Apple Deprecating Legacy Binaries for Push Notification Service on November 2020, Recommends Developers Update Soon

[MacRumors]

Apple today sent out a notice to developers urging those that continue to send push notifications with the legacy binary protocol to update to the HTTP/2-based APNs (Apple Push Notification service) Provider API as soon as possible.

Apple says that developers will be able to take advantage of features like authentication with a JSON Web Token, improved error messaging, and per-notification feedback.

More information on the Apple Push Notification service Provider API can be found on Apple's website.

Apple's Push Notification service will no longer support the legacy binary protocol starting in November 2020, so developers that continue to use the older protocol will need to update before that date.

Article Link: Apple Deprecating Legacy Binaries for Push Notification Service on November 2020, Recommends Developers Update Soon

 

[stiligFox]

I wonder what this means for older apps that can’t be updated, or older devices that can’t run new apps...

 

[Stephen.R]

Heading should say “binary protocol” not “binaries”

 

[macfacts]

Apple is not very good at backwards compatibility.

 

[now i see it]

I wonder what this means for older apps that can’t be updated, or older devices that can’t run new apps...

It means that eventually down the line everyone has to buy new hardware that can run a version of iOS that supports this if they want to revel in the glories (or shackles) of the walled garden.

 

[JosephAW]

I was wondering how Apple was going to start purging older 64 bit apps from iOS devices and the App Store.
With older Xcode builds for notifications that will stop working and requiring "state restoration" for all apps in iOS 13 in order to successfully run in the background successfully this is one way for users to delete older 64 bit apps as they become unusable.
The next step will be removal of Touch ID support and require new lib binaries in iOS, Xcode and App Store to force users and developers to require newer iOS devices.
I'm just wondering when notifications will stop working for all of us who are stuck in iOS 9, 10 & 12 on older iOS devices. Also wondering when they will cut off FaceTime for older devices as Apple did with iOS 6.

 

[konqerror]

I wonder what this means for older apps that can’t be updated, or older devices that can’t run new apps...

Nothing directly. It only affects the protocol that is used to talk between the app's servers to Apple's push servers.

If an app hasn't been updated, its doubtful that the authors are still paying to run servers.

I believe most apps' authors don't talk to Apple directly anyway but use a third-party push service like Google Firebase and Amazon Pinpoint. That way they don't have to deal with the intricacies of the protocol, or with multiple platforms (Google, Apple, Baidu, Amazon, Microsoft)

 

[ouimetnick]

Why would they remove Touch ID support anytime soon when they introduced new iPads THIS year with Touch ID?

 

[symphony]

Why would they remove Touch ID support anytime soon when they introduced new iPads THIS year with Touch ID?

They’re not going to!!!!!!!!!

 

[zorinlynx]

I wish Apple would stabilize their APIs so that these deprecations would end.

It's sad when old apps won't work anymore because newer versions of iOS break them. Some apps are no longer maintained but still have value; these deprecations give apps an eventual expiration date. Other platforms don't do this as much.

 

[DTeam]

these deprecations give apps an eventual expiration date. Other platforms don't do this as much.

Funny you say that, because on the topic of push notifications, both Google and Microsoft have deprecated (and killed) their previous APIs, while Apple still supported the original one.

Apps won't stop working. Some might not get push notifications anymore, but most who don't migrate probably don't have them working anymore, anyway. This is only a server side change.

It means that eventually down the line everyone has to buy new hardware that can run a version of iOS that supports this if they want to revel in the glories (or shackles) of the walled garden.

No they won't. At least not because of this depreciation: this only means that backend developers have to update their code.

Most already migrated to the new API, or use providers that have. This has literally no incidence on whether your phone can run an app or not, and it's nothing buying new hardware will fix.

 

[mariusignorello]

Apple literally can’t win. I’ve never seen a company get hate over updating APIs.

 

[szw-mapple fan]

I wish Apple would stabilize their APIs so that these deprecations would end.

It's sad when old apps won't work anymore because newer versions of iOS break them. Some apps are no longer maintained but still have value; these deprecations give apps an eventual expiration date. Other platforms don't do this as much.

Other platform do this all the time. If you think that any API's can be "stable", you are very much mistaken. Software is something that always need to be maintained and updated, and leaving a ten-year-old API behind is natural as better protocols are adopted. Not to mention this is a server-side change that doesn't have anything to do with iOS versions and doesn't affect any in-app functionalities.

 

[vmachiel]

Apple is not very good at backwards compatibility.

APN was implemented in Lion. It’s time.

 

[recoil80]

Nothing directly. It only affects the protocol that is used to talk between the app's servers to Apple's push servers.

If an app hasn't been updated, its doubtful that the authors are still paying to run servers.

I believe most apps' authors don't talk to Apple directly anyway but use a third-party push service like Google Firebase and Amazon Pinpoint. That way they don't have to deal with the intricacies of the protocol, or with multiple platforms (Google, Apple, Baidu, Amazon, Microsoft)

Firebase is quite popular, we've used in one of our projects and it is easier as you can support iOS and Android.
We do have some apps without third party push services and we switched to a new script to communicate with APN a few months ago, so we're not affected by this deprecation, but it only took us a day to switch so it is a cost, but not a huge waste of time.

 

[JosephKing]

@everyone complaining about Apple keeping their APIs up to date...

WTF?

 

[ulyssesric]

Apple literally can’t win. I’ve never seen a company get hate over updating APIs.

Google:

重新導向至 Google 網路論壇

Facebook:

Meta for Developers

As of January 30th, we are launching three new features on the Instagram Graph API designed to help businesses better manage their organic presence on...

developers.facebook.com

Amazon:

Amazon S3 Path Deprecation Plan – The Rest of the Story | Amazon Web Services

Update (September 23, 2020) – Over the last year, we’ve heard feedback from many customers who have asked us to extend the deprecation date. Based on this feedback we have decided to delay the deprecation of path-style URLs to ensure that customers have the time that they need to transition to...

aws.amazon.com

Twitter:

GET users/suggestions (deprecated)

developer.twitter.com

Microsoft:

Deprecated APIs - Finance & Operations | Dynamics 365

Access the list of deprecated APIs and migration guidance for some of the deprecated APIs, including the reason for deprecation for various objects.

docs.microsoft.com

These are only example of one their expired services, protocols and APIs. In this industry a bunch of APIs are deprecated just in after 6 months. Apple is deprecating a set of 10-years old APIs, after announcing in advance for 1.5 years, they’re the source of all evil. Marvelous.