Weird application kind/architecture label

[pacmania1982]

Just curious - I was doing some house keeping on my MBA earlier and I noticed that some apps show up as Apple Silicon, others as Intel and lots as Universal. However the thing that perplexed me the most is that some apps are showing up as iOS.

In my screenshot, VMware Fusion Tech Preview is the Apple Silicon version of VMware Fusion, allowing for the virtualisation of Arm operating systems (which is a bit meh but anyway) - this most definitely is NOT an iOS app.

VLC is the Arm binary downloaded from videolan.org and updated via the applications built in 'Check for an update' in the VLC media player menu.

Tapo IS an iOS app.

So I was wondering if anyone had an explanation as to why some of these apps show up with the incorrect kind label.

Thanks!

 

[rm5]

I don't necessarily have an explanation, but I have a speculation. (I have a few programs that show up as "iOS" as you can see in my attached screenshot.)

I wonder if it has something to do with when the developer built the app, they selected the wrong metadata? Or maybe they are in fact real iOS apps, but I don't think so.

I am a musician, NOT an app developer, and I have no knowledge of how Mac apps are built, so this is a pure guess.

By the way, I have no real iOS apps installed on my system. So these are ALL desktop apps.

 

[robco74]

They could be Catalyst apps, binaries that work on both iOS and macOS.

 

[leman]

I also think these could be Catalyst apps. For apps like VLC it definitely makes sense to use Catalyst, as it makes cross-platform development simpler.