3 ms·

If I could run the Slack or Discord iOS apps on macOS I absolutely would, along with several other apps that have both Electron and iOS apps. Are Catalyst apps

If I could run the Slack or Discord iOS apps on macOS I absolutely would, along with several other apps that have both Electron and iOS apps. Are Catalyst apps as good as true designed-for-mac AppKit apps? Not usually, but they’re still several steps up from Electron apps and I’ll take what I can get. Unfortunately the companies behind these apps have elected to not allow users to make this choice, so once Universal Control is released these apps will be permanently moving to my iPad.

spondyl 5y ago
> If I could run the Slack or Discord iOS apps on macOS I absolutely would, along with several other apps that have both Electron and iOS apps. To clarify the situation for any unaware readers, you can indeed run iOS/iPad apps on M1 Apple Silicon devices however not all. From memory, the policy was actually that everything was allowed to be installed by default with developers having to opt out of allowing users to install their iOS/iPad apps on macOS devices. There used to be workaround that may still work, but I haven't tried it in some time. You can use https://imazing.com https://imazing.com (you'll just have to look past the marketing site for a minute...) to download apps you own as IPA files. Once you've got those, you can use the built-in macOS IPA installer to install those apps, even if developers have marketed them as not installable via the App Store. https://www.theverge.com/2020/11/18/21574207/how-to-install-run-any-iphone-ipad-app-m1-mac https://www.theverge.com/2020/11/18/21574207/how-to-install-... for a bit more info on the process
- saagarjha 5y ago
  It’s a bit more complicated than that. First you need to dump the unencrypted app from its IPA (you can do this on an M1 Mac when SIP is enabled, or a jailbroken iOS device). Then, take the resulting IPA and resign it with a valid provisioning profile and you can then double-click to install it. I’ve been using Slack and Discord this way for months and apart from some minor bugs it’s a great experience.

spondyl 5y ago

> If I could run the Slack or Discord iOS apps on macOS I absolutely would, along with several other apps that have both Electron and iOS apps. To clarify the situation for any unaware readers, you can indeed run iOS/iPad apps on M1 Apple Silicon devices however not all. From memory, the policy was actually that everything was allowed to be installed by default with developers having to opt out of allowing users to install their iOS/iPad apps on macOS devices. There used to be workaround that may still work, but I haven't tried it in some time. You can use https://imazing.com https://imazing.com (you'll just have to look past the marketing site for a minute...) to download apps you own as IPA files. Once you've got those, you can use the built-in macOS IPA installer to install those apps, even if developers have marketed them as not installable via the App Store. https://www.theverge.com/2020/11/18/21574207/how-to-install-run-any-iphone-ipad-app-m1-mac https://www.theverge.com/2020/11/18/21574207/how-to-install-... for a bit more info on the process

saagarjha 5y ago
It’s a bit more complicated than that. First you need to dump the unencrypted app from its IPA (you can do this on an M1 Mac when SIP is enabled, or a jailbroken iOS device). Then, take the resulting IPA and resign it with a valid provisioning profile and you can then double-click to install it. I’ve been using Slack and Discord this way for months and apart from some minor bugs it’s a great experience.