Apple Gives iOS 28 Engineers More Time to Build New Features [Report]

Apple has changed the early development schedule for iOS 28 and its other next-generation operating systems, giving engineers more time to explore and build new features, according to Mark Gurman.

The upcoming iPhone and iPad software is codenamed Bell, while macOS 28 is known internally as Poppy. Development traditionally runs through three major milestones, M1, M2, and M3, each lasting eight weeks.

Normally, those stages are divided into four weeks of coding and four weeks of convergence, when features are integrated into the operating system. For this cycle's first milestone, engineers instead spent six weeks coding, exploring ideas, and developing features, followed by two weeks of convergence.

Employees have welcomed the change because it gives them longer to investigate ideas before locking them in. The second milestone begins Monday, November 9, when Apple will start finalizing which features to include.

Development of the 2027 software is underway while Apple tests iOS 27.3 and iPadOS 27.3, whose first developer betas arrived on November 3.