Apple Says New iOS Apps Must Support iPhone X's Super Retina Display

Apple has informed developers that all new iOS apps submitted to the App Store will have to support iPhone X's Super Retina display. The new rule will come into effect from April 2018. The latest change comes to give a push to new apps with native support for the iPhone X. The Cupertino giant earlier advised developers to make necessary adjustments to support the notch and edge-to-edge display of the new iPhone model.

In an email to circulated to developers, as spotted by 9to5Mac, Apple has highlighted that all new iOS apps, including the universal ones, submitted to the App Store must support the Super Retina display of iPhone X starting April 2018. The company also intimated developers that all new iOS apps submitted to the App Store must also be built using the iOS 11 SDK. This is apparently to enhance adoption of new features, such as Core ML, SiriKit, and ARKit, that all are a part of iOS 11. Nevertheless, it is not mandatory for developers to add support for any of the new iOS features. This means the new apps may still have some simple functionality - without machine learning code, Siri integration, or Augmented Reality (AR) features.

"Starting April 2018, all new iOS apps submitted to the App Store must be built with the iOS 11 SDK, included in Xcode 9 or later. All new apps for iPhone, including universal apps, must support the Super Retina display of iPhone X," read the guidelines, which are also available on Apple's Developer site.

While it is clear that developers building new iOS apps need to add support for the iPhone X, Apple hasn't yet defined any deadline for existing apps on the App Store to start supporting the new iPhone model natively. It seems that the Tim Cook-led team doesn't want to make it cumbersome for all iOS developers to comply with the iPhone X features. However, Apple had published its guidelines to let developers understand what tweaks they need to make in their apps to add support for iPhone X users. That was a move to provide also the key adjustments required so that the notch on the iPhone flagship doesn't interfere with the layouts of apps.

This isn't the first time when Apple has updated the guidelines for developers to support its newer models. The company has a long history of encouraging app developers to embrace the latest hardware. Having said that, the new announcement comes amid the rumours about the 2018 iPhone family that is reported to include three new models - all with the iPhone X-like design. This means it is safe to say that Apple might be preparing the stage for its new offerings by instructing developers in advance to start supporting the existing iPhone flagship.