ability to access more screen time based on them
making measurable progress in studying and because of that parents are less
villains and our app/system absorbs most of the hate. If a kid says their
phone or tablet won't load a page a parent can essentially say "Looks like
your phone says you need to do XYZ before you can access more Internet"

Are other HN parents struggling with these issues? If so, do you think setting
rigid screen time limits will help?

~~~
jac_no_k
Me: Parent of a 13 and 9 year old with software screen restrictions in place.

My kids clearly know who put the restrictions in place and the reason why.
They also know that on request with a reason, I will unlock the restrictions.
I find that this gating question sufficient that they police themselves.

~~~
megaman22
How long has it taken them to figure out how to get around the restrictions on
their own ?

I think the only reason I would put blocks in place on my children would be as
a testing mechanism.

~~~
jac_no_k
They haven't yet unless they've figured out how to scrub logs as well.

My strategy with the kids is for them to learn that delaying gratifications
can lead to greater rewards. If they ask for the locks to removed for the day,
it's usually granted.

In any case, I would be happy if they figured out how to bypass. (I see them
attempting but so far failing.)

------
ianferrel
I _really_ hope this includes a setting on Do Not Disturb to always silence
calls/texts from numbers not in my addressbook _along with_ the ability to
schedule it for further silencing during sleeping hours.

~~~
ectospheno
That would be a nice feature. Since it didn't exist, my default ringtone is a
silent tone. I then give entries in my contact list a regular ringtone.

~~~
ianferrel
Does that mean that you have to change the ringtone every time you add a
contact? Did you have to go manually change it for every contact you have? Or
is there a way to change it en masse?

~~~
ectospheno
If you are a social person then yes, my method isn't convenient. You do have
to manage everything by hand.

I use my phone almost entirely for data and messaging though. Calls are rare.

------
utefan001
I am thinking seriously about open sourcing this. It will log into sites to
check for point progress and restore access after some points are earned. My
daughter only needs 2 or 3 minutes of khan academy to earn enough points to
get youtube back. I am proud of what my friend Kris and I built, but getting
tired of managing a side project / playing startup.

[https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/studycity/id1339396223?mt=8](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/studycity/id1339396223?mt=8)

website is studycity dot org

~~~
scottmf
This is a really great idea, but I wouldn’t have really got from the app
listing and screenshots that this is what the app does.

Your comment here explains it much better than the App Store description IMO.

Maybe some help from a UI designer and a little rebranding could help a lot!

~~~
utefan001
Thanks Scott. I totally agree. Most frustrating challenge is that I have had
many people (250+) say "this is amazing" etc. But it has been very difficult
to convert that interest to a significant user base. Part of the challenge is
at one end of the scale, parents don't care and at the other end of the scale
parents have the issue under control. Even if parents love the concept,
getting them to become users is way more difficult than I imagined.

------
tlug
I find it awkward how Apple is now bravely fighting problems that it has
(co-)created in the first place. They invent all the clever ways how to limit
the number of notifications and disturbances on the phone. But that's just
attacking the problem from the wrong side. If you don't want notifications,
just don't enable them! It's that simple.

I may be old (42) but the only notifications that exist on my phone are from
SMS and WhatsApp (which I occassionally use). I intentionally don't enable
notifications about emails, as this communication medium is by definition not
realtime. Of course I'm not on Facebook either, but even if I were, I don't
see the point of having to check all the time what fresh pics of cats are
other people sharing.

~~~
givreh
Such a binary approach is probably too extreme for many people. I think it
increases the overall usability of the device if you are able to more
granularly define when to and when not to receive notifications.

------
aetherspawn
Apple: please make the alarm app bypass do not disturb mode and allow
independent volume control (ie allow alarms at max even if the ringer is left
alone).

Sincerely, someone who is sick of having their alarm not work unless all their
other apps are binging like crazy all night.

This was so trivial in Android, it’s laughable I still need think about what I
need need to do for the alarms to work properly. Also always paranoid I’ll
forget a step and miss an exam or something.

~~~
haikuginger
Um. If you're setting an alarm in the built-in clock app, it definitely works
when Do Not Disturb is turned on.

~~~
aetherspawn
This does not match the physical testing I have been doing and my father has
said the same about having issues with DND and the clock.

So, I don’t really know what’s going on, then. But unless vibrate and DND is
turned off and the volume is all the way up, sometimes the alarm just doesn’t
work and I have missed stuff before.

Android was really clear about this: there was just “no notifications”, “alarm
only” and “all notifications”. I wish Apple would make a three state toggle
like this and bundle it all together ..

(I understand that you’re trying to tell me that alarm should be working, but
it just isn’t).

~~~
justrobert
The alarm app on iOS can run into an issue where it will not play sound
regardless of any other setting. It has existed in many versions of iOS. It
has happened in iOS 10 and iOS 11, I don't know about the previous versions.

They fix is to reboot the phone.

I cannot trust it for critical alarms, so a simple device by the bed is
required again.

------
aldanor
About time... as a parent, I’m very thrilled to see this get implemented.

------
maximegarcia
Finally some progress on notifications. Coming from N years on Android, that's
my most annoying point.

Grouped notifications are largely welcomed. I simply disabled those for
Twitter/Telegram/Messenger because that's nearly one notif per message (kept
Whatsapp because of too much miss otherwise). Hope it's customizable though
(app dev or user) because I'd prefer my email notifications from Inbox/Gmail
not grouped for different senders.

And the other thing I miss so much is the "auto-dismissal" of notifications.
When I read an email in inbox web client on my laptop, the notification for it
instantaneously disappeared on my Nexus 5 (just that one notif). Not anymore
with my iPhone. If I remember correctly, notifications API only allows a
remove all or nothing behavior for apps on iOS. Do you know if there is any
progress on that front?

------
rebelde
Helpful, but my kids will switch to their game console, another tablet, the
computer or Netflix.

When I am king, I will declare that ALL devices must support an API so that I
can control my kids total screen time across all devices.

~~~
rimliu
The limit actually transfers. E.g. if you spent half of your allocated time on
iPhone and then grab iPad you will only half the half time remaining, not
starting afresh.

------
lavezzi
Kind of happy to see that Workflow will finally be integrated into iOS.
Hopefully they have made some improvements to the functionality and to the
depth of OS features it has access to.

~~~
aeontech
I'm surprised this is getting so little discussion - for my money, that's one
of the biggest announcements today, period. It should be awesome for power
users.

~~~
kalev
Not even a notable post here on HN. I really hope this works as has been shown
yesterday, it looked so promising. Really great stuff for power users :)

------
joshe
Lots of shade thrown at Facebook. Instagram and Facebook were the top 2 apps
they demoed for reduction.

~~~
tiglionabbit
To be fair, Facebook's notifications are really annoying.

------
swalsh
This is great, as a parent. Next big thing I'd like is a better parental
youtube filter (it has something now, but it's absolutely terrible).

~~~
elahd
Download the YouTube Kids app instead.

[https://www.youtube.com/yt/kids/](https://www.youtube.com/yt/kids/)

~~~
geofft
Everything I've read about YouTube Kids is that the filtering doesn't actually
work well and is largely algorithmic.

Apparently they finally added an option for curated channels (known brands /
everything is reviewed by a human moderator) about a month ago, but you have
to enable that option.

[https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/25/business/media/youtube-
ki...](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/25/business/media/youtube-kids-
parental-controls.html)

------
jhulla
Question for the crowd: With this upgrade is iOS at feature-parity with
Android/Google Family Link for managing child smart phone usage?

~~~
canuckintime
Android still has a great edge by offering Multiple user feature on their
tablets (rip?) and phones. Unless you have an iPad and iPhone for each child,
or only have one child, the iOS management features are still not flexible
enough.

~~~
dep_b
Strangely enough iPads have it for years with an education profile.

------
jasonkester
Interruptions are the biggest downside of mobile devices, and this update
still doesn’t address them correctly. The fix is simple: a big “OFF” switch at
the top of the Notifications Settings Screen.

In my mind, the only reason my phone should ever make noise on its own is when
a phone call comes in from one of my contacts, or an alarm I set goes off.

Notice that neither of those things are “Notifications”.

Feel free to keep a list someplace of emails and texts that have come in. But
I’ll check that on my time, so don’t ever interrupt me to tell me about it.
Apps that want permission to appear on that list should have to explicitly ask
for it, rather than getting it by default and forcing me to fish around in the
notifications settings to turn them off for ever single app that I install.

It’s amazing that no phone (or computer anymore) has anything approaching
this.

~~~
dwb
Third-party apps already have to ask permission to notify you in iOS, pretty
sure they always have. Sure you have to turn them off for Messages and Mail,
but I don’t think most people would be happy with a default where you’re not
notified for those.

------
CodeSheikh
I welcome this feature. Knowing that my kids will be brought up in the age of
iDevices (whether I like it or not), having a "digital guardian" like Screen
Time will be of great use and can be made part of your family life naturally
vs imagine abruptly introducing this to todays teenager's life.

Plus, it is a great tool for self-management as well. Weird a couple of weeks
ago we were having quite a debate among co-workers about the lack of such
important feature in todays smartphones. Sure there is already a similar
feature in current iOS to view battery usage by app but it is not intuitive
and requires quite a drill-down in settings.

------
paul7986
Where is some AR innovation within my camera's view ... like open my camera,
point it a historic location and see how it looked in the past or show me
information about a business. You know something like Google Lens!

Maybe in a few years AR will be exciting or become useful like Touch ID did
after awhile (for me at least). For now its just silliness as no killer
utility or experience has been created yet. Measure ... there are tons of AR
rulers out there now that are fun to use, but...

~~~
yial
I've thought about that same kind of feature, even without AR and simply based
on geo location would be cool... someway to quickly pull up historical photos
and information about wherever you are at the time.

~~~
paul7986
Or turn day into night time view or tell me this strangers name I’m talking
to.. AR glasses are more suitable for those ideas.

As for AR Wikipedia or AR Historcal View it would require a massive amount of
crowd sourcing. Though Wikipedia did it.

Overall AR as of today is lame it needs killer utilities or experiences like
AR Wikipedia or whatever it would be called.

------
sirmike_
This is cool i guess. iOS Nanny. The best part I think is the notifications.
Looks like the ultimate STFU setting for apps. Glares at Facebook, twitter and
work email /s

------
ivm
I have a feeling that it will be ported to macOS one day. Since I have a time
tracking app, I'd better start preparing for getting sherlocked[0] in advance.

[0]
[https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=sherlocked](https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=sherlocked)

------
baxtr
I think it’s great that Apple offers the tools to combat the new “tobacco”. Of
course, anyone has to quit on their own

------
sharkenstein
Funny how Software updates make me more excited than Hardware ones... I'm so
excited for iOS 12!

Also, iOS on Mac OS! I wonder what this means for the React Native devs... I
have no experience on that platform but I'm curious about the potential impact
of iOS + MacOS on that community

~~~
ec109685
It would probably help given now react native iOS will work on the Mac
“natively”.

------
edge17
Does anyone know if the usage data collected will be available via iOS API's?
It would probably be a bit ironic if it were, but it doesn't seem out of the
question either.

~~~
newscracker
There's no way that Apple, of all companies, would provide this information to
third party apps via an API. Even if Apple put this under the permission
request model and add a new permission, we should keep in mind that most
people don't understand app permissions well. Imagine a scenario where
WhatsApp prompts the user to allow it to get usage information to "help" the
user, and in turn starts spying on activity on Telegram or competing apps and
shares that with HQ so that they can work on manipulating the user even more
to shift their attention to WhatsApp and _away from_ other apps. Such a
scenario sounds highly disturbing to me.

Social platforms already have so much on their end to manipulate users into
giving them their attention. There's no good reason to trust any of them with
such information.

------
jedisct1
This is great.

I was already using dnscrypt-proxy to limit access to some websites during
certain days/times, but restrictions at application level is even better, at
least for iOS devices.

------
inertial
Sad that it's still not possible to change notification sound for apps at the
OS level i.e. for apps that don't offer the functionality to change the sound.

------
JustSomeNobody
I don't want information about how much I use my device. I want an "essentials
mode" that will allow only phone, iMessage,email and gps for example.

------
jakozaur
I love this. It shows that Apple can make long-term improvments (limit
smartphone zonbies) even at expense of short-term gains (App Developers may
suffer).

------
awat
I don’t consider myself phone addicted but it could be sobering to see my app
usage broken into times instead of battery consumption percentages.

~~~
manmal
There is already an app for that: [https://itunes.apple.com/at/app/moment-
screen-time-tracker/i...](https://itunes.apple.com/at/app/moment-screen-time-
tracker/id771541926?mt=8)

~~~
skinnymuch
This gives you app times based on screenshotting the battery page. Won’t be as
accurate as Apple’s implementation.

------
kristofferR
I've updated to iOS 12 beta 1 on my iPhone 7, and it's so much smoother and
faster than iOS 11.4, it's like a whole new phone. :)

------
rangibaby
Here’s my feature to reduce interruptions: turn off all notifications and app
badges. It let me use my phone the way I wanted to

------
thedangler
Anyone have a link to a list of all the api changes / enhancements that will
take place.

------
samat
I have just installed beta on iPhone SE and it feels much faster.

------
KillerRAK
And still no native calculator for iPad. Oh well, maybe they'll squeeze it in
next year. Imagine the cheers and adulation that'll bring from the WWDC
keynote audience...

------
agumonkey
Good that the tech world reacted to the pocket computer addiction

------
masterleep
I really hope this works better than the current awful, awful parental
controls.

------
corey_moncure
Great. Can you manage your contact groups from iOS yet?

------
jedberg
Why is the name of the iPhone X "Jason's iPad"? This is a surprising lack of
quality control from Apple.

~~~
mongster
You can monitor/moderate screen time for other devices you've connected in
Family Sharing. That section talks about setting those access limits for
others in your group.

------
CodeXs
All I've ever wanted was a mouse support and not have to jump through
ridiculous hoops to open up a file.

I'm sorry touch does not cut it for a productivity working on large documents
or any other program that requires repetitive precision.

------
mullingitover
All this, but they still implement the anti-pattern of only allowing Siri to
control their own music App. I'm skipping this OS update.

~~~
saagarjha
I don’t see how skipping iOS 12 will allow you to make Siri do more things.
Plus, I don’t even think you’re right about that, since you can now send
custom intents through Siri.

~~~
mullingitover
It won't make Siri do much less, and Siri is already the bottom tier of voice
assistants. If Apple was going to allow Siri to talk to Spotify, they'd say
that they were going to do it. Users have been asking for it. People who
switch from Android notice that they can't do a thing that they used to be
able to do.

Aside from that omission, what other things does iOS 12 offer that I'd be
missing out on? \- Analytics about notifications: I don't care

\- Augmented reality: not compelling

\- New proprietary animated emojis: not compelling

\- Group Facetime: Facetime suffers from the Telephone Effect. I never use it
because at least half of my friends are android people, and we all use
Facebook because it's something everyone has. If you're talking about a group
of people, it's extremely unlikely that everyone will use iOS, but it's
extremely likely that everyone will be on Facebook.

\- New features in Photos: I don't use any of the features that have been
added to Photos since...iOS 7? New features are just going to continue to slow
down my device.

\- Various other features: nothing jumping out at me as something I'd risk an
OS update over.

It's a nice effort and I'm sure Apple has made the OS update they want to
make, but it's not offering anything I've heard anyone ask for.

~~~
briandear
> Augmented reality: not compelling

While certainly a matter of opinion, but I think it’s the most important tech
innovation in a long time. Just the Measure app alone has incredible
implications. We are just scratching the surface of what this tech can do.

~~~
mullingitover
> We are just scratching the surface of what this tech can do.

I agree, and I think that's a great way of putting it. I don't think that AR
can't be compelling in the future, but right now it feels like we're between
the Peak of Inflated Expectations and the Trough of Disillusionment in the
Hype Cycle.

------
cube2222
Well, they've shown exactly what Google had shown a month ago at Google IO.

~~~
Tomte
That's obviously untrue.

A major difference between Apple and Google: Google does lots of fancy machine
learning to make Google Now magically anticipate everything. Apple introduces
a kind of low-key programming in graphical form to let the user shape Siri's
abilities.

I find the latter very interesting, it's a bit like Tasker lite.

And more important, the first few times Google Now appeared on my phone I was
creeped out. Just because I had googled an event weeks ago on another device
doesn't mean I want you to tell me to leave now and present me with the map
and traffic information!

~~~
izacus
Why are you talking about Google Now? There hasn't been any announcements on
I/O about it, it's pretty much a deprecated brand.

The common point here are phone use management features which were unveiled on
both OSes in the same year it seems.

------
mmastrac
Is this peak OS? Sure, these features are somewhat useful for busy
individuals, but when was the last time we saw something revolutionary in OS
design?

I'm not saying everything should be changing year-after-year, but it's hard to
get excited for these WWDC keynotes when it feels like they are stretching app
release notes to 15 minutes of a visual demo.

~~~
exalsy
They've delayed bigger features in iOS 12 because iOS 11 was such a buggy
mess, according to [1].

[1]: [https://www.macrumors.com/2018/01/30/apple-to-focus-on-
ios-p...](https://www.macrumors.com/2018/01/30/apple-to-focus-on-ios-
performance-quality-issues-axios/)

~~~
ash_gti
This wouldn't be the first time Apple's had a perf/polish focused release. For
example Snow Leopard had almost no major features and was mainly perf and
polish over Leopard.

~~~
stiGGG
Isn't Snow Leopard a complete myth? Back then they told to the public, that
this is only a polish release, but they introduced the built-in anti virus
solution, a complete rewritten Finder and QuickTime for example. I remember
that Snow Leo had lots of bugs in it's .0 release, it was only stable after
some updates like every other OSX version.

------
andrewmd
Apple’s changes amount to what the gambling industry has done to acknowledge
and address gambling addiction: displaying pamphlets around casinos and
suggesting that problem gamblers opt-in to a self-exclusion list. Helpful for
some but doesn't change anything about the environment, which has little
protections from products that are expertly engineered to get and keep you
addicted.

There should be developer API’s for this. The lack of API’s and the fact Apple
thinks three product changes alone can solve a complex social problem speaks
to how simplistically they are treating the issue. It’s a positive step
forward, and necessary, but we should be able to bring an ecosystem approach
to solving what many of us consider the biggest socio-technical problem today.

This petition is a start: [https://www.change.org/p/apple-allow-digital-
wellness-develo...](https://www.change.org/p/apple-allow-digital-wellness-
developers-to-help-ios-users)

~~~
Razengan
> _There should be developer API’s for this_

Like there are APIs for notifications etc. that many developers abuse and
Apple had to step in with this? As a user I am glad.

