iOS 10.1 Adds 'App May Slow Down Your iPhone' Warning for 32-Bit Apps

In a bid to push developers to update their apps to 64-bit frameworks, Apple has introduced a new warning message with iOS 10.1. The message reads: “[App Name] may slow down your iPhone”, with a slug, “The developer of this app needs to update it to improve its compatibility.” This message only appears if you're running a 32-bit app.

This won’t affect a vast majority of iOS users as Apple stopped accepting updates to 32-bit apps in June 2015. If you are seeing this error, it’s most likely because the developer has abandoned the app. We first noticed this warning message with Touch Arcade’s iOS app, which is as a great way to check for price drops on iOS games. The app fell foul of Apple’s App Store regulations and its developers had to stop updating it. While the app may not have been updated for a long time, it continues to work and is perhaps the best way to check if your favourite games have received a discount.

There are plenty of great apps and games that have been removed from the App Store or somehow continue to work in spite of receiving no updates in years. These are the apps most likely to be affected by the update. Plenty of people continue to use some such apps and Apple’s latest move will slowly push these apps out of the door. Apple’s iOS device lineup is ready to move entirely to 64-bit chips and these legacy apps do affect performance on new Apple devices.

That said, Apple’s warning message does seem poorly worded. If you don’t run the app all the time, it’s definitely not going to affect the performance of your iOS device. It might be alarming, but most people can continue to use these apps without facing any major issues. The warning message could just be a sign of things to come. It could indicate that iOS 11 may remove support for 32-bit apps entirely and these apps won’t work on your iOS device.

Which 32-bit apps do you still use on iOS? Let us know via the comments.