AIR 30 dropping support for 32-bit in iOS apps

[Flipline]

The latest AIR 30 Beta on Adobe Labs mentions a big change for releasing iOS apps with AIR:  You'll no longer be able to release iOS apps that contain both 32-bit and 64-bit versions as it's done by default for years, and instead will only be able to release 64-bit-only apps. 

This is a huge change for anyone with customers who still use the iPad 2, iPad 3, iPad 4, iPad Mini, iPhone 5, or iPhone 5C, since all of those devices require a 32-bit version to be included in the "universal" single app alongside the 64-bit version that newer devices will use.

To clarify, I know that Apple does not accept apps that are 32-bit-only anymore.  This is concerning apps that contain both 32-bit and 64-bit code in the same single app (allowing support for iOS 9 devices as well as iOS 10+ devices), which is what AIR has done in the past and which Apple currently accepts, and which AIR 30 is dropping support for.

My biggest concern is what will happen when we need to update any of our already-existing apps in the App Store with AIR 30.  Does Apple allow you to update an app with a build that removes support for platforms?  And if so, what happens to those customers who already purchased our apps and are using them on iOS 9 devices -- will it download the update and the game they paid for will suddenly break and stop working?  Does Apple recognize they're using a 32-bit device and will prevent them from downloading the update if the update only includes a 64-bit binary?

Also I'm curious if this is something mandated by Apple -- where in the future apps will only be accepted if they're 64-bit only and won't be accepted if they include both as they do now -- or if this is Adobe's decision to drop platforms.  I haven't seen anything in the Apple Developer news or updates about dropping support for 32-bit when it's bundled with 64-bit, and Xcode seems to still create both 32-bit and 64-bit versions by default as AIR 29 currently does.

Here's the info in the release notes here:

http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/pub/labs/flashruntimes/shared/air30_flashplayer30_releasenotes.pdf

Converting Universal iOS binaries to 64-bit and making IPA 64-bit

Prior to the AIR version 30, iOS applications were packaged as universal applications. To package a 64-bit iOS application MinimumOSVersion had to be set 11.0 in the application XML.

Starting AIR version 30, all iOS and tvOS applications would be made 64-bit only, irrespective of the MinimumOSVersion tag in the application XML. Packaging universal and 32-bit iOS applications would not be supported. ANEs could be packaged using universal as well as 64-bit only native frameworks, 32-bit native frameworks would not be supported for ANEs also.

Android packaging would remain unaffected.

[rewb0rn]

We, too, would like to continue catering to our old iOS user base for as long as possible. I think that means we will stop upgrading Air for now until the older versions of iOS have decreased their reach. I am just worried that we will be forced to upgrade if something changes like the recent case with Apple and the undocumented use of APIs, then we would lose all our users on older devices. Is there an urgent reason that made it necessary to drop 32 bits?

[kheftel]

Interesting that the tech specs linked from the PDF release notes still mentions iOS 9 as the minimum supported iOS version. does this change contradict that?

Tech specs and system requirements | Adobe AIR

[Flipline]

So I tried a build with AIR 30 and it's definitely 64-bit-only, I compared the info.plist from an AIR 29 build vs the AIR 30 build and see these changes under UIRequiredDeviceCapabilities:

AIR 29:

armv7, opengles-2

AIR 30:

arm64

If we were to update an already-released app with an AIR 30 build however, this would seem to break Apple's rules and policies regarding updates and compatibility found here:

Device Compatibility

Important: All device requirement changes must be made when you submit an update to your binary. You are permitted only to expand your device requirements. Submitting an update to your binary to restrict your device requirements is not permitted. You are unable to restrict device requirements because this action will keep customers who have previously downloaded your app from running new updates.

Can someone from Adobe confirm whether AIR 30 will be usable for updating an iOS app that previously contained armv7+arm64 based on Apple's guidelines and policy shown above, or will AIR developers no longer be able to update any existing apps in the App Store?

It's bad enough that we'll be losing a large chunk of our audience for new apps (especially if you're targeting iPad since older 32-bit devices still make up a very large portion of that user base), but if we had to abandon all of our existing apps with no future updates that would be a huge issue for all AIR developers.

[rewb0rn]

If this is true then we have a big problem on the table. Have you tried increasing the minimum OS version to 10 or 11 to upload the build? Maybe if the iOS version excludes 32 bits devices then you don't need to upload a 32 bit ipa.

[Amrita Gangwani]

Hi,

Starting macOS 10.13.4, an alert message could be seen when trying to run 32-bit software. As per the Apple's document 32-bit app compatibility with macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 - Apple Support , 32-bit software will not be compatible with macOS in the future. The decision to remove packaging of 32-bit iOS applications has been made keeping in mind the future possibilities.

Thanks!

[Frédéric C.]

Hi Amrita,

Thanks for the link. But isn't this article related only to MacOS, and 32bit only apps? AIR SDK used to generate hybrid 32-64bits IPAs, so I suppose the OS won't complain if there is at least the 64bit version of the code included in the IPA, right?

[OMA2k]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Amrita+Gangwani  wrote

Hi,

Starting macOS 10.13.4, an alert message could be seen when trying to run 32-bit software. As per the Apple's document 32-bit app compatibility with macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 - Apple Support , 32-bit software will not be compatible with macOS in the future. The decision to remove packaging of 32-bit iOS applications has been made keeping in mind the future possibilities.

Thanks!

So this change was made because of Mac OS X? Well, the problem for all of us is not Mac OS X but iOS! Dropping support for 32-bit means users of iPad 2, 3, 4, iPad Mini and iPhone 5, 5C and older won't be able to use apps compiled with AIR 30.

AIR 29 and older compiled iOS apps with BOTH 64-bit and 32-bit versions inside the IPA package. As long as 64-bit is supported, there's nothing wrong with having the 32-bit version in the IPA as well for older devices. It doesn't impair the 64-bit version in any way and Apple is currently allowing this just fine.

So please add 32-bit compatibility back to iOS builds, so both 64-bit and 32-bit are included inside the IPA.

There's no problem if you want to keep Mac OS X 64-bit only. Most Mac computers are 64-bit already so it's not a problem, but that's not the case with iPads (2, 3, 4, Mini).

So, even if you drop 32-bit support for Mac OS X, please do keep 32-bit support for iOS! Apple still allows it as long as a 64-bit version is included in the IPA alongside the 32-bit one, which AIR 29 already did.

You say "The decision to remove packaging of 32-bit iOS applications has been made keeping in mind the future possibilities". In that case you could make AIR 30 compile for 64-bit only by default, but let us add an optional "legacy" argument to adt so it can compile both in 64-bit and 32-bit if needed. What do you think?

[Lars Laborious]

In the AIR 29 release notes it states that "with AIR 29 onwards, a combined AIR SDK for packaging 32-bit and 64-bit captive AIR applications is now available for Windows".

Then, in the beta version of AIR 30, it's 64-bit only.

Seems like a hasty decision.

[Flipline]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Amrita+Gangwani  wrote

Hi,

Starting macOS 10.13.4, an alert message could be seen when trying to run 32-bit software. As per the Apple's document 32-bit app compatibility with macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 - Apple Support , 32-bit software will not be compatible with macOS in the future. The decision to remove packaging of 32-bit iOS applications has been made keeping in mind the future possibilities.

Thanks!

Yes, that's for macOS, which is a completely separate platform from iOS.  Why would you intentionally impair one of your most used platforms, because of a change with a completely different minor platform?  AIR already had the capability to generate 64-bit-only apps in certain circumstances, so why hobble all of the other platforms when that could be done just the same for macOS?

Please be aware that devices that can only use 32-bit apps are a BIG portion of the iOS market -- 20% of all iPads still being used today can only use 32-bit apps.  This is the most commonly cited figure, and the sales/usage of our own apps show that 20% of our customers are on older 32-bit-only devices.

[William Spence]

I agree 100% with Flipline on this one.  Even though our AIR app release is planned for desktop as well, mobile is definitely our target market.  People are not going to go out and buy a new iPad just to use my app.  I stand to lose 20%-30% of my real estate users because of incompatibility of AIR with their devices. And if I update to a 64-bit-only version, I will lose a ton of customers I already have and will spend most of my time processing returns on subscriptions.

Perhaps as mentioned you could make 64-bit the default export option. But please Adobe, this is not a smart business move for any of your AIR customers.  Trust that as developers, we are smart enough to know whether we need to package our apps as 32-bit or 64-bit or both, and leave us with some kind of option to deliver our apps as such if we need to!

[cybobear]

Wait, you are saying that Apple's roadmap will be such that OSX will be 64bit exclusively, yet that really has nothing to do with iOS. Apple has not dropped support for 32bit devices running iOS, but by doing this with the air SDK you have preemptively done just that. Correct?

[William Spence]

This is essentially correct.  OSX only wants 64 bit, which is why Adobe claims they are dropping 32-bit support in AIR.  But iOS still supports 32-bit and 64-bit, but we who develop on AIR will no longer be able to provide provide 32-bit apps on iOS, only 64-bit, despite who we are currently serving or need to serve.

If Adobe does not change their mind here, there will be no more 32-bit updating or releasing on iOS, despite 25% of the market still using it, and with no indication from Apple that they plan to stop supporting it on mobile.

(This also means that if you are currently developing using a 32-bit iPad, you will have to shell out $1k just to get you a new test machine)

[Frédéric C.]

Adobe Team, I'm one of your greatest supporters, but this 64bit-only decision is a VERY bad move!

If you keep it that way, we'll then be in a terrible situation, and only have bad choices:

- either stick to AIR 29 for maintenance, but IPAs generated by the latest AIR 29 SDK are not compliant with Apple's review policies

- or use AIR 30, and discard a big portion of our targeted devices and consumers.

In all cases, and as explained above, it is likely we won't be able to update our existing apps, as both SDKs could create problems with Apple.

It is a very bad move to make a release that both fixes critical issues and introduces such great limitations at the same time. At least, we would need a fixed AIR 29 SDK. But please, consider keeping support for 32bit devices in future AIR versions, I think it is much too early to drop support for them. We invested a lot in the AIR technology, mainly because it was able to publish on so many devices and platforms. Removing 32bit support would really be a big step backwards, and make AIR much less attractive for iOS publishing.

Thank you for your consideration.

[zwetan_uk]

your concern is futile ...

late 2013 Apple began asking developers to submit 64-bit apps

since February 2015, all new apps submitted to the app store must include 64-bit support

since June 2015, all app updates submitted to the app store must include 64-bit support

since 24 October 2016 iOS 10.1 added a 32-bit warning
eg. "Name of your App" is Not Optimised for iOS 10
This app has not been updated to 64-bit. Using it may affect overall system performance.

27 March 2017 with iOS 10.3 release Apple added the feature to list all

installed 32-bit apps that won't work in future iOS versions

since iOS 11 released in September 2017, 32-bit app are not supported or shown in the app store
if users attempt to open a 32-bit app they receive an alert about the app incompability

Either your app is already supporting 64-bit or you did not update your iOS app in years, and that's your fault really.

Also, if you go to the App Store Support page

App Store - Support - Apple Developer

you can see this

Other sites show
iOS Distribution and iOS Market Share

about 82% of iOS 11
about 11% of iOS 10
about 6% of older iOS

You will more certainly lose customers if your app is supporting only 32-bit

that part "Please be aware that devices that can only use 32-bit apps are a BIG portion of the iOS market"
I'm not sure where you get those numbers but they are wrong

[Frédéric C.]

zwetan_uk​ I think there is some confusion here. We're not asking to be able to create 32bit only apps, we're asking to still be able to publish hybrid 32-64bits apps containing both versions of the code. Else it would greatly reduce the range of devices that we can publish to. This hybrid 32-64 bits format is currently perfectly supported by Apple on iOS devices and doesn't bring any error message (the error message is for 32bit ONLY apps).

iOS 10 is compatibe with iPad 4 or iPhone 5/5c for example, which have a 32bit CPU. If we can only publish 64bit apps, it means we potentially lose 24% of devices, which have a 32bit CPU and are stuck to iOS 10 or below (if we look at the chart you included in your post). So this is far from futile!

And on top of that, Apple's policy is to reject updates that reduce the range of devices an app already supports. So if you published an app with AIR 29 or below on the store, which supported both 32bit and 64bit CPU devices, and then you update an app using AIR 30 that only supports 64bit devices, it is likely the update will be rejected! (see previous posts in that thread) That means that if you want to keep updating existing apps, you have to stick to AIR 29, which is known to have issues with generated IAPs (AIR 30 includes fixes for that). This is a mess!

So when we ask to keep 32-64bits hybrid support, it is absolutely not a request from a bunch of narrow minded developers who don't want to follow the trends. It is because this choice will have a very serious impact, both on the range of supported devices, and the technical solutions we will have to maintain our existing apps on the store.

[zwetan_uk]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric+C.  wrote

...

And on top of that, Apple's policy is to reject updates that reduce the range of devices an app already supports. So if you published an app with AIR 29 or below on the store, which supported both 32bit and 64bit CPU devices, and then you update an app using AIR 30 that only supports 64bit devices, it is likely the update will be rejected! (see previous posts in that thread) That means that if you want to keep updating existing apps, you have to stick to AIR 29, which is known to have issues with generated IAPs (AIR 30 includes fixes for that). This is a mess!

So when we ask to keep 32-64bits hybrid support, it is absolutely not a request from a bunch of narrow minded developers who don't want to follow the trends. It is because this choice will have a very serious impact, both on the range of supported devices, and the technical solutions we will have to maintain our existing apps on the store.

No, you're confusing how apps are updated on the app store.

see Apple Technical Q&A QA1623

eg. Target a newer version of iOS that requires a newer device. See Targeting the Latest iOS for details.

and then

Targeting the Latest iOS

An update to an app can always require a newer version of iOS. This will drop support for devices that cannot run that version of iOS.

The "iOS Deployment Target" build setting is the minimum version of iOS your app supports. Your app cannot be installed or run on any device that cannot run that version of iOS.

This is "by design", Apple want you to do like that.

if previously your app was build only for 32-bit or hybrid 32-bit/64-bit
you can "downgrade" to 64-bit only (eg. arm64, removing armv7 in UIRequiredDeviceCapabilities)

and you do that by setting the the minimum version of iOS your app support

see iOS Keys

arm64 - Include this key if your app is compiled only for the arm64 instruction set. - min iOS 9.0

[Frédéric C.]

Thank you for your reply, @zwetan_uk.

Hmm, even if indeed "downgrading" to 64bit only would be accepted by Apple, why reduce our audience while it is not required by Apple themselves? If your chart is correct, it seems 24% of people are potentially on a 32bit device, and couldn't upgrade to iOS 11. This is huge. Our apps have been downloaded thousands and thousands of times over the last years, and removing compatibility with 32bits devices could hit MANY customers. We really don't want to deal with so many dissatisfied customers for a reason that doesn't even seem relevant to us.

I agree that at some point, we'll have to go full 64bit, but why now? It's still too early in my opinion. It makes sense for MacOS, but not iOS. Ultimately, why not simply add a switch in the ADT command line, so people can choose the platform they want to target?

[Flipline]

zwetan_uk  wrote

No, you're confusing how apps are updated on the app store.

see Apple Technical Q&A QA1623

eg. Target a newer version of iOS that requires a newer device. See Targeting the Latest iOS for details.

and then

Targeting the Latest iOS

An update to an app can always require a newer version of iOS. This will drop support for devices that cannot run that version of iOS.

The "iOS Deployment Target" build setting is the minimum version of iOS your app supports. Your app cannot be installed or run on any device that cannot run that version of iOS.

This is "by design", Apple want you to do like that.

if previously your app was build only for 32-bit or hybrid 32-bit/64-bit
you can "downgrade" to 64-bit only (eg. arm64, removing armv7 in UIRequiredDeviceCapabilities)

and you do that by setting the the minimum version of iOS your app support

see iOS Keys

arm64 - Include this key if your app is compiled only for the arm64 instruction set. - min iOS 9.0

If you read further in the Q&A you linked, you'll see that yes you can limit the devices you support by changing the Minimum OS Version like you mentioned (which Adobe is not doing in this case automatically, we would have to add that ourselves), but you CAN NOT CHANGE UIRequiredDeviceCapabilities in the process or else your app update will be rejected.  This is exactly what Adobe is doing if you check the IPA -- setting the key for arm64, which is not allowed if you want to update the app.

[Flipline]

zwetan_uk  wrote

Either your app is already supporting 64-bit or you did not update your iOS app in years, and that's your fault really.

Of course our apps have been supporting 64-bit for years, but the key point is that they were not exclusive to 64-bit, they've been hybrid 32+64-bit apps which is exactly what Apple wants you to do.  I understand your points that Apple has slowly been requiring devs to add support for 64-bit, which we all have already been doing because Adobe made AIR create 32+64-bit apps years ago, but Apple has never required apps to be 64-bit-only, and there's no indication this is going to be a requirement any time in the future.  Apple's own Xcode software generates hybrid apps like this by default.

As far as your comment of "your numbers are wrong", I'm looking at our exact sales and installs numbers specifically for iPad apps, which is where this issue will be most impacted.  Your charts show 24% of devices are still using older iOS versions, which is about on par with the sales figures I'm seeing overall, though be aware your chart is covering both iPhone and iPad combined, and if a developer is releasing apps that are exclusive to iPad, that ratio is going to be higher.

zwetan_uk  wrote

You will more certainly lose customers if your app is supporting only 32-bit

Nobody is suggesting that Adobe let us release 32-bit-only apps, this hasn't even been possible for many years so I'm not sure why you would bring that up.  We're talking about all of our existing apps that on the market are hybrid 32+64-bit apps (100% of the market), and this update will limit us to 64-bit-only (75%-80% of the market, and abandoning 20-25% of our existing paying customers who can no longer get updates after this).

[zwetan_uk]

Flipline  wrote

but Apple has never required apps to be 64-bit-only, and there's no indication this is going to be a requirement any time in the future.  Apple's own Xcode software generates hybrid apps like this by default.

iOS 11 is 64-bit only
you can submit iOS 64-bit only apps since iOS 9

Flipline  wrote

As far as your comment of "your numbers are wrong", I'm looking at our exact sales and installs numbers specifically for iPad apps, which is where this issue will be most impacted.  Your charts show 24% of devices are still using older iOS versions, which is about on par with the sales figures I'm seeing overall, though be aware your chart is covering both iPhone and iPad combined, and if a developer is releasing apps that are exclusive to iPad, that ratio is going to be higher.

no, the charts shows that older device are about 6%, far from the 24% you're mentioning

Anyway you're not getting the point, the move to 64-bit is from Apple, it is not slow, they have been doing it for few years

they also want to clean up the app store from old apps, so they not gonna stop just because you want to support older devices.

That's it, Apple decided that 32-bit hardware and apps are dead on both iOS and macOS, nobody can do nothing against that.

Anyway, my point is AIR 30 supporting only 64-bit for iOS based on Apple directives is perfectly normal,

you can not ask Adobe as a software vendor to support more than what Apple is allowing.

[Flipline]

zwetan_uk  wrote

no, the charts shows that older device are about 6%, far from the 24% you're mentioning

This is the chart you shared:

19% on iOS 10, 5% on earlier.  If we wanted to use MinimumOSVersion to limit the apps to 64-bit-only devices we would be required to use iOS 11, because that's the only OS version that has 64-bit as a requirement.  As this chart clearly shows, that's... 76% of devices, leaving 24% devices without support.  The users on iOS 9 and iOS 10 are not necessarily because they're too lazy to update to iOS 11, it's because their devices are not supported on iOS 11 -- but they can still download apps and updates from developers without any problem as long as they are 32+64-bit, which again is the default.

People seem to be confusing "support for 64-bit" with "exclusively 64-bit".  Apple has given no indications that they're dropping the ability for apps (developers' apps, not the OS) from supporting 32-bit as long as they're also simultaneously supporting 64-bit.  And with 24% of active devices still running older OS versions by necessity, I can see why they wouldn't want that to be a requirement any time soon.  I know you keep arguing that Apple has made the latest operating system 64-bit-only, but this is something completely different, Apple has not made apps themselves 64-bit-only as a requirement or even as a recommended change.

"Anyway, my point is AIR 30 supporting only 64-bit for iOS based on Apple directives is perfectly normal,

you can not ask Adobe as a software vendor to support more than what Apple is allowing."

That's the thing, this is not "more than what Apple is allowing".  Apple is clearly allowing 32+64-bit apps, apps released today are almost always 32+64-bit.  The only thing they haven't allowed (for quite some time) is 32-bit-only apps, which AIR hasn't even been able to do for years, and which isn't something anyone is asking for.

[Frédéric C.]

I agree with Flipline. Apple have never been hesitant to change their review policy, if they want to introduce new requirements. They are actually extremely picky, which can become a pain. If they still accept hybrid 32+64bits apps, it's for a reason: they still want to support the 32bit devices which can only run iOS 10. With the evolution of devices, 64-bit only code is a trend, not a requirement from Apple, and I never saw a statement from Apple requiring developers to submit 64bits apps only. So this new restriction comes only from Adobe's initiative in AIR 30, and by reading the reason Amrita gave us, it's not even related to iOS, but MacOS. 

[Flashneverdies]

"We've been hard at work adding new features to Flash Player and AIR and are looking forward to feedback from our development and Flash Player community"

- Well my feedback is THIS IS A VERY BAD IDEA ADOBE!

Please revert to hybid 32/64 bit support - this move would cause me to lose a client and I don't think I can carry on publishing to Apple at all after this. We make educational apps and many kids and schools often have older iPad devices.

Adobe - we are urgently waiting your response.

Thanks

[William Spence]

I am absolutely flabbergasted by the responses that we are getting here.  I want to hear from the people who really need this not to change, not people making uneducated responses that Apple is forcing this upon us.

Apple would be torched if they quit allowing their 32-bit operating systems to continue to receive new apps.  25% of the market still uses 32-bit iPads.  If none of those people could update their programs because Apple dropped support of 32-bit apps, the market would be in a rage!  Nobody wants to run out and spend $1k bucks for a new device just to stay on the bleeding edge of being current.  And don't forget, Apple gets 30% of most of the purchases made in a lot of apps.  They would stand to lose hundreds of millions if they made that decision at this point in time.  It is not time yet!

A guy on here makes educational programs, and a lot of times, these instititutions still use older devices.  Kids can still learn on them!  I personally make real estate apps, and a lot of less-wealthy people have older devices, but they still need to buy homes too!!

Apple is not forcing us to give up 32-bit support on iOS.  They are still willingly accepting hybrid 32-bit/64-bit apps as AIR has been doing for years, because this is good for everybody.  XCODE still does this.  ADOBE is making this choice, and I have no idea why.  If they want to make 64-bit exports the default, I perfectly understand.  I just beg that they don't remove the OPTION to export in 32-bit/64-bit hybrid if that is what our clients require!

I am awaiting to hear from Adobe on this one!