We all heard or thought about it as apple iPhone users. apple kills their older versions of iPhone to force you to upgrade. It makes sense right? And every iPhone owner felt like his device after a few years is starting to NOT work all of the sudden.
Today I want to talk about the apple kill command to iPhone 7 and below and figure out if it’s true or not, and if so, why??
Quick answer
YES and NO – apple confessed that they in fact slowed down some old devices to protect their ageing batteries. Which was a huge revelation and they even issued an apology and discounts to anyone looking to replace their old battery.
NO, because the company only did it once and said it will not do it again after the confession ( can we trust them? ) but older phones will obviously work slower as after about 6 years you won’t be able to update to the latest software which will cause your phone to have issues more and more without the ability to update to newer versions to fix the issues.
Let’s back up for a second. There has been a lot of chatter on Reddit and Twitter from about 2020 about older iPhone devices suddenly not working as they should be, or being very slow to operate without any specific reason.
This caused users to suspect that apple is deliberately slowing down old devices to force users to upgrade to newer versions. It even got to a point where users spread a rumor about an apple kill command to iPhone 7 and below, which is crazy!
Users actually thought apple is going to flip some switch and it will kill their iPhone 7 or older version in that moment.
Here’s a few tweets and Reddit threads that discuss this and you can see people had genuine concerns:
” I had an iPhone 7 that kept shutting down the apps and the battery was draining faster. I just restarted it then plugged it in. It didn’t fix it. It was apples way of saying “buy newer phone.” I now have a 12 mini. Lol.
Twitter
We couldn’t locate the actual tweets and reddit threads as they have been removed – but there were a lot.
What actually happened with the apple kill command for iPhone 7
What actually happend is a combination of two things:
- apple admitted to wrongdoing by slowing down some old iPhones to protect their battery
- The stopped allowing older iPhones, usually older than 6 years to update their software
Let’s jump into these in more detail
apple has admitted to slow down some old iPhones, they claimed it was because these old devices have old batteries and with the new advancements of the tech, they feared some damage could be made to the devices.
Sounds like an excuse and most users just got their confirmation straight from the horse’s mouth that they did in fact slowed down older iPhone to make users upgrade and buy a new one.
The company immediately after issues a statement that basically said they will never do that again, and offered anyone with an old iPhone to replace their old battery for just $29 which is a $50 discount.
They did however explain the other point, which is more important to understand.
apple usually stops supporting devices after about 6 years. This is common in the tech world as technology moves so fast that after 6 years your iPhone is pretty much outdated and might not work as it should just because it’s old.
Things brake all the time, same as if you would need to replace your roof in your house, or your car every couple of years or so.
So the apple kill command to iPhone 7 and below is both true and false belive it or not!
The more technical explanation is that every time apple issues a new software update, it is being tested and worked on for new devices, not for old ones, so while these updates will mostly work ok with older versions too – in the span of 6 years too many things have changed and your old device will not be able to handle or process some of the newer changes.
So after about 6 years, you will not be able to update your software to the latest but will still be able to use your iPhone with an older software, which can be fine.
When did iPhone 7 stopped being updated
apple officially cut updates to iPhone 7 on Sep 12, 2022. This means that after this date you won’t be able to download and install the latest software from the app store. You could still use the newest software up to that point, but nothing newer.
Which will cause your phone to get older and outdated every month that passes.
