If true, this could be verified by keeping a set of phones on older software and comparing that control group against a set of phones that received the update.
That said, I'm totally unconvinced by this video. There's zero details of how Apple allegedly slows down old phones. Lowered clock rate? Artificially increased system call times? Nothing actually explained in the video.
It's almost certainly true but not intentional. As time goes on, the requirements of software seem to increase. Especially, these days, GPU-wise. Fancy animations and effects are common and they're usually implemented very suboptimally. They only get away with it because of hardware acceleration.
Well... old hardware is slow, and I wouldn't be surprised if it shows.
Meh - doubt it. I'm using an iPhone 14, it feels like it works basically the same as it did when I got it. In general slow downs are apps doing and not caring to per tune because the baseline perf expectation of app developers increases to the point where those things don't matter. Use the default apps and you're pretty much ok.
Apple claims this is to "keep things stable when the battery ages" and there are tons of suckers out there that belive it. But somehow, it always happens as a new iPhone is being introduced.
I don’t want to believe it but wouldn’t surprise me. I pick up my old iPhone 7 and it feels so slick and fast, it 13 mini on iOS 26 is fast in some places but infuriatingly laggy in others. Battery health 90%.
What frustrates me is that the CPUs are so powerful but somehow 5 years down the line are slow in basic UI navigation.
This has been obvious from the start. There is virtually no change in the phone’s core function but the performance degrades everywhere. I wonder if it is to promote new phones or to avoid warranty claims on existing ones.
I remember trying an iPhone 12 in 2020 and feeling it was so fast that no phone task would ever be able to use all that power. Definitely not my current experience on my now old iPhone 12. A lot of it can be attributed to ever increasing ram usage by web pages, but that doesn’t seem to be all.
This whole article is lifted credulously from newsx.com, including the "but the iPhone 18 will be great" paragraph at the end. The referenced tweet is a crypto account. Zero effort to verify the claim or the source, which itself provides no verifiable details. I'd love to hear if anyone thinks https://www.tiktok.com/@honeycoolcat is a credible source.
I have been thinking about this for some time now. There is no doubt this happens. My moms iPhone 11 is on iOS 26 and over the last 2 OS updates, its reached that exact point where it is 'glitching' like the twitter video says. Now that it won't get a new update this year it seems it requires an upgrade, not from new features, but from the existing ones no longer functioning efficiently.
My theory is that the 'malware' is simply heavier updates on older phones that don't really need it. For example the camera app in iOS26 could be significantly slower than in iOS 15 for example. It may do a few extra things but it could do them just as well on the older code base. Now with the new code base, the exact same feature runs slower on an old phone but runs the same on a newer phone with a relative difference noticeable.
This is probably because Apple hardware team is far ahead of the software team. There is a lot of headroom, and instead of doing something innovative with it, apple choses to instead just bloat it to sell more phones.
Apple with this strategy becomes the most environmentally unhealthy company. Of course we need a way to prove this.
What I would do is get an iPhone 12 with iOS 14 to iOS 27 and compare how fluid and snappy the UI is. its probably hard to get an iPhone with iOS 14 because apple cleverly doesnt sign it.
Heh, I'm usually not the one to defend Apple, but...
She calls it malware, if she was an Apple engineer, she should be able to give a hint where to look so that interested parties can disassemble the code and investigate. With no specifics, it looks like a former engineer that holds a grudge. Not saying that this is the case, but she would make her position stronger with some specifics.
It seems to me that it's much easier to just not optimize new code paths for older devices, introduce changes that require more performant hardware (cough, Liquid Glass), etc. That together with the natural bloating of applications and websites does enough to slow down older phones. Especially because Apple has always been conservative with the amount of memory in their phones. E.g. even the iPhone 17 still has 8 GiB RAM, while comparably-priced Android phones have 16 GiB RAM.
Is this news? I think read this about five years ago. Also it's not a scandal but just a way to cope with degrading batteries. Incidentally my own older iPhone noticeably slowed about two weeks ago although it's only a feeling and I have no way to verify this.
"Back then, the company admitted to slowing down some older models through routine software updates. However, it stated that the main goal was to stop phones with aging batteries from shutting down unexpectedly, rather than tricking buyers."
This is a common pattern seen with so-called "tech" companies
A denial of intent
For example
Accusation: Apple slowed phones with updates
Response: We force updates for valid reasons
where [valid reasons] usually makes some mention of "security"
The companies never deny that the subject of the complaint, e.g., loss of performance, loss of privacy, etc., was forseeable
For example, the company will state something like,
"We force updates for valid reasons"
instead of
"We force updates for valid reasons. We had no idea this would make older phones slower."
Of course the company knew this would make phones slower
The company in its response might state the "main goal" but what were the "other goals" or "incidental benefits" that accrue to the company, e.g., slower phones as a result of "updates" leads to more "upgrades" (sales of new phones)
25 comments
[ 4.1 ms ] story [ 43.1 ms ] threadThat said, I'm totally unconvinced by this video. There's zero details of how Apple allegedly slows down old phones. Lowered clock rate? Artificially increased system call times? Nothing actually explained in the video.
Well... old hardware is slow, and I wouldn't be surprised if it shows.
Does that mean "the notch" goes away, too?
I'd rather the phone be a bit slower than having the phone cut out on me.
There's a simple fix to this, and that's just to have a healthy battery in your phone. No need to buy a new phone.
https://theweek.com/59708/does-apple-slow-old-iphones-when-a...
Apple claims this is to "keep things stable when the battery ages" and there are tons of suckers out there that belive it. But somehow, it always happens as a new iPhone is being introduced.
https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/iphone-slow-do-apple-s-sm...
(I except this comment to be flagged or downvoted heavily)
What frustrates me is that the CPUs are so powerful but somehow 5 years down the line are slow in basic UI navigation.
My theory is that the 'malware' is simply heavier updates on older phones that don't really need it. For example the camera app in iOS26 could be significantly slower than in iOS 15 for example. It may do a few extra things but it could do them just as well on the older code base. Now with the new code base, the exact same feature runs slower on an old phone but runs the same on a newer phone with a relative difference noticeable.
This is probably because Apple hardware team is far ahead of the software team. There is a lot of headroom, and instead of doing something innovative with it, apple choses to instead just bloat it to sell more phones.
Apple with this strategy becomes the most environmentally unhealthy company. Of course we need a way to prove this.
What I would do is get an iPhone 12 with iOS 14 to iOS 27 and compare how fluid and snappy the UI is. its probably hard to get an iPhone with iOS 14 because apple cleverly doesnt sign it.
She calls it malware, if she was an Apple engineer, she should be able to give a hint where to look so that interested parties can disassemble the code and investigate. With no specifics, it looks like a former engineer that holds a grudge. Not saying that this is the case, but she would make her position stronger with some specifics.
It seems to me that it's much easier to just not optimize new code paths for older devices, introduce changes that require more performant hardware (cough, Liquid Glass), etc. That together with the natural bloating of applications and websites does enough to slow down older phones. Especially because Apple has always been conservative with the amount of memory in their phones. E.g. even the iPhone 17 still has 8 GiB RAM, while comparably-priced Android phones have 16 GiB RAM.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batterygate
This is a common pattern seen with so-called "tech" companies
A denial of intent
For example
Accusation: Apple slowed phones with updates
Response: We force updates for valid reasons
where [valid reasons] usually makes some mention of "security"
The companies never deny that the subject of the complaint, e.g., loss of performance, loss of privacy, etc., was forseeable
For example, the company will state something like,
"We force updates for valid reasons"
instead of
"We force updates for valid reasons. We had no idea this would make older phones slower."
Of course the company knew this would make phones slower
The company in its response might state the "main goal" but what were the "other goals" or "incidental benefits" that accrue to the company, e.g., slower phones as a result of "updates" leads to more "upgrades" (sales of new phones)