In 2008, with Apple's release of iPhone OS 1.1.3 and the January App Pack, the SpringBoard underwent some substantial changes.
In June 2013, in iOS 7, a brand new design of the home screen was introduced, including the redesigned icons, status bar, and dock.
In June 2016, iOS 10 was revealed in WWDC 16, where some of the pre-installed apps are allowed to be "deleted", where they are actually hidden from the home screen rather than actually be uninstalled.
In June 2021, iOS 15 allowed users to move and manage home screen pages.
Researchers found that on mobile devices users organize icons on their SpringBoards mainly based on usage-frequency and relatedness of the applications, as well as for reasons of usability and aesthetics.
[6] In June 2015, with the announcement of iOS 9, swiping left to access Spotlight Search was re-enabled on certain models, coming along with some new features like Siri Suggestions.
In the new compact home screen, icons could be displayed in a layout of 6x5 in both portrait and landscape modes.
Due to the increased freedom and complexity of the new home screen on iPad, this is just a rough listing of facts.
By double-clicking the home button, the screen would lift up to free up the space for a multitask drawer.
Long pressing one could trigger the "wiggle mode" with a little "-" button on the top-right corner of every icon.
[12] In June 2015 with iOS 9, the multitasking view was redesigned and the quick action to contacts was removed.
After iOS 11 Developer Beta 3, if all apps were closed, SpringBoard would directly display the home screen.
In iOS 11 on iPad, a single swiping up from the bottom of the screen would bring up a newly designed dock.
By continue swiping, a new "grid-like" multitasking view would appear, along with the redesigned Control Center.
The previous animation, where screenshots simply move all the way up to disappear, was said to violate the patent claims in China.
[17] In 2021, with iPadOS 15, a multitasking menu appears at the top of apps in iPads, letting users enter Split View or Slide Over more easily.
In iPhone OS/iOS versions 1.1.3 and beyond, patching is no longer required as SpringBoard natively renders third-party icons.
However themes also change elements of the user interface such as the dock, folder backgrounds and icons inside settings.
[27] A bug was discovered in May 2015 where users pasted a certain set of characters and Unicode in a set order, causing the SpringBoard to crash and relaunch, which displays a black or white screen and white or black Apple logo (depending on the user's device) that looks identical to the boot screen.
[28][29] The phenomenon was later narrowed down to it only happening when the message was shown via the notification drop-down or the lock screen; the bug thus could be mitigated by disabling this.
[28] The bug affected iPhones, the Apple Watch and iPod Touch, Mac computers and iPads.
Since the release of iOS 11, some users were complaining about random reboots on their iPhone or iPod Touch caused by the clock reaching 12:15 am every night.
Shortly after the release of iOS 11 a bug (CVE-2018-4124) was discovered that would cause the SpringBoard to crash and relaunch, which displays a black or white screen and white or black Apple logo (depending on the user's device) that looks identical to the boot screen.
[35] As of iOS 4.3.3, SpringBoard looks for applications in the /Applications and /var/mobile/Applications directories of the iPhone's filesystem to display on the home screen.
Mac OS X Lion and later versions include a feature called 'Launchpad", based on the appearance of SpringBoard in iOS.
It includes the same features (like folders), but was not made as the home screen, more as an extension on the dock (like Dashboard).