Monterey crippled iOS app support

[Shirasaki]

After upgrading to beta 4 Monterey, lots of iOS apps I used to use in big sur stops working outright. I hope this is only temporary and apple will fix that, but I feel this cool feature is being crippled, and that’s one of if not the biggest motivator for me to buy M1 Mac and use alongside my PC, followed by universal control.

I don’t like seeing this feature being useful only to developers.


What do you guys think?

 

[honam1021]

Are those apps installed from the Mac App Store or using IPA files? Apps that were sideloaded using IPAs downloaded after January 15 will not run on 11.3 or newer.

Or Maybe the apps you're trying are currently incompatible with iOS 15/macOS 12.

 

[Shirasaki]

Are those apps installed from the Mac App Store or using IPA files? Apps that were sideloaded using IPAs downloaded after January 15 will not run on 11.3 or newer.

Or Maybe the apps you're trying are currently incompatible with iOS 15/macOS 12.

All ipa files. Not downloaded from Mac App Store. I can’t find any iOS app in that store. Only expensive Mac apps.

They all works in iOS 15 with hiccups due to being beta.

Maybe I should consider virtualising Big Sur or get an M1 Mac at some point down the line.

 

[gtjeta]

You are using iOS apps in an intel Mac? Is that really posible?

 

[Shirasaki]

You are using iOS apps in an intel Mac? Is that really posible?

M1 Mac. Just a bit older macOS Big Sur.

 

[honam1021]

All ipa files. Not downloaded from Mac App Store. I can’t find any iOS app in that store. Only expensive Mac apps.

They all works in iOS 15 with hiccups due to being beta.

Maybe I should consider virtualising Big Sur or get an M1 Mac at some point down the line.

Big Sur currently cannot be virtualised on an M1 Mac, and probably will never be at acceptable performance unless Apple explicitly supports it in Virtualization.framework, which is unlikely at this point.

Outside of iOS developers offically allowing their apps on Mac, or dumping the apps you want from a jailbroken iOS device and resign them with a paid Apple Developer account so they can run on your M1 Mac, you're likely out of luck.

 

[Shirasaki]

Big Sur currently cannot be virtualised on an M1 Mac, and probably will never be at acceptable performance unless Apple explicitly supports it in Virtualization.framework, which is unlikely at this point.

Outside of iOS developers offically allowing their apps on Mac, or dumping the apps you want from a jailbroken iOS device and resign them with a paid Apple Developer account so they can run on your M1 Mac, you're likely out of luck.

Shame on Apple. This feature basically is dead for normal users and becomes developer only feature.

 

[gilby101]

After upgrading to beta 4 Monterey, lots of iOS apps I used to use in big sur stops working outright. I hope this is only temporary and apple will fix that, but I feel this cool feature is being crippled, and that’s one of if not the biggest motivator for me to buy M1 Mac and use alongside my PC, followed by universal control.

Be reasonable. It should be the developer's decision to make an iOS app available in the Mac App Store. When a developer sets a price for an iOS app, it is for running under iOS. Apple would be culpable to the developer if Apple allowed any iOS app to run on a Mac without the option of requiring further payment.

By the way, the change is not new with macOS 12, but from one of the macOS 11 releases. My memory is 11.2 or 11.3.

 

[Shirasaki]

Be reasonable. It should be the developer's decision to make an iOS app available in the Mac App Store. When a developer sets a price for an iOS app, it is for running under iOS. Apple would be culpable to the developer if Apple allowed any iOS app to run on a Mac without the option of requiring further payment.

By the way, the change is not new with macOS 12, but from one of the macOS 11 releases. My memory is 11.2 or 11.3.

Ok. Ok. Ok.
I get it. Apple should’ve not allowed this feature to work with random iOS apps in the first place, but advertise it as optimisation for XCode simulator, which makes perfect sense.

 

[Gnattu]

Ok. Ok. Ok.
I get it. Apple should’ve not allowed this feature to work with random iOS apps in the first place, but advertise it as optimisation for XCode simulator, which makes perfect sense.

The reality is the other way, any app is made available on the Mac App Store by default, all the Apps hidden are explicitly removed by its developer. The situation we have now is :

1. Lots of developers do not want to support macOS

2. Apple does not want macOS behave like 'jail-broken iOS'

3. Users just want their iOS apps are available

The solution to make everyone happy is hard to find.

 

[Shirasaki]

Apple does not want macOS behave like 'jail-broken iOS'

Well it kind of is in earlier version of Big Sur. Funny enough that block is not really “server side” as downloaded IPA can still be loaded one way or another in that earlier version of Big Sur.

The solution is branding the feature for Xcode improvements and remove all iOS app support on M1 Mac. Apple tries to find a middle ground but I don’t think they succeeded in that regard.