One of the key advantages of current Macs is that Windows software runs natively on them via Boot Camp. The advantages of the new Silicon Macs will be that iOS apps run natively. At the beginning of the Apple Silicon era, however, some important developers are still holding back.
iOS and iPadOS apps will be able to run natively on the new Apple Silicon Macs without further ado, as Apple announced in June. By default, all iOS apps will also be available in the Mac App Store, as long as the developers have not decided to forego this option.
Unfortunately it appears that many developers have not yet decided to make their iOS apps available in the Mac App Store. 9to5Mac used an App Store system to check which iOS apps will not work on the new Macs with Apple Silicon chip and found that many key developers have opted out, at least at launch.
(At time of writing it’s possible to ‘sideload’ iOS apps on M1 Macs even if they’re not officially available on the Mac App Store, but there are signs that Apple will soon prevent this.)
The site points out that there won’t be a Mac version of the iOS YouTube app, for example. Nor will the Google Maps app, Gmail or Google Drive apps be coming to the Mac (for now). Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, Snapchat, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ will all be missing from the Mac App Store.
The report also notes that popular games like Candy Crush, Among Us, and Real Racing 3 will also be absent from the Mac App Store, however, it appears that Sky: Children of the Light, Subway Surfers and Temple Run will be available for Silicon Macs.
According to 9to5Mac, if an app is not compatible a message on the App Store will read: “Designed for iPad. Not verified for macOS.”
There are some software manufacturers who have made a clear commitment to Apple Silicon, though. Microsoft is working on updates to its Office programs for the new computer architecture; Adobe says it will bring an update to Creative Cloud.
In addition any apps that are available for the Intel Mac can be translated to run on the Apple Silicon Mac via Apple’s Rosetta 2 layer. However, performance losses are to be expected.
There is a big question about the future of Windows on the new Mac architecture. Boot Camp will be history, virtualisers such as VMware Fusion and Parallels Desktop will be able to bring third-party operating systems to the Mac, but for the time being this will be limited to Linux variants adapted to the ARM architecture.
Windows 10 for ARM, formerly known as Windows RT, leads a niche existence, as Microsoft has apparently placed greater emphasis on adapting its lucrative Office products to Apple Silicon. Either Windows for the Apple Silicon Mac will take a while – or it will never happen.
Read more here: Will Windows run on Apple Silicon? and Windows on the Mac is dead (probably) but it doesn’t matter.
Read more about the apps that work on M1 Macs.
January 2021 update: initially it was possible to install iOS apps that were not visible on the Mac App Store on Macs, however Apple has since removed the ability to ‘sideload’ iOS apps on M1 Macs.
This article originally appeared on Macwelt. Translation by Karen Haslam.