Developers got their first looks at the beta version of the Apple’s mobile operating system this week and weren’t thrilled at a couple of mandatory extras.
The next iOS — iOS 9 — revealed Monday at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, will evidently come preloaded with two additional apps that can’t be deleted: Find My iPhone and Find My Friends.
Both apps are currently available for (voluntary) download.
It’s not hard to see the argument for making the former a default. Find My iPhone tracks a missing device and provides users with a kill switch that renders a phone unusable if stolen. Not only is that feature, known as Activation Lock, useful —iPhone thefts in three cities decreased by as much as half in the first year after it was introduced — it’s also required on phones sold in California starting July 1.
Find My Friends, which maps your contacts’ whereabouts, is another story. If you ask most people, it’s neither necessary, nor particularly popular. As one developer said on Twitter after noticing the app on his iPhone, “I don’t want it nor need it. Going straight into the junk folder.”
But as CNET’s Bridget Carey pointed out, parents can use it to track their kids, and since there are a number of apps for that already, Apple might just be trying to box out the competition. Annoying, perhaps, but fair game.
“When it comes to Apple they always want to control the experience,” Carey said. “That’s what they’re all about.”
With respect to Find My iPhone, at least users are likely to benefit from having it handy.
“If you don’t know you need Find My iPhone we’re going to make sure you know you need it,” Carey added, speaking in Apple’s voice.
Android phones are well known for being loaded with “bloatware,” apps you never asked for, rarely (if ever) use, and can’t get rid of, that the handset manufacturer or mobile operator stuck on there.
Apple hasn’t caught as much heat, but it’s guilty, too, and getting guiltier. WhenApple Watch came out, iPhone owners complained that they suddenly had an Apple Watch app that they couldn’t uninstall. For anyone without an Apple Watch, the app is little more than a constant nudge to go get one.
Mashable’s Raymond Wong hopes Apple will reconsider before releasing the final version of iOS 9 in the fall:
“It’s time make these apps optional. If we want them, we’ll download them from the App Store. Storage is limited and we shouldn’t be forced to have apps we don’t need, don’t want and will never use lingering around on our iOS devices. Apple, you still have a few months before iOS 9 is final; please let us remove the apps we don’t want.”
