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Inside Apple’s iPhone Software Shakeup After Buggy iOS 13 Debut

Software chief Federighi is overhauling development and testing of iOS 14 to make it easier to spot problems early.

Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi speaks during the 2018 Apple Worldwide Developer Conference in San Jose, California.

Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi speaks during the 2018 Apple Worldwide Developer Conference in San Jose, California.

Photographer: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
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Apple Inc. is overhauling how it tests software after a swarm of bugs marred the latest iPhone and iPad operating systems, according to people familiar with the shift.

Software chief Craig Federighi and lieutenants including Stacey Lysik announced the changes at a recent internal “kickoff” meeting with the company’s software developers. The new approach calls for Apple's development teams to ensure that test versions, known as “daily builds,” of future software updates disable unfinished or buggy features by default. Testers will then have the option to selectively enable those features, via a new internal process and settings menu dubbed Flags, allowing them to isolate the impact of each individual addition on the system.