Hi Mlem community,

With the launch of iOS 17 now well past and adoption rates rocketing towards 75%, we wanted to take this opportunity to lay out our long-term iOS version compatibility plan.

Mlem will guarantee compatibility with the previous major version of iOS until the current version achieves 75% market share. This means that Mlem will soon be dropping support for iOS 16, as iOS 17 is rapidly approaching that mark.

Why 75%?

Mlem originally launched with support for only iOS 16. At the time, that was the latest iOS available, and enjoyed just over a 75% market share. We chose this mark based on both that precedent and an internal consensus that 75% represents “general adoption” of an iOS version.

Why are you dropping compatibility?

Supporting multiple iOS versions costs development time and restricts our ability to take advantage of new and powerful SwiftUI features. We have a small, all-volunteer development team, and strive to offer a sleek and modern iOS experience. We just don’t have the resources to offer comprehensive backwards compatibility while also delivering new features and improvements and remaining true to our identity as a modern SwiftUI Lemmy client.

When will iOS 16 compatibility officially end?

As of right now, there is no set date. Once iOS 17 reaches 75% market share, we will begin allowing code changes that use iOS 17-exclusive features, so iOS 16 support will end when some such change is approved and released. Our current dev build and next release will remain compatible with iOS 16, but we make no guarantees past that.

If you have questions or concerns, we’ll do our best to answer them in the comments.

Cheers,

The Mlem Group

  • syd@lemy.lolEnglish
    22·
    9 months ago

    Makes sense to me. The app feels like it is a modern app for sure.

    Unfortunately it’s lacking some features though. Like collapsing top-level comment from child comment, video support, resolving remote instance links etc. Hopefully these will improved in future.

    Thanks for this good app 🙏

    • Eric@lemmy.mlOPMEnglish
      13·
      9 months ago

      Yes. As soon as we know that a pending update is going to break compatibility, we’ll put a post up announcing it.

  • th3dogcow@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    9 months ago

    That sucks. Some of us can’t afford to upgrade to a newer device, so therefore we can’t update iOS. I would urge you to reconsider.

    • bevan@lemmy.nzEnglish
      7·
      9 months ago

      You can still use the PWA (progressive web app) for your home lemmy site. This works well.

    • Eric@lemmy.mlOPMEnglish
      6·
      9 months ago

      I’m truly sorry. If there were another way, we’d have taken it, but it’s just not feasible for a team as small as ours working in our free time in an ecosystem that evolves as fast as SwiftUI to offer long-term backwards compatibility without seriously compromising the quality of the app.

      • th3dogcow@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        9 months ago

        No worries. I do understand. A new phone is on the shopping list anyway. This can be a good reason to make the purchase!