Developers must ensure apps are optimized for iPhone X

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Guidelines
The notch isn't going away anytime soon!
Photo: Apple

Apple wants iOS developers to make sure that they are creating their new apps with the iPhone X in mind.

According to the company’s newly updated developer guidelines, all apps submitted to the App Store from April 2018 onwards must be sure to support the iPhone X’s edge-to-edge Super Retina display, as well as accommodating the still-controversial “notch.”

“Starting April 2018, all new iOS apps submitted to the App Store must be built with the iOS 11 SDK,” the instructions read. “All new apps for iPhone, including universal apps, must support the Super Retina display of iPhone X.”

The guidelines also encourage developers to make the most of the new features offered by iOS 11, including Core ML, SiriKit and — perhaps most importantly from Apple’s perspective — ARKit. Not every app has to offer all of these features (with the exception of the Super Retina compliance), but Apple no doubt hopes that as many as possible will. Since launching ARKit, developer interest in introducing apps that take advantage of Apple’s augmented reality tech has reportedly dipped.

Apple’s insistence that developers make sure their apps are optimized for the latest version of iOS is designed to keep the App Store fresh, and to push users to upgrade to the latest mobile operating system as quickly as possible. The latest iOS 11 adoption figures (measured in mid-January) suggest that 65 percent of users have already upgraded to iOS 11, with 28 percent running iOS 10, and the remainder on a previous version.

Interestingly, despite telling developers to make sure that their new apps are notch-friendly, Apple may reduce the size of the polarizing iPhone X notch for its next generation handset.

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