The Takeaway: Why Apple will let iOS 9 delete apps
The change -- allowing iOS 9 to temporarily delete some of a user's apps -- is designed to make room on devices with limited storage for the updates to take place. Doing so will allow Apple to avoid a repeat of last year's iOS 8 installation problems, when users found they couldn't install the new OS wirelessly. Instead, they had to plug in their devices and perform the upgrade using iTunes, a process many newer users didn't even know about.
The new feature became public yesterday when Apple released the second beta of iOS 9 to developers, and is one of several changes Apple made this year to ease installation woes. They include:
It was not immediately clear how iOS 9 selects apps to delete (and then reinstall post-upgrade) or how the process affects apps that store data on a device.
The new app deletion process was noted by several developers who installed the second beta of iOS 9; one, Kaleb Butt of Vancouver, B.C., tweeted a screenshot showing the app deletion pop-up window. Butt's image was quickly retweeted by numerous users, who highlighted the change (and complimented Butt on his sudden celebrity status).
With reports by Gregg Keizer at Computerworld.