iOS 10.3’s tweaked animations make your iPhone feel faster

By

iPhone
Does your iPhone feel faster with iOS 10.3?
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

The latest iOS 10.3 update uses a simple trick to make your iPhone feel noticeably snappier. According to one Apple engineer, the company made its animations faster so that everything happens ever so slightly quicker.

iOS 10.3 includes a whole bunch of changes and improvements designed to make your iPhone and iPad faster, including support for the new Apple File System. There are also some changes that Apple left out of its release notes.

Apple engineer Renaud Leinhart confirmed on Twitter that one of those changes is tweaked animations speeds. “iOS 10.3 feels ‘snappier’ because many animations were slightly tweaked & shortened, for the better,” he explains.

https://twitter.com/NotoriousBUGS/status/846539233305124865

It’s not clear which animations were optimized, but users should notice the difference immediately after upgrading from previous versions of iOS. The Verge speculates that this change might have something to do with bugs documented by Chris Pirillo.

Pirillo has been keeping track of “Apple’s failed promise for 60 fps on iOS.” He has listed a plethora of instances in which iOS skips frames even after a factory reset on the latest devices like iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, which are powered by the new A10 Fusion chip.

Pirillo sent a letter to Phil Schiller and Craig Federighi to make them aware of the issues.

“Today, I am imploring you to swiftly address core performance issues that have continued to slip past your radar since the reimagining of iOS (after iOS 6),” he writes. “Specifically, I am compelled to call your attention to the predictable or random “skippy” frame rate in routine system operation and default apps independent of third-party software.

iOS 10 seems to perform equally as well (or worse) on an iPhone 7 compared to an iPhone 6s. That’s not the hallmark of the world’s fastest smartphone.”

Apple never replied to Pirillo’s letters, but it’s clear the company has recognized at least some of these performance issues and is already making changes to address them.

Via: The Verge

Newsletters

Daily round-ups or a weekly refresher, straight from Cult of Mac to your inbox.

  • The Weekender

    The week's best Apple news, reviews and how-tos from Cult of Mac, every Saturday morning. Our readers say: "Thank you guys for always posting cool stuff" -- Vaughn Nevins. "Very informative" -- Kenly Xavier.