why is it so hard to find if company is working on native support on M1

[TrancyGoose]

A lot of people are purchasing these amazing machines. As far as I am concerned, this technology is the future, at least in the laptop world.

But why is it so damn hard to find information on which apps are working on native M1 support.
I get that big guy like Google, Microsoft, Mozilla, etc... done it very quickly and released versions for M1/ARM, but for example, Spotify still runs of Rosetta, while being a lot less complex than for example MS Office suite. If you search online, there is barely any statement by the company.

Yet, I notice that Spotify uses a considerable amount of power, and is generally slow and clunky.

TIDAL, Deezer, and other apps have had no information published on native versions. Hell, I might have to go Apple Music, although coming from a family plan, my family will be on a warpath with their established playlist and me being the only one with an M1 Machine.

So, a lot of people must google, their favorite app and M1/Apple Silicon support, yet, a lot of times, find no answers from developers of the apps. What I noticed is, I got 2 responses from customer service reps that stunned me.

Viber: We can not confirm or deny working on native support (What's the freaking secrecy?)
Spotify: I have no idea, here is a link to our forum Dev section.

So, why is the info so hard to find? More and more people buy these, they will continue to buy these machines and yet, many developers are quiet or have no clue. Basically, what this will do, is drive people more and more into Apple Ecosystem, me switching to Apple music for example, and taking the hate from my family I guess I can justify by saying if I pay for it, I get to choose

 

[pldelisle]

Spotify still runs of Rosetta,

Yes, because it's based on Electron which in turn has to be compiled natively. Apple is investing time and effort into Electron, so it should be done before the end of the year.

But Spotify should run correctly over Rosetta...

Porting apps is difficult. It's usually not a matter of weeks. Apps uses dependencies, and these dependencies must be compiled natively before even starting to port your app. If the whole chain isn't native, you can't think of being native. That's a lot of software pieces to put together.

 

[thedocbwarren]

A lot of people are purchasing these amazing machines. As far as I am concerned, this technology is the future, at least in the laptop world.

But why is it so damn hard to find information on which apps are working on native M1 support.
I get that big guy like Google, Microsoft, Mozilla, etc... done it very quickly and released versions for M1/ARM, but for example, Spotify still runs of Rosetta, while being a lot less complex than for example MS Office suite. If you search online, there is barely any statement by the company.

Yet, I notice that Spotify uses a considerable amount of power, and is generally slow and clunky.

TIDAL, Deezer, and other apps have had no information published on native versions. Hell, I might have to go Apple Music, although coming from a family plan, my family will be on a warpath with their established playlist and me being the only one with an M1 Machine.

So, a lot of people must google, their favorite app and M1/Apple Silicon support, yet, a lot of times, find no answers from developers of the apps. What I noticed is, I got 2 responses from customer service reps that stunned me.

Viber: We can not confirm or deny working on native support (What's the freaking secrecy?)
Spotify: I have no idea, here is a link to our forum Dev section.

So, why is the info so hard to find? More and more people buy these, they will continue to buy these machines and yet, many developers are quiet or have no clue. Basically, what this will do, is drive people more and more into Apple Ecosystem, me switching to Apple music for example, and taking the hate from my family I guess I can justify by saying if I pay for it, I get to choose

Some of the companies are public (trading) and such they can't blurt out if, when without consequence. But true, even not mentioning could qualify to some degree.

End of the day, it's still early. Things will shake out what the landscape will be over time. If someone doesn't support, likely someone lese will and fill that void. It's called opportunity!

 

[thedocbwarren]

Yes, because it's based on Electron which in turn has to be compiled natively. Apple is investing time and effort into Electron, so it should be done before the end of the year.

But Spotify should run correctly over Rosetta...

Porting apps is difficult. It's usually not a matter of weeks. Apps uses dependencies, and these dependencies must be compiled natively before even starting to port your app. If the whole chain isn't native, you can't think of being native. That's a lot of software pieces to put together.

And that. Some of us are also helping with these efforts, such as electron and node, or other open source projects.

Oh and electron does have native versions, as with Chrome and many parts of the toolchain.

 

[pldelisle]

Oh and electron does have native versions

Didn't know that. I thought it was still under development. Nice to know, Spotify should be port sooner than I thought.

 

[TrancyGoose]

Some of the companies are public (trading) and such they can't blurt out if, when without consequence. But true, even not mentioning could qualify to some degree.

End of the day, it's still early. Things will shake out what the landscape will be over time. If someone doesn't support, likely someone lese will and fill that void. It's called opportunity!

But adding support to a platform that is going to potentially grow over time, does that not add plus points to stock value?
For example, Image-Line that makes FL Studio, they were not extremely happy, I am sure that a lot of their mac customer base could be moving to M1 chips, and they said so, but they at least were honest, said it will take time and ask for patience, and honestly that was good enough for me, as I do realize that it takes time. But from the likes of Spotify, there is not even simple: "We are working on it", from a service that is widely used is unacceptable in my opinion, if I heard that, I would let it go, and wait for support. In contrast, FL Studio is expensive, very complex considering its sound generation plugins, synths, mixers, etc ... and has a lifetime license, and yet Image-Line said, hey, we are working on it for you. I hope you understand what I mean.

 

[mi7chy]

Marketshare and developers aren't free. Lets say best case Mac marketshare is 10% so at most M1 is 1%. It doesn't make financial sense to dedicate resources for the 1%.

 

[BrianBaughn]

I think a lot of software and hardware companies do have the info somewhere on their sites but as you say it's not easy to find. The problem is that no one has done the research and put the result in one place for us to see. I've just checked a few, myself…so it won't be me!

 

[Apple_Robert]

The following thread may be of use to you, OP.

Universal and Native Apple Silicon Apps

Edit: it seems it is not native. Sorry. Backup and Sync from Google is Universal This the former Google Drive backup for single user. Team version "Drive for Desktop" comes on April. https://www.google.com/intl/fi/drive/download/

forums.macrumors.com

 

[xylitol]

I think a lot of software and hardware companies do have the info somewhere on their sites but as you say it's not easy to find. The problem is that no one has done the research and put the result in one place for us to see. I've just checked a few, myself…so it won't be me!

Well there's this:

Is Apple Silicon ready?

The Complete Guide to MacOS Apps Optimized for Apple Silicon Macs and the M1/M2 Processors

isapplesiliconready.com

 

[senttoschool]

Didn't know that. I thought it was still under development. Nice to know, Spotify should be port sooner than I thought.

Slack is using ARM Electron and now runs natively on Apple Silicon.

Whatsapp, Spotify, and most other Electron apps have not been updated to use ARM Electron yet.

 

[svanstrom]

But adding support to a platform that is going to potentially grow over time, does that not add plus points to stock value?

Adding support adds value.

Talking about adding support… might, in unfavourable circumstances, make a business go bankrupt.

For instance, if a business talking about adding support is making buyers wait for the next version, there's no inflow of cash; and if they on top of that run into a problem with supporting the new platform (like them having to wait for a library that has problems and needs to be rewritten), then the company might be out of the game long before they manage to actually support that new platform.

But there are also minor things to take into consideration; like announcing support driving up the stock just a little bit, but then the development time making rumours go around about the company being about to fail… So by the time the actual support is released everyone has such a negative mindset that even good support makes the stock drop even more, simply because only a magical increase in performance would have satisfied them.

Talking about things as a business can be dangerous; no matter if they talk too much, or not enough.

 

[Tech198]

Yes, because it's based on Electron which in turn has to be compiled natively. Apple is investing time and effort into Electron, so it should be done before the end of the year.

But Spotify should run correctly over Rosetta...

Porting apps is difficult. It's usually not a matter of weeks. Apps uses dependencies, and these dependencies must be compiled natively before even starting to port your app. If the whole chain isn't native, you can't think of being native. That's a lot of software pieces to put together.

But that's always been the case. You just go through more hoops with making it work on new chip vs dependencies and all software wise that's no longer supported on ("Insert OS version here") that must be updated to make it work.

 

[deeddawg]

Are you suspecting some software vendors plan to abandon macOS and never publish a native version of their app?

... because it seems to me that it's a given that any software company publishing for macOS is going to be working on native Apple Silicon versions of their apps.

The only question is when -- which many won't say in case it takes longer than expected.

 

[BrianBaughn]

Well there's this:

Is Apple Silicon ready?

The Complete Guide to MacOS Apps Optimized for Apple Silicon Macs and the M1/M2 Processors

isapplesiliconready.com

Yes that's good. My search has been for audio software that I use within Logic Pro. Most Logic users aren't going to move to Apple Silicon until their third-party stuff works.

 

[ArPe]

Electron apps will eventually be replaced with native apps, iPad apps that morph into their desktop counterpart so that there is one unified build.

I’d like Netflix to port their app to macOS so I can download shows offline. They have an app for Windows that does so.

 

[robco74]

The majority of Mac users will be running Intel machines for some time. It makes sense to focus efforts there in the near term. Many devs will fold native support into existing development plans. If an app runs well under Rosetta2, adding native support may not be as high a priority as other new features users want.

Of course, devs will also want to test their apps. They may not have the resources to purchase M1 machines, this has been the case with some open source projects. Or they may be waiting for beefier hardware to be released before purchasing. Larger companies could afford the DTKs, and to buy extra machines for development and deployment, others may be running on thinner margins.

 

[abhi182]

Speaking of Spotify, I ended up side loading it from my iPad.

But yes - I understand that there are challenges with porting apps but would be good to get at least some sense of a broad timeline.
RDP for example - that I do routinely use has no defined roadmap nor any indication if it will be ever ported.. and the side loaded ARM version crashes as soon as it connects

 

[alien3dx]

A lot of people are purchasing these amazing machines. As far as I am concerned, this technology is the future, at least in the laptop world.

But why is it so damn hard to find information on which apps are working on native M1 support.
I get that big guy like Google, Microsoft, Mozilla, etc... done it very quickly and released versions for M1/ARM, but for example, Spotify still runs of Rosetta, while being a lot less complex than for example MS Office suite. If you search online, there is barely any statement by the company.

Yet, I notice that Spotify uses a considerable amount of power, and is generally slow and clunky.

TIDAL, Deezer, and other apps have had no information published on native versions. Hell, I might have to go Apple Music, although coming from a family plan, my family will be on a warpath with their established playlist and me being the only one with an M1 Machine.

So, a lot of people must google, their favorite app and M1/Apple Silicon support, yet, a lot of times, find no answers from developers of the apps. What I noticed is, I got 2 responses from customer service reps that stunned me.

Viber: We can not confirm or deny working on native support (What's the freaking secrecy?)
Spotify: I have no idea, here is a link to our forum Dev section.

So, why is the info so hard to find? More and more people buy these, they will continue to buy these machines and yet, many developers are quiet or have no clue. Basically, what this will do, is drive people more and more into Apple Ecosystem, me switching to Apple music for example, and taking the hate from my family I guess I can justify by saying if I pay for it, I get to choose

margin to low . even iOS development. macOS more low market.

 

[senttoschool]

Electron apps will eventually be replaced with native apps, iPad apps that morph into their desktop counterpart so that there is one unified build.

I’d like Netflix to port their app to macOS so I can download shows offline. They have an app for Windows that does so.

I doubt this. Some will, certainly. But most won't.

iPads apps are optimized for touch, limited multitasking, and limited screen space. Electron Apps are optimized for mouse/trackpad and keyboard and a larger screen.

In addition, many Electron Apps are just websites. For example, Slack web and their Electron app share the same codebase. There is very little effort to port the website to an Electron App.

Finally, most Electron Apps are also on Windows which means the MacOS version is "free".

 

[jerryk]

What issues are you having running Spotify on an M1 Mac? I run it all day on my M1 Air with no issue. It seems to run about the same as it did on my 16" MBP Pro, Windows system, car, iPad, etc.

 

[UBS28]

Are you suspecting some software vendors plan to abandon macOS and never publish a native version of their app?

... because it seems to me that it's a given that any software company publishing for macOS is going to be working on native Apple Silicon versions of their apps.

The only question is when -- which many won't say in case it takes longer than expected.

I got software for a $2000 hardware synthesizer that is not even ported to 64-bit. So not a chance in hell they are going to create a M1 version.

They consider Mac as not important apparently. I don’t blame them with Apple constantly changing things by first killing 32-bit support and now they are going to kill both 32-bit and 64-bit x86.

It only works on Windows now.

 

[deeddawg]

I got software for a $2000 hardware synthesizer that is not even ported to 64-bit. So not a chance in hell they are going to create a M1 version.

They consider Mac as not important apparently. I don’t blame them with Apple constantly changing things by first killing 32-bit support and now they are going to kill both 32-bit and 64-bit x86.

It only works on Windows now.

That's the trouble with niche devices such as that - niche in terms of overall market I mean - they've made the decision that the cost of continued macOS support exceeds the potential lost sales/customers.

 

[dmccloud]

I got software for a $2000 hardware synthesizer that is not even ported to 64-bit. So not a chance in hell they are going to create a M1 version.

They consider Mac as not important apparently. I don’t blame them with Apple constantly changing things by first killing 32-bit support and now they are going to kill both 32-bit and 64-bit x86.

It only works on Windows now.

If that company hasn't even ported the software to 64-bit on the Windows side, that points to other issues and/or priorities on their development side. In all honesty, they may have neither the staff nor the resources to port their software over to 64-bit. When Microsoft finally pulls the 32-bit plug themselves (which will be happening at some point over the next decade), that's going to render a lot of software imcompatible going forward. Apple made a tough decision in terms of going 64-bit only with Catalina, but the M1 has shown that change was part of a bigger plan for the future of the Mac platform.