Developers Frustrated at Apple for Just One Day's Notice to Submit Apps Ahead of iOS 14 Release Today

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During its "Time Flies" event yesterday, Apple announced that iOS 14, iPadOS 14, watchOS 7, and tvOS 14 will be widely released today, providing developers with just one day's notice to submit their optimized apps for review.

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While developers have had access to beta versions of the software updates since June, many were caught off guard by Apple's much shorter notice of the final releases. By comparison, Apple started accepting apps built for iOS 13 on September 10 last year, over one week before the software update was released on September 19.

iOS 14, iPadOS 14, watchOS 7, and tvOS 14 should be released to the public around 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time today. We've shared a list of compatible devices for each software update here. Note that Apple has yet to announce a release date for macOS Big Sur.

In an email to developers, Apple said that all iOS and iPadOS apps submitted to the App Store will need to be built with Xcode 12 and the iOS 14 SDK starting in April 2021. Likewise, Apple said all watchOS apps submitted to the App Store will need to be built with Xcode 12 and the watchOS 7 SDK starting in April 2021.

Related Roundups: iOS 14, iPadOS 14
Related Forum: iOS 14

Top Rated Comments

dlewis23 Avatar
dlewis23
8 months ago

You developers had whole summer to update your apps! Stop finding an excuse to bash at Apple.

Focus on 14.1 that will be dropping soon.
Except it doesn't work that way. We always had a week to 10 days to test our apps with the final build.

You also can't be submitting to the store with beta builds of Xcode. We only got the final version of Xcode yesterday and when this happens review times always go way up. So if our app does not work on iOS 14 it could be days to over a week before we can submit a build with iOS 14 that corrects those issues.
Score: 125 Votes (Like | Disagree)
arn Avatar
arn
8 months ago

I understand the frustration behind not knowing the *exact* date... but when we hit Public Beta 8, did they not think... oh man, this is coming soon, I should get my iOS 14 apps submitted.
They weren't accepting submissions before yesterday.

Why don't people buy an iPhone 12 right now, instead of complaining Apple didn't release one.

arn
Score: 63 Votes (Like | Disagree)
chrono1081 Avatar
chrono1081
8 months ago

They had 3 months of betas to get it ready, they wait till last min and say this

The whole beta testing is for apps to get it ready they should all be updated on launch but it always takes months that’s coz the developers can act lazy like Facebook with dark mode
I can tell you're not a developer. Let me explain that those three months aren't reliable testing. Sure you can update some stuff, like new APIs and things but a dev can only really reliably test against the GM seed which dropped yesterday. If someones apps broke due to the GM they literally have one night to fix it, which doesn't provide enough time for reliable regression testing (if they can even fix the bug in one night.)

You also couldn't even submit apps for iOS 14 until yesterday.
Score: 57 Votes (Like | Disagree)
dlewis23 Avatar
dlewis23
8 months ago
I love reading all the comments from people who are not developers but who think they have a clue what it's like being a developer, want to write here saying developers are just a bunch of whiners for Apple only giving 24 hours but but but we had the betas since June.

Then we will come back in about 4 hours and they will be whining saying their favorite app does not work with iOS 14.
Score: 50 Votes (Like | Disagree)
japanime Avatar
japanime
8 months ago
"Time flies," indeed! ?
Score: 47 Votes (Like | Disagree)
chrono1081 Avatar
chrono1081
8 months ago

You developers had whole summer to update your apps! Stop finding an excuse to bash at Apple.

Focus on 14.1 that will be dropping soon.
/s I assume? If so ignore the rest of my post, if not just know that's not how it works. Developers can test reliably only against the GM seed which literally dropped yesterday. Also Apples approval process isn't instant, so many apps won't work on day one.
Score: 47 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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