Apple Silicon Macs Might Be Missing Some Popular iOS Apps At Launch

The announcement of Apple's own ARM-based Silicon heralded the next major step in something that Apple's customers both looked forward to but also dreaded. It represented the next phase in unifying Apple's platforms while still keeping macOS and iOS distinct, at least for now. On a technical level, it will be possible to run iOS apps on the next-gen Macs more easily than before. It seems, however, not everyone is on board just yet.

By using the same CPU architecture that powers iPads and iPhones, the new Apple Silicon Macs would, in theory, make it easier to support running iOS apps directly than previously possible using Apple's compatibility framework. In fact, by default, all iOS apps should be visible in the Mac App Store on an Apple Silicon Mac. Apple, however, has given app developers the option to bail out and some rather big names are apparently doing so.

9to5Mac dug around and discovered that Google's most notable iOS apps like Gmail, Google Maps, and even YouTube aren't listed in this Apple Silicon version of the Mac App Store. Perhaps worse is that Facebook has seemingly made all of its apps, including Instagram and WhatsApp, absent. Unsurprisingly, Apple's rival streaming services like Amazon Prime Video and Disney are out as well.

Not everyone has backed out, though, and Netflix and HBO Max are still game. Their absence isn't forever either and their developers might have just opted to delist their apps from compatibility with Apple Silicon temporarily for one reason or another. They could very well still make it in time for the actual launch of the new Macs.

Apple's November 10 event is expected to debut this first line of computers that will be running on the shiny new Apple Silicon. Not much yet is known about this new breed of Macs and many in the tech world will be watching closely what this will mean for the future of Apple's computing ecosystem.