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With  silicon macs supporting iOS/iPadOS apps, which apps are you most excited about using on a mac when those finally come out?

Mohamed Kamal

Mohamed Kamal

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 5, 2020
61
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Not sure if this is the correct forum or if this is a repost. If so I apologize :)
Also, would developers have to actively bring their iOS/iPadOS apps to the mac appstore or will they be put there automatically by apple?
 
Apple will not be able to automatically publish third-party Mac-translated apps. It's not Apple's intellectual property.

Apple already offers differentiation between various platforms concerning revenue generation.

Do you think Microsoft would be particularly happy if Apple made freeware iOS Microsoft Office automatically free on iPadOS and macOS?

My guess is that Microsoft would be less than enthusiastic about such a move by Apple.
 
TBH, I’ll mainly use iOS app now. Instagram, Twitter, Plex, Foursqure, Goodread, Discord etc..

Erehy Dobon said:
Do you think Microsoft would be particularly happy if Apple made freeware iOS Microsoft Office automatically free on iPadOS and macOS?
Click to expand...

Then Microsoft needs to opt out because every iOS app will be automatically in Mac App Store.
 
Actually there's currently conflicting information on that, so I get your confusion @matrix07. The "marketing" angle has been "you can run all iOS apps on Apple Silicon Macs", but the developer documentation angle has been "you will need to check an opt-in box when uploading a new version of your iOS app to App Store".

The reasoning being:
  • some devs might already have a Mac app that's far more suited for that platform
  • some apps that are no longer being updated wouldn't be "good citizens of macOS", and Apple and the devs might not want the added customer support pressure
  • some apps are so tightly built for mobile that they make no sense running on Macs
So in summary, it will be opt-in for devs.

Edit:
As clarified below, it's opt-out but not all old apps are supported.
 
Last edited:
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johannnn said:
https://www.imore.com/all-compatibl...-made-available-mac-unless-developers-opt-out
Click to expand...

"...all newly created and existing compatible iPhone and iPad apps will be made available on Mac"

How is "compatible" defined, do you know?

Edit:
Because I think this is where a lot of the confusion stems from. Some just cling to the "all iOS apps" part of the marketing material, when in actual fact it's not all iOS apps. I can make some guesses about what "supported" looks like but that's all they are - guesses:

  • Does not require accelerometers
  • Does not require GPS
  • Does not make use of depth-of-field tech (LiDAR, Face ID)
  • Does not make use of U1 tech
  • Does not make use of AR
  • Does not make available third-party voice assistants
  • Must have been built with a specific XCode version and up (relatively new apps)
 
Last edited:
Puonti said:
"...all newly created and existing compatible iPhone and iPad apps will be made available on Mac"

How is "compatible" defined, do you know?

Edit:
Because I think this is where a lot of the confusion stems from. Some just cling to the "all iOS apps" part of the marketing material, when in actual fact it's not all iOS apps.
Click to expand...

I don’t think there is any confusion. Old iOS apps that don’t have modern API will not run. However, the majority of major apps will run.
 
Whilst an iOS app will no doubt be able to “run” on a Mac, there is a big difference in optimised functionality for the totally different format and user interface.
 
Puonti said:
"...all newly created and existing compatible iPhone and iPad apps will be made available on Mac"

How is "compatible" defined, do you know?

Edit:
Because I think this is where a lot of the confusion stems from. Some just cling to the "all iOS apps" part of the marketing material, when in actual fact it's not all iOS apps. I can make some guesses about what "supported" looks like but that's all they are - guesses:

  • Does not require accelerometers
  • Does not require GPS
  • Does not make use of depth-of-field tech (LiDAR, Face ID)
  • Does not make use of U1 tech
  • Does not make use of AR
  • Does not make available third-party voice assistants
  • Must have been built with a specific XCode version and up (relatively new apps)
Click to expand...
It's still opt-out, regardless if the AR app from IKEA is not compatible.
 
Erehy Dobon said:
Do you think Microsoft would be particularly happy if Apple made freeware iOS Microsoft Office automatically free on iPadOS and macOS?

My guess is that Microsoft would be less than enthusiastic about such a move by Apple.
Click to expand...

Automatically transferred Microsoft Office app on macOS will be an app in a window of iPhone screen proportions, like a mini-app, unless Microsoft themselves update the app for multiple screen resolution support, which is unlikely given that the app doesn't even have an iPad version. It would be just like installing the app, or several others like Instagram, iPad and using in the middle of the screen.

The same goes for other iPhone/iPad apps as well. Netflix app for example, if not updated for macOS interface, will only be an iPad app in a movable window, nothing more.
 
Another important question would be piracy. Will this allow iOS apps to be pirated on mac? If so, will developers choose to Opt-out and throw away the potential added exposure/money and also risk being on apple’s bad side? Or will they opt for a micro-transaction model like most new apps do anyway?
 
Apollo, an awesome reddit app that would be infinitely better to use than the browser tab. Even the old.reddit.com site is much better in a browser tab than Reddit's "modern" site. Probably games that aren't available on Macs as well.

Mohamed Kamal said:
Another important question would be piracy. Will this allow iOS apps to be pirated on mac? If so, will developers choose to Opt-out and throw away the potential added exposure/money and also risk being on apple’s bad side? Or will they opt for a micro-transaction model like most new apps do anyway?
Click to expand...

No difference from jailbroken devices and I bet there are far more jailbroken devices than there are Macs (technically none since iOS apps only run on Apple Silicon Macs). Macs are a very small market share compared to iOS. If they had any concern about privacy, they already would've pulled out from iOS entirely.

By default, Apple Silicon Macs will be locked down with SIP and same hardware protection as the iOS device with Secure Enclave, read-only system volume that's signed, and so on. Hackintosh would be difficult as well because of this.

You can opt out of SIP and so on, but I'm willing to bet the apps will know based on that SIP status and warn you just like they do on jailbroken iOS devices.
 
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I think some iPad apps I use will be more than welcome for me:

LumaFusion
Procreate
Infuse
Netflix

as well as some games:

Baldur's Gate II & Icewind Dale
 
Apollo for Reddit
Plex so I don’t have to use it in a browser

That’s about all I can think of right now. I’m more interested in games coming to Apple Silicon and what kind of gpu performance we will see in these new macs.
 
So these ported apps will sit on your screen as a small window (no full screen)? I guess this could work for some of them, it will be interesting to see how this works out. Looking forward to the first Apple Silicon iMac.
 
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