Reception for iOS

iOS 7 has received positive reviews. David Pogue of The New York Times praised iOS 7, saying that users will become accustomed to the dramatically changed interface, and will come to enjoy the utilitarian and additional Siri features. He also noted that iOS 7 was the biggest change in the current generation of iOS devices, not the iPhone 5S and 5C. Darrell Etherington of TechCrunch stated that although "iOS 7 will be a dramatic change from the iOS many users already know and love, but on balance it’s an update packed with plenty of new features that make using Apple’s mobile devices easier and more enjoyable".

The adoption rate of iOS 7 was reported to be as high as 35% after one day. By September 22, iOS 7 was installed on more than 200 million devices, which Apple claimed was "the fastest software update in history". Shortly after release, some users reported the ability to bypass their device's passcode requirement and access certain information, which Apple fixed with the 7.0.2 update. Many users experienced dramatic virtual keyboard lag rendering their phones 'unusable' after updating to iOS 7 on iPhone 4 and 4S. A workaround with nearly 100% success was discovered which involves a simple step of turning off "Documents and Data" in Settings-iCloud-Documents and Data. A thread on the Apple online forum received attention from the media in late September 2013 after a number of users reported feeling nauseated after experiencing the animations of the new operating system. George Kikano of Case Medical Center stated that the new "parallax" function of iOS 7 is causing the symptoms in some users, and not the animations as previously thought.

Some critics noted the influence of competing mobile platforms on the design and functionality of iOS 7. Of note were the use of concepts from Androidand Windows Phone, such as a similarly minimal and typographic design, Control Center being an equivalent to similar settings toggles on the notification shade of Android, a similar multitasking menu to WebOS, and even the design of the Weather app being almost identical to those on Windows 8 and HTC Sense. However, they also noted that Apple has had a long history of taking concepts from other platforms of the period and refining them as innovations of their own, including the original Mac OS–which was inspired primarily by the graphical user interface of Xerox PARC's Alto. Sascha Segan of PC Magazine stated that "Apple's brilliance is in putting the pieces together and marketing them. Apple's developer APIs and its history of making money for developers still reigns supreme—there's less piracy than on Android, and a bigger audience and more design flexibility than on Windows Phone."