unitQ AI Reveals Likely Surge in User Complaints With Apple iOS 17 Rollout

In previous iOS major releases, destructive quality-of-life issues occurred despite advanced testing of beta versions

BURLINGAME, Calif., Sept. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- unitQ, the leading AI platform empowering organizations to take a user-centric, real-time data-driven approach to craft high quality products, services and experiences, announced today iOS mobile applications are likely to see a spike in user complaints and performance issues when Apple unveils iOS 17 later this month.

According to unitQ AI-based studies of App Store reviews on 5,000 top mobile applications, when Apple unveils major iOS releases, complaints from mobile app users that the new software version broke core and other features increased dramatically despite public and developer beta versions being tested well in advance of the official release.

According to unitQ data, when Apple released iOS 16 a year ago, social networking apps were hardest hit, with a 42% increase in App Store user feedback that identified a defect or bug that caused user friction and lowered customer satisfaction. Dating apps came in second place with more than a one-third increase in consumer complaints in the App Store. Health and fitness apps settled in third place, with 21% more issues identified by users in the App Store.

Defects and bugs also littered mobile apps upon the release of iOS 15 in September, 2021, according to unitQ data.

Missing notifications in dating apps spiked 114% after iOS 15 was released. Upload issues in the photo-video industry jumped 132%. The mobile gaming sector saw a 300% increase in user complaints that their hero "died for no reason." Concerns from users of finance apps that their "data disappeared" jumped 150%. The list goes on.

*For more on the issues associated with the iOS 16 update, read the unitQ study here.

*For more on the issues associated with the iOS 15 update, read the unitQ study here. 

Despite betas, iOS 17 may cause headaches

"Think your mobile app is ready for iOS 17? Think again," says Christian Wiklund, unitQ CEO.

The destructive quality-of-life or customer-churning issues identified in the unitQ studies occurred despite the advanced release and testing of beta versions — and new betas are now being tested by developers and the public before the imminent release of iOS 17.

All of which means the rollout of iOS 17 may cause headaches for end users and, by default, developers — despite their best intentions. But how long developers and their organizations allow product quality issues to linger in their apps is another story — a story whose ending depends on how and if organizations listen to what their end users are telling them and take swift action on that feedback.

Implement user feedback in your tech stack

Companies are investing heavily in technology stacks, incorporating systems for everything from auditing to security monitoring, and application performance to overall infrastructure management. Corporate leaders like CIOs are deploying a range of tools to ensure the ongoing success of their organizations. However, another data source rich in valuable insights is often overlooked.

This underutilized data is the "Voice of the Customer." User feedback data serves as the definitive measure of product quality. It offers concrete information regarding the performance, features, and capabilities of your product and services in real time.

User reviews on platforms like the App Store and Google Play, customer service inquiries in Zendesk, incident reports in Jira, as well as social media conversations on platforms like Discord, LinkedIn, Reddit, and X, can collectively provide an accurate portrait of customer preferences, difficulties and priorities.

Acting on issues highlighted by customer feedback can improve key performance indicators for developers, elevate customer satisfaction scores, draw in new users and create additional revenue opportunities. Best of all, user feedback provides an immediate roadmap to all the user-facing hiccups associated with a new software update, such as the looming iOS 17 release.

Harnessing user feedback with AI

Embracing customer feedback is just the beginning. The bigger challenge lies in managing and analyzing this wealth of data to extract actionable insights.

Artificial intelligence can automate the analysis of large volumes of customer feedback — highlighting key themes and sentiment trends, predicting product defects, feature requests, and identifying potential opportunities for improvement. unitQ's AI can comprehend the context and nuances of customer reviews and feedback, allowing for a more in-depth understanding of customer perceptions. By leveraging unitQ, businesses can not only meet quality expectations but consistently exceed them, thus staying ahead of the competition while minimizing the damage brought by new updates.

About unitQ

With unitQ customer feedback software, organizations can discover quality issues at the same time as their users. Know what product launches, releases or evergreen features are causing the most bugs or support tickets. Drill into the root causes of these issues by source, platform, device, customer segment and more.

unitQ AI centralizes feedback from all feedback sources and automatically groups it into thousands of granular categories to help organizations discover what matters most to users — all in real time. Customer-centric companies like Spotify, Bumble, Pinterest and HelloFresh rely on unitQ for actionable insights to drive growth, reduce churn and build brand loyalty.

Want to see how your organization compares to others? Get your free unitQ Score or book a unitQ demo today!

The company is headquartered in Burlingame, Calif.

Please visit www.unitq.com for more information. Follow unitQ on Linkedin and X.

To learn more, contact David Kravets from unitQ at [email protected].

SOURCE unitQ