Apple Inc. has reportedly made some changes in its iOS 16.1.1 update for users In China. According to internet user complaints, Apple has put a limit to the Everyone feature in AirDrop on iPhones bought in mainland China to ten minutes. As a result, users can no longer leave Airdrop enabled for contacts and strangers alike for an endless period of time.

On gaining knowledge of the matter, some users asserted that this function should have long been available to all Apple customers across the globe because occasionally people forget to turn off Airdrop and receive unwanted content from random people, but others see the move as Apple responding to the recent events in China.

For those unaware, people have been using the Airdrop feature to communicate and share sensitive political material with others over the last week as the countrys current management changed. This happened because this function is still one of the few unfiltered communication channels in a country that otherwise monitors all the conversations that take place among its people.

It is worth noting that Airdrop uses Bluetooth Low Energy and peer-to-peer Wi-Fi tech to empower immediate data transmission.

Apple has maintained its supremacy in China notwithstanding the expansion of local competitors like Huawei and Oppo, especially among more wealthy groups. According to experts, iPhones made up 13% of handset revenues in China in the second quarter of this year, decreasing from 18% and 22% in the first and fourth quarters, respectively.

Interestingly, its common for the tech behemoth to implement regional limits in order to follow local laws. Due to requirements for hearing protectors, users cannot surpass the EU Volume Level in EU countries, for instance. Apple has a history of enforcing stricter regulations in China for content-related services, like games and podcasts, an area that is heavily regulated by the national government.

Source credit:

https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/09/apple-limits-airdrop-everyone-option-to-10-minutes-in-china/