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As of 2/15/2018, https://developer.apple.com/ios/submit/ has the following text:

"Starting April 2018, all new iOS apps submitted to the App Store must be built with the iOS 11 SDK."

Later on down the page, under Submit to iTunes Connect, there is this text:

"Once your app is updated for iOS 11 and iPhone X, you can submit for review today."

I have some apps I am updating in the next few weeks (should probably get submitted during March), but I'm curious about what this wording actually means.

As this post very nicely portrays visually, we have 2 settings:

  • Base SDK (what SDK you build your app against)
  • Deployment Target (lowest version that can run your app)

So, there are basically two related questions I have about this announcement:

  1. Do we need to be using iOS 11 for our Base SDK (which is the default option anyway), or for our Deployment Target (meaning our app will be limited to iOS 11+ devices only)?
  2. Is this rule only for new apps, or is it for all app submissions (even updates) after April 2018?

And, related to #2: why do they tie "updated for iOS 11" to "submit for review today"? Based on the wording at the top, it would seem that all app submissions today (whether new or update) can go through without satisfying this rule, and the wording seems to indicate that app updates might slip by this rule, at least at first. Does anybody have more information?

mbm29414
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1 Answers1

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  1. You must use iOS 11 as your Base SDK version, not Deployment Target. You can set your Deployment target as low as you wish in order to support older devices/versions.
  2. I do not know for sure, but I would assume this rule only applies for new apps and not app updates, especially because the documentation reads: "all new iOS apps submitted..."
dalton_c
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  • Thanks for the answer. Do you have a source to cite, or is this your interpretation of their wording? – mbm29414 Feb 16 '18 at 01:30
  • This is my interpretation of the article. "Built with the iOS 11 SDK" means it is compiled and linked against the iOS 11 SDK, and the Base SDK property of the Xcode project file is what you use to specify this. The Deployment Target is merely the lowest version of iOS the compiled binary is allowed to run, and largely informational for Apple's purposes. – dalton_c Feb 16 '18 at 07:07
  • Gotcha. Thanks! I assume the same as you, but I'd really like some clarification from Apple to make this muddy information less so. – mbm29414 Feb 16 '18 at 13:58