New iOS versions and iPhone device sizes may affect user experience

Attention: Clients with active projects and existing support agreements, new iOS versions and iPhone device sizes may affect your users’ experience

Why this is important: Apple has been undertaking a fairly aggressive strategy with iOS 11, and many existing websites do not fully support iOS 11. According to intelligence solution Apteligent, as of January 7, 2018, more than 75% of all iOS users have some version of iOS 11.

Between the mix of new Apple devices brought to market in September, e.g., iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X, Apple’s approach to messaging around updates, and recent security issues, users are more rapidly adopting iOS 11 than anticipated. Adoption rates may further increase on account of the Meltdown and Spectre microprocessor vulnerabilities.

What can we do to be prepared? Depending on when your website was built and launched, it may not support the mobile version of the Safari browser that ships with iOS 11.

If your website employs a responsive web design, the breakpoints for screen widths may require review and updating to account for the unique, and very high resolution displays for iPhone 8 (1334×750px), iPhone 8 Plus (Retina, 1920×1080 px), and iPhone X (Super Retina HD, 2436×1125px).

RubensteinTech recommends that you review your website’s analytics to determine the breakdown of site traffic in order to ascertain the potential impact Apple’s new devices may have on your site. We would suggest that you review the homepage, key unique page templates, website navigation, and related interactivity (including search) on a series of test devices to ensure proper display and functionality.

These include iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X running iOS 11. If these devices are not available, please consider downloading and installing Xcode and the Simulator application to simulate these devices and perform testing from your desktop.

What action will RubensteinTech take and when? We recommend a thorough quality assurance (QA) scan of your site to ensure that any issues are proactively identified and addressed. We are happy to provide this scan for you: it would be billed under your existing maintenance agreement. Once we complete the scanning process, we would provide your team with a list of identified issues as well as estimates for fixing them.

Our timeline for implementation would depend upon factors including issues uncovered by the QA review, severity of the issues, etc.

What happens if we do nothing? If no action is taken, it is likely that your website will experience a growing number of issues relating to iOS 11, as well as future iOS version updates. While we are happy to address these issues as they arise, we would recommend a more strategic, proactive approach.

For more information on this matter, please visit the following:
— App Store
— iOS Distribution and iOS Market Share from Apteligent