The general rule of thumb for most apps on the iOS store is two versions. So I say 10 and 11.
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It obviously depends on how much effort it takes to support them. But, I feel like two versions is a lot to support.
I have an old iPad that can only run iOS 9.3.5. It’s at the end of the road. However, I still use it as a central control and occasionally wall panel. I wish there was a way to make it visually work again because back in I think version 0.51 the backend of HA got an upgrade which meant iOS 9 devices visually were “broken”. Maybe if there was a way to load the visuals based on which device/iOS version it was but that seems like more of a HA issue and not something the app can easily do. That being said I’m in between saying support iOS 9/10 (for my usage reasons) and saying drop support except for iOS 11.
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Can you private message me a screenshot of what it looks like now? I can see if there are any quick frontend fixes to be made to fix it for iOS 9.
Apple is reporting >70% of the active devices have updated to 11.x already. So I’d say that supporting older iOS versions would be to keep some legacy hardware that can’t run 11 alive.
I could see why iOS 9 and 10 may still wish to be supported, if some are using an old iPad as a touchscreen for primarily HA then I’m sure they want that.
Personally, I’d just need the latest so I’m ok with just iOS 11 especially if it will mean faster updates with more supported features.
I would prefer to see an IOS app that works reliably on ANY version before considering compatibility with other versions.
On iOS 9 the in-built browser doesn’t support HomeAssistant’s version of Polymer anyway. With that in mind, it doesn’t make much sense to support them if the UI won’t work on them anyway.
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If you have bug reports, please file them on the GitHub project page. If you have suggestions please contribute to the project. I’m sure everyone, not just Robbie would appreciate the help. He’s the one with the iOS developer license who is graciously going through the process to build and submit the app through the App Store.
As for reliability, I think the app works just fine. I have two issues I keep running into. One is already identified in a bug report, and the other Robbie is aware of but not a fault of the app which is the visual issue on iOS 9. iOS 9 supports some of the Polymer elements and should support all, but Robbie is looking into it as a change in HA to get it visually working again.
Support for older versions of iOS is very important for me, as I don’t update my iDevices until a Jailbreak is available. So for now my devices are on iOS 9.x and 10.2
Having complete control over my devices is more important than being in the latest and prettiest walled garden from Apple.
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Just as a curiosity, today’s VLC Mobile update said “iOS 7 Stability improvements” … that’s crazy, the last device stuck at iOS 7 was the iPhone 4 from 2010. How many of that will still be working after almost 8 years to deserve effort for improvements?
I’ll second keeping it if possible - we too reused our crusty old iPad 2 as a control panel. I know things can’t be supported forever, just was helpful in keeping costs down.
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I do have a few devices running ios 10. Just because they are jailbroke. But my main phone is up to date with ios 11 beta.
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Support for older versions costs a lot time. Focus on the future and keep ios 11 support when ios 12 is there.
I’m a jailbreaker and will be on iOS 10.2 until a stable 11 jailbreak is released. Dropping support for 10 would be tragic for me!
Do the new JavaScript from 0.59 works fine with iOS 10? I’m having problems with an iPhone 5 (only title bar loaded, no contents). I have not investigated, just gave up using it.
Same here actually. I’m on an iPhone 6S running iOS 10.3.3 and since the update to 0.60, the app doesn’t load the frontend. Does that have to do with the new JavaScript?
UPDATE: I found a solution here.
Thanks, you’re right. There must be a bug in the “auto” browser detection that thinks Safari on iOS 10 is capable of understanding the new javascript, when it needs the legacy version. There is already an issue on github, let’s hope it would be solved in the next release.
https://github.com/home-assistant/home-assistant/issues/11234
I know I am coming late to the discussion here, but I would like to chime in for supporting iOS 9/10. I run a small business refurbishing Apple devices. So I see a lot of old devices discarded even though they still run simply because there is no longer software support.
A big part of why I started my business was to help prevent e-waste by refurbishing or repurposing old hardware. I think it is a shame to send these devices to the recycler when they still work fine. I would love to have another suggestion to give people looking for a way to use their iOS 9/10 devices.
All that being said, I do respect your finite time/resources to develop the app, and if iOS9/10 support must be dropped I will not die.
And thank you for all your work on this app it has been a game changer for hass acceptance in my household.
This is false. I run multiple jailbroken 6 and up devices