After Warnings in iOS 10, Next Version – iOS 11 – to Stop 32-Bit App Support Completely

iOS 11 to stop 32-bit app support - iOS 10 issuing warnings

If you’re on the latest version of Apple’s mobile operating system – iOS 10.3 or the minor point upgrade iOS 10.3.1 – then you might have noticed that some apps cause a notification pane to be displayed, saying that the app may not work on future versions of iOS. That’s the big move to 64-bit processing being played out in the Apple iOS ecosystem.

What that means for users is that if the developers of the apps they regularly use don’t update their apps to the 64-bit standard, they will no longer work on iOS 11. Irish developer Steven Troughton-Smith recently tweeted this:

That’s bad news if you have dozens of apps on your iPhone or iPad that you use on a regular basis because, unless all of those apps are updated before the iOS 11 upgrade comes through, moving to that OS version means leaving out some of those apps that you’ve come to depend on.

In general, 32-bit application programs can typically run on a 64-bit operating system, as long as the processor also supports 64-bit processing. However, Troughton-Smith added this to the comments in that tweet just a minute after the original tweet:

“(…and it sounds like future A-series chips won’t even include 32-bit support. Wonder if that’ll free up any performance/die space?)”

That means even though the 64-bit chip can theoretically handle 32-bit apps, Apple will likely force it not to.

Are the Warnings on iOS 10 a Shocker to Devs?

To be fair to Apple, this is not a sudden move that leaves developers in the lurch. Think of it more as a gradual shakeup of the Apple dev community that has now come to a head. In September last year Apple did announce that it was doing a “clean-up” of the App Store, removing apps that haven’t been updated in quite a while. More about that in this article below, published on September 3, the same week that iPhone 7 was released with iOS 10:

The Great Apple App Store Clean-up Starts Next Week. What’s In It For You?

At the time it appeared that it was merely part of a periodic housekeeping effort by Apple. Now, however, it’s clear that Apple is going to be extremely unforgiving of its developers who still haven’t updated their apps to 64-bit.

Moreover, it was already announced that all apps submitted to the App Store since July 2016 must include 64-bit support.

Why Only 64-bit Apps Will be Allowed on iOS 11

iOS 10 still supports 32-bit apps, but the next version, iOS 11, will not, and the the biggest reason is speed. An app can work much faster if it processes data in 64-bit ‘chunks.” Two things to keep in mind here:

  • More bits means that data can be processed in larger chunks which also means more accurately.
  • More bits means our system can point to or address a larger number of locations in physical memory.

In the simplest terms, 64-bit apps are better than 32-bit apps from a user perspective, and Apple’s focus has always been on user experience over everything else. And iOS 11 is going to be all about experience because it will power what is probably the most important iPhone ever – iPhone 8 (iPhone Edition).

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Sources: 9to5Mac | TechSupportAlert | iDownloadBlog