Apple scraps iPhone Upgrade feature just before release

Apple was developing a feature called Apple Upgrade that would have copied your data to a new iPhone before you even set it up. The feature, revealed in the latest Power On newsletter, would have made switching to a new iPhone nearly seamless. It never made it to market, though.

This matters because switching iPhones is still a pain. Apple’s current setup process requires backing up your old phone, then restoring that backup on the new one. It’s slow, error-prone, and often leaves users waiting for apps to redownload. A feature like Apple Upgrade would have cut that down to minutes, not hours. Apple has long pushed “seamless” experiences, from AirDrop to iCloud sync. But seamless upgrades lag behind.

The idea behind Apple Upgrade isn’t new. Google does something similar with its Pixel phones. When you turn on a new Pixel, it pulls apps and data from your old Android phone over Wi-Fi. Apple’s version would have done the same for iPhones. Sources say Apple tested the feature internally but killed it late in development. The reason isn’t clear. Some speculate it clashed with Apple’s privacy focus. Others say it conflicted with iCloud’s slow backup model. Either way, Apple’s setup flow remains unchanged.

What happens next is unclear. Apple may revive the idea later, or it could be scrapped for good. Either way, the setup process will stay a bottleneck. Users upgrading this fall won’t see the feature. But Apple’s push for seamless experiences means this won’t be the last we hear of it.