Apple keeps adding injury to insult with the latest release of iOS. In the two weeks since the release of iOS 7, users have complained about the design, battery life and a security hole that allowed people to bypass the lock screen.
The latest bug in iOS 7 cuts straight to the heart of how people use their iPhones and iPads: messaging. Users have reported flaws in Apple’s iMessage text system in which text messages are not being sent (or arrive very late). Users see an exclamation point and a “message not sent” alert next to their messages. Many users have said that this glitch has only been present since Apple rolled out iOS 7.0.2, which was intended to fix the security problem with the lock screen.
The iMessage app is supposed to timeout after a message has failed to send. But users are reporting that messages remain in a perpetual “send” state.
Users report that their messages will eventually be sent if they restart their device or turn off iMessage in the settings in iOS 7 and then turning it back on. This is a temporary fix for frustrated users as the error will likely crop back up even after restarting the device or resetting iMessage.
Apple told the Wall Street Journal that it will be shipping an update to iOS 7 soon—iOS 7.0.3—that is intended to fix the bug. This will be the second public update to iOS 7 since it was released on September 18.
Apple’s statement to WSJ:
We are aware of an issue that affects a fraction of a percent of our iMessage users, and we will have a fix available in an upcoming software update,” Apple said in a statement. “In the meantime, we encourage any users having problems to reference our troubleshooting documents or contact AppleCare to help resolve their issue. We apologize for any inconvenience this causes impacted users.
The complaints and criticism of iOS 7 come after a tumultuous summer for the operating systems beta phase. Application testing firm uTest anecdotally said in a recent conversation that the beta of iOS 7 had “twice as many” bugs in its beta than previous betas of iOS. Some of those bugs have cropped into the public release.
Apple’s headache is compounded by the fact that demand for iOS 7 has been enormous. The beta of iOS 7 was the most downloaded of any version of the operating system and many people upgraded to iOS 7 the day it was released. With such a public eye on Apple’s latest operating system, every misstep, flaw or bug is met with headlines and an outpouring of frustration.
