Feedback is a joke

[Parowdy]

I recently installed the public release of iOS 18.4 after having beta tested it. I won’t go into detail about how buggy iOS still is, instead I want to talk about Feedback, may it be the app or the website, and how utterly useless it seems to be.
To already make a point:

You can’t even select 18.4 on the website. And you can almost not use the Feedback assistant app when you don’t have a beta installed. I say almost because after Apple had the actually good idea to integrate their AI feedback into the Feedback app (which is still a wonky gamification attempt, you can „level up“ by opening a report and closing it again…) I’ve received a notification to review some stuff after I turned beta updates off and downloaded the public release. I was able to open the notification into a phantom Feedback app that wasn’t accessible any other way, looking for Feedback with Spotlight consistently recommends McDonalds Feedback for a store I have never been to, which is sooo helpful as well.

I’d like to file feedback about the current software on my device but without the app that’s apparently too much to ask for.
But unfortunately it’s that way with the app, too.
With my AirPods Pro 2 there were fittingly two hiccups when filling a report. First, what version of AirPods do I have? The most recent one, so? Are those the „AirPods Pro 2“ or the „AirPod Pro (2nd Generation)“? But even if you can figure that out, have fun selecting the most recent firmware because you can’t.

This was February 4th, apparently 7B21 was released over 3 months earlier in November '24…

Ok but obviously you won’t encounter oddities like these with all devices. I was able to file many correct reports over the years. Unfortunately mostly nothing ever came of it. I can’t remember having more than 2 (out of over 200) reports saying there have been more „similar reports recently“, even when reporting issues that are being reported and are being talked about on the internet.

But at least I have actually gotten a response once after reporting an issue with macOS!
I was reporting on the „blank/black/off Touch Bar issue“ that plagues some 2016-2019 MBP‘s. It’s basically that the Touch Bar doesn’t turn on after waking the Mac from sleep. Nothing but a restart fixes this temporarily. I filed a report from and for my 2017 13“ base TB MBP, which can only run up to Ventura.
The response I got baffled me.
I’ll attach a(nother) screenshot.
Long story short, I was asked to check if the issue was fixed in the latest build of Sequoia… I found this remarkably ignorant as I pointed out in my last comment in that report.

At thins point I want to point out that you can use the feedback app on Mac even without having a beta installed. So, why is that possible on (an outdated 2017) Mac and not on a recent iPhone?

It’s all just so inconsistent and in the way of actually trying to help, of which I wish we as consumers and paying customers didn’t have to participate in, but we can probably all tell a story about  software standing in our way and wanting to point out what’s going on to Cupertino. But what for if the quality of seemingly everything goes downhill anyway?

Oh, and another remark about Apple Communities: you CAN‘T talk about beta software and when you reload the page, for example when leaving Safari for too long or accidentally closing the browser, it doesn’t safe anything you did, it never even remembers that I logged in, unlike MacRumors, which almost stubbornly apparently remembers anything you type in the comment field in any thread, which saved me much hassle many times on here
The website is so wonky, pressing on „Show more“ may jump you up the page. W.T.H.

Anyway, thanks for listening to my Rant Talk. Feel free to share your frustration with and participate in the poll about the Feedback program, I’m curious if I’m once again just the edge case where stuff isn’t working.

 

[Paddle1]

My experience is they are very particular about what they actually focus on. If your issue is seen as insignificant or irrelevant you won't receive a response. For example Apple has no interest in fixing bugs on outdated Macs that can't run Sequoia. They focus on the most common bugs that can affect most users.

 

[HouseLannister]

Really the issue for betas is that Apple already knows where they want to go, have internally tested it already, and aren’t looking for “feedback.” They don’t value dissenting opinions. What they want is to just point out the bugs and give them lots of details so they can actually do something. So when I have actual “feedback” about the direction of some of their choices, that is completely ignored. I don’t view bug reports as “feedback.”

 

[Nermal]

I don’t view bug reports as “feedback.”

The problem is that Bug Reporter is gone, and the advice at the time was to use Feedback Assistant instead. The vast majority of the bug reports that I've submitted through Feedback Assistant have been ignored.

 

[Parowdy]

My experience is they are very particular about what they actually focus on. If your issue is seen as insignificant or irrelevant you won't receive a response. For example Apple has no interest in fixing bugs on outdated Macs that can't run Sequoia. They focus on the most common bugs that can affect most users.

Yeah obviously. But most of the feedback I reported was iOS feedback for the then current version.

Edit: Also, it is an issue that apparently can affect any 2016-2019 TB MacBook Pro at random. That’s a lot of machines.
If they fixed it, that’s only the 2016 and 2017 models.
Granted, screw 2016 users, right? And me with them.

 

[Parowdy]

Really the issue for betas is that Apple already knows where they want to go, have internally tested it already, and aren’t looking for “feedback.” They don’t value dissenting opinions. What they want is to just point out the bugs and give them lots of details so they can actually do something. So when I have actual “feedback” about the direction of some of their choices, that is completely ignored. I don’t view bug reports as “feedback.”

Well for the most part all I do is report on bugs and not comment on internal decisions. Because those would be „Suggestions“ and they are a different kind of feedback you can file as well.
I also disagree that „Apple already knows where they want to go, have internally tested it already, and aren’t looking for “feedback.”“
They have proven multiple times that they are capable of listing to user feedback and revert their course according, like they did with parts of Safari and Photos in iOS 17 & 18.
Also they prove every now and then that they DONT test their software enough, how often do devices or core functions break unexpectedly? Didn’t the 18.4 beta break some iPhone 12‘s?
Actually they don’t fully know what they are releasing, otherwise they wouldn’t have expanded on the beta program a couple of years ago and made it even more public that it exists.

 

[HouseLannister]

They have proven multiple times that they are capable of listing to user feedback and revert their course according, like they did with parts of Safari and Photos in iOS 17 & 18.

They are willing to listen to the press. When The Verge or Engadget starts articles about how bad the Safari navigation bar is, Apple is forced to pivot. Nothing from the Feedback app contributed to that reversal. It was all driven by the media. And that was iOS 15.

 

[Parowdy]

They are willing to listen to the press. When The Verge or Engadget starts articles about how bad the Safari navigation bar is, Apple is forced to pivot. Nothing from the Feedback app contributed to that reversal. It was all driven by the media. And that was iOS 15.

Yes. I keep getting iOS versions and their problems mixed up, it’s all just a blur after years of being underwhelmed (and personal stuff that heavily clouds my sense of time).
And yes you’re probably right. Almost no amount of feedback would have had the same effect as selected pieces by some outlets, sadly.

 

[nortonandreev]

I honestly don't think they care about our feedback, unless it becomes quite public in the different media outlets.