iOS 9's space-saving “app slicing” disabled for now, will return in future update
Andrew Cunningham / Ars Technica :
Context & Ripple Effects
App slicing was supposed to be one of the quiet wins of iOS 9: Apple spent the summer building out its App Thinning tooling in TestFlight and touting an install footprint of just 1.3GB versus iOS 8's 4.58GB, while also previewing the ability to automatically delete and reinstall apps when a device runs short on space during an OS update.
Disabling slicing days after launch pulls a load-bearing piece out of that efficiency story just as 16GB-device owners are attempting the upgrade — and adds to a growing list of iOS 9 features shipped incomplete or switched off.
First-order effects
- Users updating to iOS 9 right now lose the download-size reduction slicing provided, forcing larger app installs on exactly the low-storage devices the feature targeted.
- Developers who prepared device-specific asset variants see no benefit from that work until Apple re-enables slicing server-side.
Second-order effects
- The setback pressures Apple to ship a point release quickly to restore the space-savings claim underpinning its iOS 9 marketing.
- Every extra gigabyte required at upgrade time increases the chance users defer updates, weakening the fast-adoption curve Apple relies on for developer uptake.
Third-order effects
- If Apple keeps launching September releases with components disabled or removed — Home Sharing, now slicing — the annual iOS cadence hardens into a pattern where features ship unfinished and arrive piecemeal via patches, resetting user expectations about what 'launch day' means.
The trend: Apple's yearly iOS release rhythm increasingly trades feature completeness for a fixed ship date, pushing more functionality into post-launch point releases.