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Apple Begins Offering 'Last Compatible' Version of Apps for Users Running Legacy Versions of iOS

This is an EXCELLENT decision by Apple! It will not only help out the used market a little bit, but it also eases some of the pain of backwards-compatibility. Now when people can't or don't upgrade their devices, they aren't left in the dust - and they can at least use 'legacy' versions of Apps on iOS versions that don't support the latest and greatest.

I'm more excited about this than iOS 7. Well, almost. :p
 
This doesn't seem to work for Facebook. I just tried to download it for my old 3G and it said an upgrade to iOS 5 was required. It didn't give the option to download an older version.
 
World Citizen said:
So... for any app?

What if services are not supported anymore... Or code has changed and certain request are not valid anymore? (on the server side of the app)

Like... if spotify always used code like "search" and it has changed to "find" .... Your app will send a request "search:artist/song" ... but the server cant decode "search" anymore....
Click to expand...

So developers broke their own apps? That seems kinda, stupid. If I own a 3GS running an app I purchased, I expect that app to run pretty much forever barring the company going out of business (if there is a server side). I shouldn't be required to buy a new phone, so I can use a new OS, so I can update to a version of the app I purchased functions. Now, if an app is free, and has always been free, like Amazon or Facebook, then I have no qualms with the developer breaking their own app and losing business. Their prerogative.

This concept is simply reverting an app to one that works with your OS. I'm sure some may not work any longer, but that it should come as no surprise to Devs because they certainly have customers running legacy versions on older device already.
 
World Citizen said:
So... for any app?

What if services are not supported anymore... Or code has changed and certain request are not valid anymore? (on the server side of the app)

Like... if spotify always used code like "search" and it has changed to "find" .... Your app will send a request "search:artist/song" ... but the server cant decode "search" anymore....
Click to expand...

Not maintaining backwards compatibility is goofy on the app's part, IMO. You can deprecate the functionality and relegate it to slower servers, but to totally take it away when people are still using it and they don't have an upgrade path for their device (device only supports up to iOS4) is silly.

In your example, any well engineered app would have a schema version, so the XML, JSON, or whatever is used for data interchange between the client/server would say "i'm talking at version 4". The server would then map the data accordingly and understand that "search" really means "find" now, but with perhaps different featuresets. Or, it would just push it to a different server that can still handle those requests, as I mentioned previously.

Yes, you do need to eventually turn off old functionality when there comes a time that it just doesn't make business sense to support it anymore, but in my opinion, good customer service demands that one support users as long as possible before making that call.
 
naeS1Sean said:
What's a legacy version? Just...older versions of iOS? I'm not harshly judging, but I don't understand why someone wouldn't just update. I can see if someone hates iOS 7 or something......idk.
Click to expand...

Well ios7 sucks on the 4. A phone still worth $180 mind you. And many people are still running a 3GS.
 
World Citizen said:
So... for any app?

What if services are not supported anymore... Or code has changed and certain request are not valid anymore? (on the server side of the app)

Like... if spotify always used code like "search" and it has changed to "find" .... Your app will send a request "search:artist/song" ... but the server cant decode "search" anymore....
Click to expand...

That would be the case if the user simply didn't upgrade their app or they had kept a copy of it in iTunes.

The App Store simply lacked a method to distribute old versions of Apps to devices that needed them.
 
Working!! I just tried downloading an app I had previously purchased for iOS 4 (on my iPhone 3G), and it did just what the article said. I'm speechless!

mcneilis said:
This doesn't seem to work for Facebook. I just tried to download it for my old 3G and it said an upgrade to iOS 5 was required. It didn't give the option to download an older version.
Click to expand...

Was the Facebook app ever available for iOS 4?
 
naeS1Sean said:
What's a legacy version? Just...older versions of iOS? I'm not harshly judging, but I don't understand why someone wouldn't just update. I can see if someone hates iOS 7 or something......idk.
Click to expand...

iPad 1 and other devices are unable to run iOS 6 (or later). And even though they can run iOS 5.x, it runs pretty poorly from a performance perspective.

If iOS 7 has more memory or processor demands, it may not make for a happy experience on the older (but "supported") devices.
 
Traverse said:
Seems like a nice step in the right direction, but I find It odd that they would allow this. I would assume that since iPhone is all about the apps incompatible apps would push people to buy newer hardware.

I guess this was a customer oriented move instead of a profit oriented move. :D
Click to expand...

Lots of people still own an iPhone 3GS which doesn't run iOS 7, just imagine updating your apps two days ago (when the big wave of iOS7 updates started) and not being able to use one of your apps anymore.

In that case, people would blame Apple!

Over time, a large number of older versions of apps that use "the cloud" will stop working, because of the already mentioned incompatibilities due to bugfixes, but that way, the app itself will display a "You can't use this app anymore, buy a new iPhone" message and people will blame developers instead of Apple.
 
naeS1Sean said:
What's a legacy version? Just...older versions of iOS? I'm not harshly judging, but I don't understand why someone wouldn't just update. I can see if someone hates iOS 7 or something......idk.
Click to expand...

You hear a lot about the lack of Android updates, but rarely does anyone report on the hundreds of millions of iOS devices that have also been left behind.

For example, 85% of all iPod touches ever sold cannot update to iOS 7.

I find that my iPad 1 comes up with "iOS6 is required" fairly often when trying to download an app from Apple's App Store. Heck, my older Android tablets seem to have that problem less often.
 
naeS1Sean said:
What's a legacy version? Just...older versions of iOS? I'm not harshly judging, but I don't understand why someone wouldn't just update. I can see if someone hates iOS 7 or something......idk.
Click to expand...

Cause my 1st Generation ipod touch still works perfectly as an MP3 players and remote control for itunes.

yet, for some reason, i've lost the ability to download and install even the simple "remote" app anymore because the new version can only run on iOS5. Meanwhile, there was a perfectly good working version for iOS3
 
kdarling said:
Heck, my older Android tablets have that problem less often.
Click to expand...

Presumably because the Google Play store has an option to let developers provide multiple versions of their app to target different OS versions.

Thinking about it, I wonder if this is due to the iCloud backup feature. If you've backed up a device like the iPhone 3GS using iCloud, then when you went to restore that device, you could end up not being able to recover your apps (as updates may have made them incompatible with iOS 6). With iTunes, that would be less likely to happen.
 
kalsta said:
Working!! I just tried downloading an app I had previously purchased for iOS 4 (on my iPhone 3G), and it did just what the article said. I'm speechless!



Was the Facebook app ever available for iOS 4?
Click to expand...

Yep, it's been around for a good while. I definitely had it when I used to use the 3G regularly.
 
I'm sure devs can remove older versions that are incompatible with their backend if they wish to. This is probably why you can't download an older Facebook.

In any case, I can see this being a wonderful boon to developers of paid apps like entirely local games, which never break due to the backend changing. They can continue to sell older versions of their games to legacy users, making a little more money in the process.
 
Tyler23 said:
Nice move on Apple's part.
Click to expand...

As an app developer, I agree. This is a great move.

While not impossible, it's becoming more of a PITA to support multiple iOS versions with a single binary - especially so with iOS 7. My app still has a small number of users (3% or so) on iOS 5.x or earlier. It's nice to know that I can now drop support for older OS releases without completely cutting off those users.
 
Not sure I like this. Now my old versions using OpenFeint or other retired third party services can be downloaded? I think this is gonna create more problems than it solves.
 
and what about iTunes ?

hope there will also be an update to allow iTunes to keep older iOS applications. As of today, if I download only the iOS7 version of an app the old one is moved to the trash. And this is an issue for my 1st gen iPad (iOS 5.1.1) already. And I have the 1st-gen iPod touch (iOS 4) as well. Of course I will update the iPhone 4s and iPad mini to iOS7 ...

(my family uses all these devices, not me personally in case you wonder).
 
Traverse said:
Seems like a nice step in the right direction, but I find It odd that they would allow this. I would assume that since iPhone is all about the apps incompatible apps would push people to buy newer hardware.

I guess this was a customer oriented move instead of a profit oriented move. :D
Click to expand...

I know you're being just a bit tongue-in-cheek there, but I reckon this kind of decision does no harm to Apple's long-term profitability at all. This gives users a warm fuzzy feeling all-round, and that's the kind of thing that brings a customer back next time. Apple has really started to lose the love in recent years, even from guys like me who have been Apple advocates for close to 20 years. Decisions like this might just win back some of that love.
 
funkyvisions said:
Not sure I like this. Now my old versions using OpenFeint or other retired third party services can be downloaded? I think this is gonna create more problems than it solves.
Click to expand...

Not really. People who already have those apps can still run them anyway, so any "problems" are already there.

This just allows users with older devices to download older versions of apps. What's better, not being able to download the app at all? Or downloading a game, being able to play it, but just not having certain multiplayer features or leaderboards?

I much prefer the latter. Stuff like Words With Friends which is intimately tied to a server might break, but many games (Cut the Rope, Angry Birds, etc.) run fine offline.
 
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