In iOS 18, Live Activities won’t update in real-time compared to iOS 17. In fact, it was a hole in the API which has been fixed in iOS 18.
Live Activities in iOS 18 Won’t Refresh as Often as it Causes Wear and Tear to iPhone’s Internal Storage
Live Activities is a great way to keep track of a lot of things in real time. For example, you can instantly see how far away your taxi is from its destination. Or, you can see how your favorite team is doing on the field and so on.
However, it seems as though Live Activities is not meant to deliver ‘real-time experiences.’ What this means is, Live Activities will not refresh instantly in iOS 18 and that’s something Apple has ‘fixed’ as it was a ‘hole’ in the API in iOS 17. Instead, Live Activities will now refresh between 5-15 seconds.
There’s a good reason why Apple is doing this, because every single time there’s an update, data is written to the internal disk of your iPhone and iPad. When there are frequent updates, there’s wear and tear, ultimately shortening the lifespan of internal storage. Hence, refreshing less often means less wear and tear.
This information was conveyed to a developer by Apple itself when asked about the recent change in behavior in iOS 18.
As a consumer, you may not be affected by this change at all. Whenever you glance at your iPhone, you’re going to see up to date information every single time. However, if you are a developer, then it may become a problem. But, let’s see how it goes once iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 comes out.
