Software updates? Yes!

We’ve all probably had a software update pop up at some point. Yes, I’m talking about that notification somewhere on your screen offering, in just a few clicks, to update your system, program, platform, etc. What is that? Should I always update? If everything is working just fine, why should I bother updating it? Today, I’ll try to give you some reasons why you should update — although I’ll tell you right now that it’s not always recommended, and for those cases, I’ll write a separate article to explain. Let’s go!

A little bit of history

According to Moore's Law back in 1965:

The number of transistors per inch on integrated circuits would double every 18 months, and this trend would continue for at least two decades.

Without going into too much detail—and although it’s true that this law is reaching its end as we know it today—it still helps us understand how accurate it was and how far technology has come. This progress has given us access to features that just a few decades ago would have been unthinkable. Everyone today, especially younger generations, is used to them—but I bet you can think of some advancement your grandparents didn’t have.

Beta constant

And you might be wondering, why are you telling me this? Well, it’s quite simple. The more technology advances, the more additional features are developed, and that leads to increasingly complex software that’s more prone to bugs or errors. Before the internet became “essential,” in some cases there was only a single version of a piece of software for years. Nowadays, it’s rare for a day to go by without our mobile devices updating one of the apps we have installed.
As I say in the title of this section, it almost feels like we’re in a constant testing phase, and in some way, that software never really becomes truly robust, reliable, or even complete. Although, that doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing.

Security

General problems

And now the general ones. The ones that prevent you from properly interacting with the device. In the case of the Pocophone F1, a screen issue makes it hard to type smoothly; notification glitches caused by the trend of using a “notch” (that cutout at the top of the screen since the release of the iPhone X); or when an app or game crashes unexpectedly, causing you to lose all progress up to that point. They can be really annoying and are often easy to fix through updates.

Extra performance or functionality

Maybe you’re one of those people who can’t wait for a dark mode on your phone (expected to arrive in 2019), to take better photos with your mobile, or to enjoy your favorite PC game at higher quality. Well, as surprising as it may seem, all of these features might not require different hardware (meaning new electronic components) but simply a software update (or how brands allow us to interact with different components through their apps).
Android 9 (known as Android Pie) improves battery life and efficiency among other things; AMD, one of the leading brands in graphics components, is updating its software to improve performance in specific games—by up to 20% in some cases; and finally, dark mode on your smartphone apps helps reduce battery consumption, is easier on the eyes, and gives everything a fresh new look.
All of this, as I said, applies to any kind of software. Whether it’s the WordPress platform (including its plugins) or your smart TV’s operating system.
That’s it for all my arguments on why you should keep your devices updated. As I mentioned at the beginning, not everything is an advantage—but I’ll save that for another article. And you? What do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.