Not all features announced as part of the major iOS 16 update will be available at launch, but experts agree that Apple made the right decision to release them later in the name of quality and stability.

iOS 16 is the latest version of the software that powers Apple’s iPhones, including the brand new iPhone 14 series. But Apple decided to remove a number of features from the initial iOS 16 release to give it more time to work on them, with the company confirming that they would be released later this year. It’s a decision that means long-awaited features like Live Activities are still waiting to be released, but experts say the delay was justified.

"The delayed feature launches are a little messy this year," independent app developer Will Bishop told Lifewire via direct message when asked about Apple's phased launch. "Ultimately, I prefer the approach of shipping better software later, rather than bad software now."

When Apple first announced iOS 16 at its WWDC22 event in June, it made a lot of noise about the new features that iPhone users could look forward to. Since then, some of those features have been delayed until later this year, while others were given similar release dates at the time. So why did they announce features that weren’t ready yet, and why did some features appear in beta versions of iOS 16, only to be removed? The long-awaited iCloud Shared Photo Library is one such feature. Apple let people beta test it before removing it from later releases.