When uploading an app I got this email:

ITMS-90068: MinimumOSVersion too low - This app has a MinimumOSVersion of 13.0. Starting in Spring 2027, all iOS apps must have a MinimumOSVersion of 15.0 or later in order to be uploaded to App Store Connect or submitted for distribution.

These are old iOS versions, so this policy isn't going to affect many people but I thought I'd post anyway. I still have an old iPad with iOS 12 that's usable for reading and media. I think some apps are still supported and getting updates surprisingly. As a dev I still update Three Cheers for Tildes to support iOS 12 and up. No idea if anyone other than me uses that old version though.

I like supporting the older iOS version because it means I can keep using this old hardware. Also knowing something runs on those old devices with okay performance, means it will be buttery smooth on any moderately recent iPhone/iPad. I mean, I can probably still install apps on it for my own personal use, just not distribute on the App Store.

On the other hand supporting iOS 12 is just not practical and not really a good use of developer time, so this had to happen at some point.

It’s been a few weeks now since the release of iOS 17.4, which

[…] provides new options for app marketplaces, web browsers and payments for residents of the European Union. […]

Now, don’t get me wrong, I am a firm believer in the underlying regulation to it, and have been ever since the possibility of this becoming a reality was in the Brussels air. But so far, I haven’t really been able to come up with a truly practical use case.

Furthermore, I haven’t seen any marketing for an Epic Store, Meta Store, or similar “app marketplaces”, but this may be attributed to the still rather… wobbly legal situation surrounding, notably, still having to direct payments to Apple while not using their store for app distribution. I don’t think there has been any follow-up from Apple (or the EU) that retracts these conditions.

So: Have any fellow EU resident ~tech’ies done anything fun or interesting with this new freedom yet?

To those not affected by this regulation, what would you like to “sideload”, or are perhaps already sideloading on Android?

Do any of you think big companies will move their entire palette onto an alternative store anytime soon, e.g. Facebook and sister products? To be honest, I doubt this will happen, otherwise it would’ve long occurred on the Google Play Store as well.

My ideas were:

• I’ve thought about trying to install Minecraft (the full version, probably using Pojav), or a game of similar caliber, on my phone just for fun and to see how well the iPhone GPU really fares against a “real” game, but didn’t find the time yet for looking into it.
• Also personally, I’d love to see a real “root-capable” shell on iOS, but I don’t think that will ever be a thing irrespective of how much sideloading Apple is forced to allow into their OS.