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How will the current apps in the app store scale on iPhone X? I.e. without rebuilding them with SDK 11 / Xcode9.

The only realistic option I can think about for iPhone X is that the full screen will not be used? I.e. same aspect ratio as the iPhone 6 & 7. When iPhone 6 came out, the non-updated apps in app store were stretched/scaled up with same aspect ratio as iPhone 5.

What makes me think that it will be some kind of "shrinked area" for the iPhone X+SDK10 is that almost ALL apps in the appstore will be more or less broken for iPhone X.Alot of apps will not be updated with SDK11 before the date of iPhone X release.

To clarify, I don't ask for how the apps will look when rebuilt with xcode9/SDK11. I want to know how the apps behave without rebuilding them!

elfanek
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ullstrm
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    You may try this https://stackoverflow.com/questions/517463/how-can-i-install-a-ipa-file-to-my-iphone-simulator which put an app into the Simulator (with littles tricks). You should be able to see how you app reacts. – Larme Sep 13 '17 at 12:21
  • What's up with the downvote-train? – ullstrm Sep 13 '17 at 12:29
  • Designing apps in iPhone X is breifly explained in this video link: https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/fall2017/801/ – ron27 Sep 13 '17 at 12:38

2 Answers2

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The current apps will run in compatibility mode, they will look as on iPhone 4.7"

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coldfire
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    I've created a test app in Xcode 8, launched it on iPhone Simulator with iOS 10 and then copied the app's folder (it is something like this ~/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Devices/27EDABF0-7606-4B65-828E-D5C03216B523/data/Containers/Bundle/Application/A5FC35A5-2F9D-432D-B711-856711EFAE80) to iPhone X Simulator. – coldfire Sep 14 '17 at 17:01
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There are multiple ways existing apps can look on iPhone X, depending on how the layout is configured.

First: If the app does not have a launch storyboard file the app will run in a rectangle mode with black bars on top and bottom (similar to how apps designed for iPhone 4 looked on iPhone 5).

If the launch storyboard file is in place the app will try to run "native" to the iPhone X, utilising the whole screen. Xcode 9 introduced Safe Area that indents content to prevent overlap with "unsafe" areas, such as the area around the camera on top, home swipe bar at the bottom and the rounded corners. However, when an app has not been configured to support this the UI near these areas may look bit funky. This is likely to be most visible when apps are running in landscape orientation. Typical issues are search bars and custom content with a fixed offset from the edge of the screen.

Apple's built in UI elements (such as UITabBar and UINavigationBar) will adapt to iPhone X, but as I stated in the beginning, the exact way an app will look depends a lot on how the layout is implemented. By following Apple's best practices on auto layout the app is more likely to run in a aesthetically pleasing way on iPhone X out of the box, but most apps will have to do some minor updates to run completely issue free.

Jorn
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  • Thank you for your answer, but this is still when rebuilding with sdk11. There was no "safe area" in xcode8, so how will apps built in xcode 8 behave? That's the question – ullstrm Sep 13 '17 at 20:20