{"id":50626,"date":"2013-09-17T19:08:44","date_gmt":"2013-09-17T17:08:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onsoftware.en.softonic.com\/?p=50626"},"modified":"2025-07-02T01:10:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T08:10:09","slug":"apple-supports-old-ios-devices-by-offering-last-compatible-version-of-apps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/apple-supports-old-ios-devices-by-offering-last-compatible-version-of-apps\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple supports old iOS devices by offering &#8216;last compatible version&#8217; of apps"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Apple isn&#8217;t leaving older devices behind with the release of <a title=\"iOS 7 everything you need to know\" href=\"http:\/\/features.en.softonic.com\/ios-7-everything-you-need-to-know\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">iOS 7<\/a> this week. The company has released a new feature that allows users of older <a title=\"iOS\" href=\"http:\/\/news.en.softonic.com\/t\/ios\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">iOS<\/a> devices to download the last compatible version of the app for the device&#8217;s current firmware. This means older devices will still be useful, but won&#8217;t get the latest and greatest app updates.<\/p>\n<p>Users who attempt to install an app that&#8217;s incompatible with their firmware version will see a pop-up alerting them that the app is built for a certain iOS version. The alert will include buttons to cancel the download or to download the last compatible version of the app.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-50629\" title=\"iOS last compatible version\" src=\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/sft\/articles\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2013\/09\/reddit.png\" alt=\"iOS last compatible version\" width=\"320\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2013\/09\/reddit.png 320w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2013\/09\/reddit-170x256.png 170w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This new feature also benefits app developers since they don&#8217;t have to worry about creating multiple versions of the app for older devices. This gives apps a larger user base, even if its from users of older devices.<\/p>\n<p>Many older devices <a title=\"iOS 7 features on different iPhones, iPads, and iPods\" href=\"http:\/\/features.en.softonic.com\/ios-7-features-on-different-iphones-ipads-and-ipods\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">won&#8217;t get iOS 7<\/a> at all, which will eventually lead to a lack of apps for older devices. With the &#8220;last compatible version&#8221; feature, older devices have a new lease on life, even if they&#8217;re going to be running outdated apps.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>RELATED STORIES<\/h3>\n<h4>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/news.en.softonic.com\/chrome-for-ios-updated-with-better-voice-search-and-data-savings\">Chrome for iOS updated with better voice search and data savings<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/features.en.softonic.com\/ios-7-features-on-different-iphones-ipads-and-ipods\">iOS 7 features on different iPhones, iPads, and iPods<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/news.en.softonic.com\/iwork-garageband-iphoto-for-ios-now-free\">iWork, iMovie, iPhoto for iOS now free<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/h4>\n<hr \/>\n<h4>Source: <a title=\"Reddit\" href=\"http:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/apple\/comments\/1mjw36\/people_with_old_ios_devices_you_can_now_install\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Reddit<\/a><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Apple isn&#8217;t leaving older devices behind with the release of iOS 7 this week. The company has released a new feature that allows users of older iOS devices to download the last compatible version of the app for the device&#8217;s current firmware. This means older devices will still be useful, but won&#8217;t get the latest &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/apple-supports-old-ios-devices-by-offering-last-compatible-version-of-apps\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Apple supports old iOS devices by offering &#8216;last compatible version&#8217; of apps&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2033,"featured_media":50629,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[],"tags":[],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-50626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2033"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50626"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":332200,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50626\/revisions\/332200"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50626"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=50626"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=50626"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=50626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}