14 DAY TRIAL // Apple’s intention to drop 32-bit support isn’t a surprise, the Cupertino-based company has been hinting at the new move for quite some time now, ever since it started sending notifications to update apps to improve compatibility.
“iOS 11 won’t have 32bit app support at all,” said prominent developer Steven Troughton-Smith. He apparently received information that Apple intends to ditch 32-bit support completely and even future A-series chips won’t include this configuration.
Apple first started warning developers in the first beta version of iOS 10.3, saying that 32-bit apps wouldn’t work in future iOS versions. In addition, Apple did say that 32-bit applications could slow down a device, while a recent study showed that about 8% of all applications in the App Store would be affected by Apple’s move.
This means that about 187,000 applications for iPhones and iPads could become obsolete, unless developers update them. Apple has been working on removing certain items from the App Store for quite some time now. In November last year, Apple removed a total of 50,000 iOS “problematic and abandoned apps,” most of which were games that didn’t meet the latest guidelines and didn’t feature updates to the latest iOS version.
iOS 11 should be revealed this June
Apple’s next iOS version should arrive this summer, during WWDC, and aside from the lack of 32-bit support, iOS 11 should also come with Siri iMessage and iCloud integration. This means that Siri could get features for adapting to user habits and suggest different actions based on context.
iMessage integration would provide Siri with the tools to perform actions based on conversations and suggest restaurants when users type in a certain dish. Another high requested feature that could finally make its way to iOS 11 is Night Mode, which automatically changes the theme across applications installed on the iPhone.
iOS 11 will surely be featured on the upcoming iPhone 8, iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus, set to be announced this fall.