Craig Federighi reveals why some people get iPhone updates before others

One user emailed Craig to ask why auto-update never seems to work, and he answered!

What you need to know

One disgruntled user emailed Apple’s Craig Federighi to ask why auto-update on iPhone never seems to function.
Craig actually responded to explain how it works.
Turns out that Apple rolls out auto-updates incrementally over several weeks.

Apple’s SVP of Software Engineering has revealed to one curious customer why Apple’s auto-updates feature on iPhone doesn’t work the way you’d expect.

One user on Reddit emailed Craig Federighi to ask about Apple’s iOS auto-update system, which it uses to roll out the latest versions of iOS 15 to users on its best iPhones, including the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13. ‘Kechoopix’ stated:

Hi! I wrote an email to Craig Federighi who is the senior vice president of software engineering at Apple to ask him about explanation how does exactly iOS auto-update feature actually works. I was inspired to ask him after reading some Reddit posts and news online about customers complaining that iOS auto-update feature working slow (sometimes even whole month after iOS update release they receive a notification) or not working at all (in my case included).

The email has the rather hilarious subject line ‘iOS auto-update feature (does it even work?). Craig responded:

We incrementally rollout new iOS updates by first making them available for those that explicitly seek them out in Settings, and then 1-4 weeks later (after we’ve received feedback on the update) ramp up to rolling out to devices with auto-update enabled.

That means that when Apple releases a software update, some auto-update users might be waiting up to a month before they receive it on their iPhones, with the fastest way to update apparently the manual option.