Many of you, as you read this, are tearing down the walls you’ve built up over the past five years. iOS 7 is more than a fresh coat of paint – it’s a full remodel. But before you get all thin, flat and blurry, consider this: you don’t have to be iOS 7-ized on day one. Yes, of course there are some benefits to being iOS 7 ready and this is the counter advice to everything you’re probably hearing. One of the biggest benefits of release day readiness is the minute possibility of being chosen by Apple as a featured app. Boy, wouldn’t that be awesome? The app creator’s equivalent to winning the lottery. Cupertino’s golden ticket. You should think about that; it’s certainly not impossible, but it may not be worth rushing yourself. There will be a huge chunk of competition for those slots. It’s very possible it will be more difficult to get featured in the weeks after the release of iOS 7 than normal.
The User Experience
Despite mainstream press coverage, your average user probably doesn’t even know iOS 7 is coming out. They use their iDevice to get things done. The general public tends to fixate more on hardware releases. They’re ready for a golden iPhone 5S with biometric security and the ability to answer a phone call by waving your hand over it (yeah, right).
Visually, users already have a lot to soak in. This is the most significant change to the OS since its inception. Think of how long it took you to get used to it; it’ll take them longer. They simply don’t use it as much as you. They’re comfortable with your app the way it is today and they’re generally change averse. It may be better to ease them into something new.
The Competition
What’s everyone else doing? You don’t know, but you have some ideas. The biggest players haven’t shown much because it’s a secret. Search for ‘iOS 7' on Dribbble for a few minutes (and ignore the slew of UIKit and icon redesigns). Everything looks the same! The most prestigious apps of iOS 6 didn’t look anything like the stock apps Cupertino was putting out. If I saw an app with a pale blue navigation bar, plain white table view (or grouped pin stripes) and a glossy black tab bar, I wouldn’t download it. It didn’t seem designed at all. It seemed downright lazy, perhaps the work of a one-man show. That’s stock UIKit, for Pete’s sake! This isn’t 2008! Are the stock elements in iOS 7 better than pre-iOS 7 stock elements? Well, not really; they’re just different from what we’re used to. For the first time, we’re going through this new cycle — iOS is hitting puberty. It’s a big reset. Everyone appears to be falling back to stock UIKit.
Innovate, Experiment, & Iterate
Hear me out: I’m not saying don’t ever update your app. I’m not even saying don’t adopt iOS 7’s style. I have grown to love the new looks. Definitely do not let your app sit broken in the App Store. Don’t take this as advice to “wait and see” or twiddle your thumbs. You SHOULD be thinking about your app in this new ecosystem. You should be sweating the details out in Photoshop (or Sketch if you’re a hipster). It’s probably wise to follow the groundwork Apple has set up until the dust settles. What I am saying is don’t forget to innovate. Don’t just blindly follow the crowd. iOS 7's look and feel is a foundation to build upon. There are a lot of new tools available to you. Experiment! Let’s not throw away five years of interface innovation.