14 DAY TRIAL // Apple has just announced on their Developer News website that the app-slicing feature for iOS apps is currently unavailable.
According to Apple, this problem is a direct consequence of an iCloud backup issue affecting the iOS 9 platform, where App Store applications would only be restored to the same iOS device model.
Because of this app-slicing feature downtime, customers who will try to download iOS 9 applications from Apple's iOS App Store will only be able to get the Universal version of the app they're trying to install.
This means that users will download much larger versions of their apps, with the entire collection of assets included for all iOS device models.
Even though app slicing is momentarily unavailable for any iOS 9 app, versions featuring app slicing will still be delivered for TestFlight internal testers.
Apple has also said that "App slicing will be reenabled with a future software update. No action is needed by you at this time."
This announcement comes at the same time as the iTunes Connect problems experienced by many iOS developers that have been trying to upload their apps and have failed to do so because of a "Processing" status freeze.
Even though Apple has not yet released a statement detailing the steps developers could take to bypass this problem, we have published an article with a few pointers that could help iOS developers get their apps past the "Processing" status.