Apple is now blocking the installation of iPhone and iPad apps that are not officially supported on M1 Macs. Supported apps can be installed directly via the Mac App Store. However, unsupported mobile device apps have to use a method known as sideloading and it is this method that Apple is now putting an end to.
Sideloading isn’t illegal or against Apple’s terms of service as long as the apps are legally owned. There were multiple methods that once worked with the M1 Mac. For example, either a third-party mobile device manager or Apple’s own Configurator 2 app could be used to download any apps that were installed on the user’s iPhone or iPad, then installed on any M1 Mac. This complicated approach bypassed the normal Apple safeguards and developer quality control checks, which meant that apps could malfunction, display incorrectly, or fail to respond to input.
Some sideloaded iPhone and iPad apps have major issues, others work perfectly, while a few result in minor glitches. Losing the ability to install the working apps is a bit of a loss, but sideloading tends to be problematic and is not really the experience Apple device owners are accustomed to. According to 9to5Mac, the change didn’t come via a system update, but was rather a change Apple made to its authentication servers. This change seems to only affect installation when using third-party device manager apps, considering Apple’s Configurator 2 app for sideloading is currently still working. However, the process is more involved and requires issuing commands in the terminal.
If mobile app developers check their apps and okay them for use on M1 Mac computers, they will appear in a search of the Mac App Store under a tab labeled ‘iPhone and iPad Apps’ and can then be installed and updated using the normal process. Apple’s preference is for iPhone and iPad apps to be made into Mac apps. For many apps, the process is quick and easy, and provides a more robust desktop experience, which means using the app on a Mac will work exactly as expected. More iPad and iPhone apps will be converted over time, so this concern will take care of itself, eventually.
Using iPhone and iPad apps on a Mac computer is a nice added value and it costs nothing extra to install some of the same apps that are used on Apple's mobile devices. Google Chromebooks did this with Android apps a few years ago and Microsoft is rolling out a similar capability with certain Samsung models. While it’s beneficial to the end user, the value is limited for phone apps. After all, a Mac computer is not an iPhone and many apps will not transition as well as some might expect. Besides screen size and a less ideal control layout, multi-touch gestures, accelerometer data, and GPS are missing on a computer. iPad apps are a closer match and there are some very nice solutions that work well on a Mac. In the end, Apple is looking out for the user, as well as developers, by disabling easy sideloading.
Source: 9to5Mac
