Thanks for all the data points. Was data collecting outside the forum of known people with issues. It seems to be a mix of iOS 15 and 16. It’s still a small sample size, but not sure it is isolated to just iOS 15 users.
My experience is not so much server-lag, where you're waiting for the server to respond to a tap, but 5-20s of screen lag where the game itself locks up. I suspect that if you ask those other iphone people what ios their phone is on, the answer lies there. (Settings -> General -> About -> Version)
I think we are experiencing same bug. Sometimes that “tap” is to initiate a pan about the city and it will still freeze for a bit. I don’t think that requires a server call and response once a city is already loaded. Because if it’s showing the No Network icon, you can still scroll about a city. No network would mean there is no internet to be able to make server calls. This happens often if I’m outside in the backyard and my phone is adjusting from losing wifi to connecting to cellular and might disconnect briefly. Yet, I can still pan through my city while the No Network icon is on.
However, your comment has made me observe something else peculiar about this bug. At no time during the freezing/lag process will the No Network icon come on my screen. Yet, the chat will go from normal to showing “Connecting…”, and never to connect again, even if the game unfreezes itself. Then chat is kaput for the rest of the session unless you shut the app and restart, even though you can keep playing and doing other stuff while internet is clearly working just fine. So now the question is it chat causing this bug or is this causing the chat problem? A clue!
I will submit a bug report bc the water cooler is a key part of why I am playing this game. Thanks everyone for your input. Just wanted to make sure it wasn’t just me first.