I’ve been using Apple devices for well over a decade now, and over time, I’ve started to realize that Apple isn’t what it once was. The software that used to feel seamless has started to lose a lot of its charm. There was a time when I could happily give up certain features you find on Android in exchange for the promise of reliability. Even that argument doesn’t hold up anymore.
These days, it feels like Apple is constantly testing how far it can push users just to get them to buy the newest iPhone for reasons that are almost entirely artificial. Features that should be standard get delayed for years, and bugs that should be fixed still persist.
iOS 26 fixes some basics Apple ignored for years
Overdue features dressed up as innovation
iOS 26 comes with plenty of “hidden” features, but when you really think about it, most of these are not hidden at all. They are basic tools that Apple should have added years ago; yet, they only appear now, when frustration has already reached a breaking point.
Some of these additions are laughably overdue. You can finally change the ringtone on your iPhone without jumping through hoops, which feels almost absurd to type out in 2025. The same goes for alarms, where you can now adjust snooze periods instead of being stuck with Apple’s one-size-fits-all approach.
Charging time estimates are another example. Android phones have been showing users how long it will take to fully recharge for years, but iOS 26 treats it like a new convenience.
This pattern isn’t new, and it certainly isn’t limited to iOS 26. Just last year, Apple finally allowed us to move app icons wherever we want, and a few years before that, we received the groundbreaking addition of … widgets.
The “it just works” promise is dead
Old bugs meet new gimmicks
The problem runs deeper than late features. Apple software once lived by the promise of “it just works,” but that philosophy has faded into the past. Over the past few years, iOS has become increasingly prone to bugs. Even simple things like rotating the phone to portrait mode can leave the UI completely broken.
After updating to iOS 26, I encountered a bug where I could not connect my iPad to my iPhone’s Wi-Fi hotspot unless Bluetooth was turned off on at least one device.
This was most likely an iCloud-related issue, because the second I signed out of either device, it would start working normally again. That is not how an ecosystem is supposed to work. Why am I even choosing Apple if the “walled garden” is also completely broken?
Storage management is another ongoing nightmare. At one point, Apple Maps randomly took up 30GB of space on my iPhone, and because iOS still does not allow you to clear app data like Android does, I had no option but to reset the phone completely.
This is not even an isolated issue, either, as there are countless threads on Apple’s own support pages about the same bug dating back years, and Apple has done absolutely nothing to fix it. But hey, you can always buy more iCloud storage, right?
Yet Apple knows how to keep people hooked. Instead of fixing these structural flaws, it distracts with shiny changes like the Liquid Glass design or basic feature tweaks, dressing them up as if they are grand innovations.
Apple decides what your phone can and can’t do
Software upgrades treated as hardware perks
While Apple has been busy rolling out these so-called new features, it also needs reasons to convince you to buy a newer iPhone. And what better way to do that than by hardware-locking features that are clearly just software. This trick has been part of Apple’s playbook for years and has only gotten worse over generations.
Take the iPhone 17 lineup. Apple proudly boasted that you can now record videos using both the front and rear cameras at the same time, which is basically a video version of BeReal. The problem is that older iPhones don’t get it. There is absolutely no hardware reason for this. Older devices are perfectly capable of doing it. Third-party apps have been allowing people to do this for years, yet Apple decides that only the newest phones deserve it.
A similar argument can be made for Apple Intelligence. It’s entirely fair that on-device models require more RAM and processing power, but some features still rely on the cloud and can function properly on older iPhones. Yet, you cannot use ChatGPT with Siri unless you have an iPhone 15 Pro or later. Siri is already horrible with Apple Intelligence to begin with, and you get an even worse version of it for no actual reason.
Apple keeps lowering the bar for no reason
I’ve grown so tired of these tactics that I’ve actually switched to Android as my primary phone, demoting my iPhone to a secondary device. I still use a Mac as my main computer, but if this trend continues, I’m not so sure how much longer that will last either.
I’d love for Apple to take a break for a year and focus on reliability and performance updates rather than flashy features and changes.
