Judging from my inbox, Twitter and Messages, people are losing their minds over iOS 7 and some of the changes Apple introduced at WWDC last week. Here is my advice to you—sit back, take a deep breath and relax.
There are a few things you need to remember about iOS 7. First, it’s nowhere near finished in terms of design or functionality. Apple engineers stopped adding or changing the operating system before WWDC so they had a stable build to show during the keynote. It’s not done 1.
Second—and I’m surprised I even have to say this—it’s a beta for developers. This is not a build any individual user should install—ever. It wasn’t meant for you and installing it shouldn’t even be on your radar.2
The developer beta of iOS 7 is meant as a way for developers to see the new APIs and to see how their existing apps work.
This is also an important opportunity for developers to make decisions about upcoming apps. Will future apps be iOS 7-only so they can tap into new functionality in the operating system? What design decisions need to be made? There are many more things that developers need to consider.
These are important decisions that will affect the apps that we buy in the next year or so.
This is not the time, as a user, for you to decide if you’re going to upgrade to iOS 7. You shouldn’t even be considering that yet. Let Apple do its thing with the operating system, let developers work on their apps and you be calm.
Don’t worry about iOS 7.