What iOS versions to support?

[louwers]

We have code to run MapLibre GL Native for iOS in iOS 9 simulator. This is probably cruft that we should get rid of.

Ideally we define which iOS versions are supported.

According to Apple, 4% of iPhones are on < iOS 14 and 1% of iPhones released in the last 4 years.

I think it is reasonable to only support iOS 12 or above (following the recent move of WhatsApp).

• Here are the devices that still support iOS 14
• iOS 13
• iOS 12 (iPhone 5S, 6, 6 Plus, and the iPod Touch (6th generation), all have limited support.)
• iOS 11 (drops support for iPhone 5, iPhone 5C, and iPad 4, making it the first version of iOS to run exclusively on iOS devices with 64-bit processors.)



Source

[birkskyum]

I looked at this the other day too, and one conclusion that seems obvious is that we can drop support for iOS 9 and 10, which we still have explicit tests for.

Is 11, 12 and 13 really completely dead too? And are there any advantages for us (performance, access to new api's etc.) to dropping support for either? Even Metal was introduced in iOS 8, so we might have what we need. Whatsapp likely had more to gain from dropping iOS 11, with all the notification functionality of iOS 12

[louwers]

Right. Support 'iOS 12 and above ' would mean it might still may work on lower iOS versions. But problems with those versions will be closed as WONTFIX, we won't run tests for them, and we might use iOS 12 APIs in any upcoming release.

[birkskyum]

Apparently "Any device that supports iOS 11 can be upgraded to iOS 12" (from ios 12 wiki page), so with that in mind I'm in favor of supporting 12+.

[ntadej]

Right. Support 'iOS 12 and above ' would mean it might still may work on lower iOS versions. But problems with those versions will be closed as WONTFIX, we won't run tests for them, and we might use iOS 12 APIs in any upcoming release.

Not really, one should define minimum version when you build. Otherwise you can not conditionally use newer API for new versions. It also makes it clear for clients.

[louwers]

OK I suggest that I keep this discussion open for at least a week to give people a chance to respond. Otherwise we'll go with iOS 12+.

[mwilsnd]

At Meta the lowest we currently still support in select apps is iOS 12.

[roblabs]

My criteria for dropping are iOS security & Xcode tooling. I recommend dropping iOS 11 and the associated MapLibre tests. As well, please review the simulators used in the test bash shell scripts.

A case for dropping iOS 11:

1. A developer would need an older version of Xcode and an older version of macOS. For example, if you try to use Xcode 13.4.1 with macOS Ventura (latest), you may receive this blocking issue: "The version of Xcode installed on this Mac is not compatible with macOS Ventura. You have “Xcode.app” 13.4.1. Download version 14.1 for free from the App Store."
2. Xcode 14.2 only supports simulators between iOS 12-16. See image below. Not that we should make a decision based on Xcode availability, but maybe Xcode is trying to tell us something?!?
3. Apple data: 4% of all devices use earlier than iOS 15.
4. If a team absolutely requires MapLibre with iOS 11, then they would rely on older releases from maplibre/maplibre-gl-native-distribution/releases. If they are relying on older devices with an old iOS version, then they can certainly deal with MapLibre releases that were made in the 2021-2023 era.
5. Security. Apple made a security update for iOS 12 in the past year, but not for iOS 11.

Src: Apple security updates

Name	Available for	Release date
iOS 12.5.6	iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPad Air, iPad mini 2, iPad mini 3, and iPod touch (6th generation)	31 Aug 2022

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Screen shot from Xcode 14.2 showing a range of simulators available.

[ianthetechie]

My 2 cents is that supporting anything more than ~3 major versions can be a drag with relatively small benefit from the app developer's perspective (exceptions apply if you're something like Facebook and need to have like 95% device coverage because your target market is everyone). We should target the latest SDKs to avoid having to download an out of date Xcode, but can support back several versions.

If a dev needs to support an older device and is using the MapLibre SDK in their app, they can still use an older version regardless.

[louwers]

Thanks everyone for contributing to the discussion!

I created a new issue to drop support for iOS < 12. #776