Apple employees were informed of the temporary halt in developing the next software releases last week, with engineers instructed to prioritize bug fixes and software performance improvements.
Apple pauses iOS 18 and macOS 15 developmentIn recent years, Apple's software chief, Craig Federighi, has been striving to ensure software bugs are addressed, sometimes resulting in delays in releasing new features for users. According to journalist Mark Gurman, Federighi's software engineering management team discovered too many overlooked issues during internal testing. This led them to temporarily halt the development of future software releases for a week to address lingering issues.
During this period, all new feature development activities are suspended to allow engineers to focus solely on improving the existing software. Apple will lift the pause order this week to resume developing new features for iOS 18, macOS 15, watchOS 11, and tvOS 18.
Last month, Apple completed the development of the first 'M1' versions of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS 15. Subsequent development work has been temporarily halted, and the company has also paused the development of .4, scheduled for release in March.
Learn more: Unveiling the first interesting details about iOS 18