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To be fair, you’re using a 8-year old device that has been unsupported by Apple for 2. I’m sure some websites already aren’t working for you and I’d expect a “w

by sureIy 2y ago

To be fair, you’re using a 8-year old device that has been unsupported by Apple for 2. I’m sure some websites already aren’t working for you and I’d expect a “web service” app wrapper to have similar limitations. To support your device, they probably would have to keep a legacy version of their web apps around, so it does not come free. For a free app, supporting a device for 7 years is already a long time. With iOS 18 around the corner, it makes every day more sense to cut you off.

verandaguy 2y ago
Don't look at it as "not supporting an 8-year-old device" which can't get the update; look at it through the lens of "not supporting an OS which had its initial release just under 3 years ago and is still receiving support itself." There are plenty of reasons (of varying reasonableness) to avoid an update; people on an OS version this new shouldn't be getting this kind of harsh treatment. If you have app features that rely on a new iOS feature, you could just put those behind a feature flag. If your core API changes substantially over time meaning that out-of-date versions of your app quickly stop working without updates, it's better for the user if you use something like Swagger to auto-generate the API stubs; it makes it much easier to support your app in the long term, even for users on what would otherwise be unsupported platforms. If you're dropping support because supporting an older OS creates irreparable security issues, well, I guess in this case they might actually be ok with that.
- stackskipton 2y ago
  iOS ecosystem generally doesn't work like that. Most people upgrade to latest when latest.1 comes out so around December. Those on latest - 1 will remain until they become latest - 2 next September and by then, they will very likely upgrade to latest because they buy a new phone. See this blog article by Telmetry Deck about iOS 17 adoption: https://telemetrydeck.com/blog/ios-market-share-13-23/ https://telemetrydeck.com/blog/ios-market-share-13-23/ Since Apple controls phone updates and phone support is long, unlike Android, most companies only do latest - 1 except around September when they will do latest - 2. However, most don't cut people off, you are just unsupported land and they will if older iOS versions give them any trouble.
ryandrake 2y ago
Apps stop issuing updates for my old device all the time. I understand why and I live with it. What they don’t do is remotely disable their apps, forcing me to stop using them. That’s totally unacceptable, even for a free app. Especially for a free app! They spent developer effort to deliberately do it.
- sureIy 2y ago
  I don’t think you understand what it takes to support “unsupported devices”. I already explained that it does take effort, so without that screen you’d have a broken app. Also stop complaining, it’s a free app, get a new phone already.
  - ryandrake 2y ago
    It takes zero effort to keep an existing app running that's already installed on a user's old phone. You simply do nothing! Don't issue updates or go out of your way to remotely disable users, and instead focus on shiny new phones. If the app hits a server API, you just make sure that API version doesn't get touched (you are versioning your APIs right?). It's not rocket science. Sorry, everyone has one HN soapbox, and you happen to have run into mine. Software developers need to stop being so hostile to users with devices they deem "old and icky". This includes OS vendors, too by the way, I'm not leaving them out. Supporting only N-1 is a user-hostile policy, and it's driven primarily out of developer laziness rather than business need. Remotely disabling any version is absolutely appalling, and I hope that practice doesn't catch on.
    - sureIy 2y ago
      > I hope that practice doesn't catch on. I got news for you, they invented something called websites and all they do is remotely disable what appears in your browser. Next thing you know, they place them in webviews and show "Your browser is not supported because it's running on a 8-year-old device." I don't know how else to tell you that they did not break something that works, but simply stopped serving an old web view because supporting it DOES NOT come for free. Do you still ship IE6 views for the lone monthly viewer too?
eviks 2y ago
There is nothing fair about this since the OS/device would continue to work just fine, and for many more years, unless the user hostile decision to block was made

by sureIy 2y ago

verandaguy 2y ago

Don't look at it as "not supporting an 8-year-old device" which can't get the update; look at it through the lens of "not supporting an OS which had its initial release just under 3 years ago and is still receiving support itself." There are plenty of reasons (of varying reasonableness) to avoid an update; people on an OS version this new shouldn't be getting this kind of harsh treatment. If you have app features that rely on a new iOS feature, you could just put those behind a feature flag. If your core API changes substantially over time meaning that out-of-date versions of your app quickly stop working without updates, it's better for the user if you use something like Swagger to auto-generate the API stubs; it makes it much easier to support your app in the long term, even for users on what would otherwise be unsupported platforms. If you're dropping support because supporting an older OS creates irreparable security issues, well, I guess in this case they might actually be ok with that.

stackskipton 2y ago
iOS ecosystem generally doesn't work like that. Most people upgrade to latest when latest.1 comes out so around December. Those on latest - 1 will remain until they become latest - 2 next September and by then, they will very likely upgrade to latest because they buy a new phone. See this blog article by Telmetry Deck about iOS 17 adoption: https://telemetrydeck.com/blog/ios-market-share-13-23/ https://telemetrydeck.com/blog/ios-market-share-13-23/ Since Apple controls phone updates and phone support is long, unlike Android, most companies only do latest - 1 except around September when they will do latest - 2. However, most don't cut people off, you are just unsupported land and they will if older iOS versions give them any trouble.

ryandrake 2y ago

Apps stop issuing updates for my old device all the time. I understand why and I live with it. What they don’t do is remotely disable their apps, forcing me to stop using them. That’s totally unacceptable, even for a free app. Especially for a free app! They spent developer effort to deliberately do it.

sureIy 2y ago
I don’t think you understand what it takes to support “unsupported devices”. I already explained that it does take effort, so without that screen you’d have a broken app. Also stop complaining, it’s a free app, get a new phone already.
- ryandrake 2y ago
  It takes zero effort to keep an existing app running that's already installed on a user's old phone. You simply do nothing! Don't issue updates or go out of your way to remotely disable users, and instead focus on shiny new phones. If the app hits a server API, you just make sure that API version doesn't get touched (you are versioning your APIs right?). It's not rocket science. Sorry, everyone has one HN soapbox, and you happen to have run into mine. Software developers need to stop being so hostile to users with devices they deem "old and icky". This includes OS vendors, too by the way, I'm not leaving them out. Supporting only N-1 is a user-hostile policy, and it's driven primarily out of developer laziness rather than business need. Remotely disabling any version is absolutely appalling, and I hope that practice doesn't catch on.
  - sureIy 2y ago
    > I hope that practice doesn't catch on. I got news for you, they invented something called websites and all they do is remotely disable what appears in your browser. Next thing you know, they place them in webviews and show "Your browser is not supported because it's running on a 8-year-old device." I don't know how else to tell you that they did not break something that works, but simply stopped serving an old web view because supporting it DOES NOT come for free. Do you still ship IE6 views for the lone monthly viewer too?

eviks 2y ago

There is nothing fair about this since the OS/device would continue to work just fine, and for many more years, unless the user hostile decision to block was made