iOS 10: the true-false deletion of Apple apps | iGeneration

Craig Federighi and Phil Schiller were guests of John Gruber's Talk Show during WWDC, they discussed several topics (which we will detail gradually), including the removal of Apple apps in iOS 10 which had not been addressed during the keynote.

The real fake deletion of apps

This deletion that has become possible only has deletion in name. We had noticed this by seeing the speed, defying all logic, at which these apps were restored from the App Store: instant. As if we did not redownload them from the store (read iOS 10: how to delete and restore an Apple app). Precisely, the apps are not strictly speaking removed from the iPhone or the iPad, they are simply hidden and detached from the system.

Their icons no longer appear and iOS can no longer launch them if, for example, you click on an email address when you have deleted Mail. But the user data associated with it is erased. There is an exception with Contacts content that stays in place.

Since yesterday, we have done another test that illustrates this well. You go to the App Store page of the app to restore, you switch to airplane mode, you tap on the cloud button to download the app and... it restores as if nothing had happened.

Normal, she had never left the iPhone. Even soaring, this would not have resulted in any real space saving for the user. Apple explains that the 23 removable apps combined weigh 150 MB, which is to say nothing.

This option offered is always better than nothing and we can put some order, at least visually, in our installed apps. However, this possibility does not solve the other big question, which is to be able to designate a new default app in place of the deleted one. There, nothing is (yet?) proposed. And let's say we're not too optimistic that such a mechanism will happen. Result, we have for the moment a solution of odds and ends. [Update]: Phil Schiller has confirmed that it will not be possible to use third-party apps by default.

The two men added that these apps will not be updated individually, they will only evolve through system-wide updates. This is for Apple to keep an OS + Apps set that is signed at the same time and not to break this association. It is not a question of being able to install on a recent iOS an outdated version of one of its apps.

[Update]: these are all the apps together that weigh a total of 150 MB maximum, not each of them (thanks Mathieu).