Apple may finally bring monthly security updates to iPhones

Today, Apple started rolling out a new quick security replies feature to iOS 16.2 and iPadOS 16.2 beta testers. The mechanism, designed to speed up the delivery of security fixes on iPhone, iPad and Mac, was announced at WWDC and has begun testing Back in October And it looks like it’s ready to go — though we don’t know yet when it’ll first be made available to macOS testers.

as a Twitter account apelosophia Reports, this initial rapid security response does not contain any actual security content. In Apple’s words, it’s “for testing purposes only”.

But future updates of this kind could be very important. Right now, the only way for Apple to seed patches for vulnerabilities is through iOS, iPadOS, or macOS updates, such as iOS 16.1 or macOS 13.0.1. The new mechanism allows the company to separate and distribute patches in a faster and more flexible manner without having to update the entire operating system. If a quick security response is available for the version of iOS your device is already running, it will get it (assuming quick security responses are enabled). Just install and quickly restart your device (or quit Safari if the fix is ​​browser-related) to get security fixes.

Apple already has an advantage over Google’s Android when it comes to distributing security patches because its users are more careful about installing updates. (They also get annoyed with updating so frequently.) However, Google has it Deliver monthly security updates Since 2015, while Apple arrives less frequently. This new feature speeds up the company’s response to flaws and vulnerabilities even further and, hopefully, can stop bugs before they can do any harm.