Apple offering 'last compatible' app version for older versions of iOS

With iOS 7 about to make its much-awaited debut today and the release of two new iPhones waiting in the wings, spare a thought for iDevices that are near obsolete thanks to them being unable to upgrade to recent operating system versions. It has now been revealed that Apple does, in fact, spare a few thoughts for them. The company will let users with older devices download an older version of applications that are compatible with their phones.

The feature was discovered by a Reddit user who was experimenting with a 2nd-gen iPod Touch he owns. He tried to install Instagram onto the device and was served with a message that asked him if he would like to download an older version of this application. “The current version requires iOS 5.0 or later, but you can download the last compatible version,” the message read.

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Older iOS version? No problem!

This seems like a delightful move from Apple. The company worked around compatibility issues to still keep users on older versions in the loop. App developers are going to keep pace with the newer iOS versions that Apple releases periodically since it makes more sense for them to develop applications for more users. However, with every new iOS version that pops up, there’s going to be one version, released years ago, that will become obsolete but some people will continue to own devices that run on the older versions of the OS.

Hence the “last compatible app version”. The idea may not be a completely fool-proof one, especially when issues like API compatibility pop up. However, with the bare bones features of the last compatible version of the app doing just fine, it should be more than enough for users.