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Apple dictates that all new apps must fully support the iPhone X screen
- RKearney 9y agoMeanwhile, Apples own iMovie app doesn’t support the iPhone X display yet.
- wereHamster 9y ago> all new apps submitted from April 2018 onward Presumably they're going to make their own apps compatible by then.
- eridius 9y agoI hope so, but there's no guarantee, because that says "new apps", not "app updates".
- MBCook 9y agoWhy is it new app? When will it apply to existing apps? I don’t have a X but I have apps that still don’t support the iPhone 6 screen size. Not ancient apps that have never been updated. TiVo updates their app regularly. Every 2 or 3 months. But it still doesn’t support the screen size released four years ago. This is a good move but at some point it needs to apply to existing apps or you end up with an obnoxious loophole.
- 3pt14159 9y agoThe problem is that some codebases are horrible. They assume a constant ratio or a constant width and it's pretty much a re-write if they want to support other orientations.
- MBCook 9y agoI’m sure that’s true. But would it be that hard for Apple to say “this applies to new apps today and existing apps in two years“? That way developers would have tons of warning, but they wouldn’t be able to sit on their feet forever. And I’d only apply it to updates to apps.
- 3pt14159 9y agoYeah, that sounds like a reasonable compromise. I agree with you.
- reustle 9y agoApple made a questionable design decision and people didn't want to play ball. Now they're trying to keep their customers happy (who paid $1k for a phone) by forcing everyone to design for it. Sounds like Apple.
- prions 9y agoiOS Developers have well known that in order to develop apps for Apple, you play by their rules. Why is this a surprise to anyone?
- ardit33 9y agoThey always have done this. When the larger screens came out (from 3.5 to 4' to 4.7'), new apps had to support them as well. Also, when iOS 7 was released it introduced major changes to the full screen layouts, and manny apps had to deal with it. (in order support both iOS 6, and 7). So, nothing new
- woofyman 9y ago>So, nothing new The notched screen and rounded corners makes it a different beast.
- SirensOfTitan 9y agoI don’t really get this? If you’re using a sane library for layouting, updating your app to support the new frame isn’t too much of a struggle.
- LukaAl 9y agoHaving overseen the update of an app to support the new layout I disagree with you. The main issues we found is the virtual home button that could fall in the locations where you have buttons (allegedly is not a problem with built-ins like navbars, but still an issue on some screens). Another issue we found is support for the overflow when hiding the top bar on scroll and other minor issues that I have no time to tell. But the real problem is that you need to test and test all screens, something difficult in a complex app. Especially since the X was released in late November and difficult to find for some time. That does not mean that having a compatible app by April, 6 months later is a hard requirement. But updating the support requires a good amount of work, it is not trivial and could consume a good chunk of time to do that.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- Upvoter33 9y agoThis is a non-story. Company who owns app store places requirements on apps in said app store. Has been true from day one, and will be true until app store no longer exists.
- paulddraper 9y agoDoes that fact make the requirements uninteresting?
- EpicEng 9y agoThat's a ridiculously simplistic and incorrect way to think. The fact that apple makes the rules doesn't mean we shouldn't discuss our opinion of said rules. Also, they control the entire ecosystem. Do you remember how that worked out for MS and IE? The fact that it's their app store is not the only relevant details, and using that as a reason to ignore what they do is just lazy.
- yorby 9y agoWhat if you support it, but you display black in the notch?
- rargulati 9y agoSkimming through the comments in this thread, I'm uncertain what people think goes on during the design and manufacturing phase at a hardware company at the scale of Apple (and if someone does quite a bit in this space, I'd love to hear from industrial designers and folks in supply-chain manufacturing). At the design phase for FaceID, competing designs are presented, each with their own tradeoffs. These are then culled further for a manufacturing phase, where the design is further iterated on. Finally, they are presented with the limitations of supply-chain and engineering. Why would a company at Apple's scale not test out many different variations and ask the question: why the notch > black bar on the top (or even embedded into the device itself)? From a marketing perspective, a black bar would have been worse - less distinctive, less screen, potentially more noticeable in a bad way ("the screen you don't have", "wasteful"). The complaints may have been similar. Given the compromises between the target device size, actual requirements of FaceID, and distinctive look, I'd say Apple hit their goals and the market is mostly receptive.