iOS 14.5’s Opt-In Update is Coming This Spring: Here's What That Means for You

Apple’s iOS 14.5 opt-in update lurks just around the corner. If that sounds like gibberish to you, let us explain.

• The software release will make it harder for brands to target iPhone users with personalized ads, by requiring every user to opt into sharing their IDFA (aka personal data) with each app.
• If you’re already seeing pop-ups on some apps, that’s because some developers implemented them in advance.

For marketers, there’s good news and bad news about ✨all this✨

The good: Mobile attribution firm AppsFlyer did the math, and out of more than 13 million prompts shown in the past three weeks, users opted into ad targeting 41% of the time. For reference, experts expected that rate to be anywhere between 2% and 20%, AppsFlyer said.

The bad: That data set is relatively small and “may not represent the industry at large, so we need to wait to get the full picture after iOS 14.5 is rolled out,” AppsFlyer exec Shani Rosenfelder told Marketing Brew.

Bottom line: When iOS 14.5 rolls out this spring, the IDFA might not be totally obliterated. — PB