Here's how to check which of your apps Apple's about to brick
It now seems more likely than ever that the next version of iOS will kill hundreds of thousands of apps.
The company's latest iOS beta comes with fresh warnings that outdated apps "will not work with future versions of iOS" -- this time in a dedicated settings menu.
Buried in the latest public beta for iOS 10.3 is a new settings menu called "app compatibility" that specifically lists any outdated apps you may have installed. It warns (yet again) these apps will not be compatible with future versions of iOS.
But the new "app compatibility" menu takes the warning a step further. It shows if a newer version of the app is available and urges users that "if no update is available, contact the app developer for more information."
The warnings stem from Apple's apparent plan to force developers into updating legacy apps that were created before the 64-bit processors introduced with the iPhone 5S in 2013. Though the company has attempted to shame developers with outdated apps in the past with warnings that the apps may "slow down" users' phones, Apple appears to be making a more aggressive push to get developers to update their apps.
Though the company has required new apps and updates to support 64-bit processors since 2015, there are still at least 187,000 apps that don't support the modern chipset, according to an analysis from app analytics firm Sensor Tower published earlier this week. That's in addition to the 47,000 apps Apple removed last fall.
Apple has yet to comment publicly on the matter, other than what's been seen in the betas, but it seems more likely than ever that iOS 11 will effectively brick a whole lot of apps.
Karissa was Mashable's Senior Tech Reporter, and is based in San Francisco. She covers social media platforms, Silicon Valley, and the many ways technology is changing our lives. Her work has also appeared in Wired, Macworld, Popular Mechanics, and The Wirecutter. In her free time, she enjoys snowboarding and watching too many cat videos on Instagram. Follow her on Twitter @karissabe.
