iOS 11 won’t support 32-bit apps published in the App Store

Aug 26, 2017 16:37 GMT  ·  By

When it’ll go live next month, iOS 11 will bring a long list of welcome improvements, but also a controversial change that would impact a substantial number of iPhone and iPad apps.

The next version of iOS won’t support 32-bit apps, and according to statistics, this would impact no more, no less than 187,000 apps that would be removed from the App Store at some point unless updated to 64-bit.

Even though the decision seems rather dramatic, it doesn’t come as a big surprise and developers were provided with enough time to update their apps to 64-bit and avoid being pulled from the App Store. The iPhone 5s, which got to see daylight in 2013, debuted with a 64-bit chip, and all its successors adopted the same approach, with Apple’s direction pretty obvious from that point on.

Furthermore, with the release of the first iOS 11 betas earlier this year, more and more users started getting notifications of 32-bit apps not working on the new OS versions, with developers prompted to update to 64-bit as soon as possible.

Games leading the chart with most 32-bit titles

But app intelligence firm Sensor Tower estimates there are still nearly 200,000 32-bit apps in the App Store at this point, which means that if nothing changes, no less than 8 percent of all iPhone apps could be impacted when iOS 11 goes live next month.

Most of the 32-bit titles in danger of getting the ax are games, namely 38,619, followed by education, entertainment, and lifestyle apps.

Even though the release of iOS 11 takes place next month, the apps that aren’t updated to 64-bit just yet won’t disappear overnight. Sensor Tower says Apple will still allow them to be downloaded on devices that do not run iOS 11, but sooner or later, those whose developers do not release an update would go dark without a doubt.

Apple is expected to release more info on iOS 11 next month when it officially introduces the new OS, though it’s not yet clear how the company is working with devs to prevent apps from being banned.