Hello Thomas,

Thanks for raising this question.

We are aware of the upcoming Xamarin's plan regarding unification of iOS and Mac OS API and support for 64 bit along the way. We will fully support the new unified iOS API by the time it is available, around early/mid January.

Since Crosslight lets you program most UI logic in the shared/core layer, the upgrades to the upcoming Xamarin unified API will be very seamless and straightforward. We expect very minimal effort for the upgrade process. That's made possible because Crosslight developers don't deal with the platform API directly. Most Crosslight's platform API are designed as thin layer mainly to provide binding capabilities and encapsulate view specific behaviors.

We hope you find this a good news. We will post more information as we have more updates regarding to unified API support.

Hello Support,

"minimal effort" is always a good news. I hope it will be like that.

Is it Xamarin's plan to do this or is it Apple's plan? To me it seems like developers and in consequence the end users are more and more forced to use iOS 8.

Thanks,

Thomas

Hello Thomas,

The 64 bit support originally came from Apple as they are progressively phasing out 32 bit platform. Xamarin'sUnified API seems designed to address the Apple's 64 bit strategy which includes 64 bit support for both iOS and Mac platforms.

Note that the 64 bit SDK was introduced by Apple since iOS 7, so it's not an iOS 8 specific stuff. However, going forward, it seems Apple will force developers to migrate to 64 bit apps. This is good in the way it improves apps performance and allows larger resources allocation.

Just a quick update, our team has finalized Crosslight support for the new Unified API. We will release a beta version before Dec 23.

Hope this helps.

Hello Support,

Xamarin plans to release a stable version of the "Unified API" next week.

When can we expect a Crosslight 3 version which is compatible with the final Xamarin version?

Thanks,

Thomas

Hello Thomas,

The Crosslight version that is compatible with stable Xamarin version is expected to be available on the same week of Xamarin release. Stay tuned!

Thanks!

Hello Crosslight Support,

what is the lowest iOS Version required when using "Crosslight Unified API"? Is it iOS 7?

Thanks,

Thomas

It should be iOS 8 since Apple no longer accept iOS 7 apps starting February 1st, 2015. So it is not recommended to start with iOS 7, eventhough it's possible.

Hello Yudi,

I am not sure if you understood my question right.

Using the Unified API does not automatically mean that a developer has to deploy his apps to iOS 8 and above only. I had a talk with Xamarin to clarify this.

But Crosslight is on top of Xamarin. So, again my question, can I only develop apps for iOS 8 and above if I use Crosslight Unified API? Not all iOS user have iOS 8 and above. It would be a great disadvantage if iOS 7 is not supported by the Crosslight Unified API. Xamarins Unified API supports iOS 7 because it already uses 64-bit architecture.

It is not true that Apple does not accept iOS 7 apps starting Feb 1st. They don't accept apps which are not compiled against the Unified API. Which means apps that don't support 64-bit architecture.

Hope to here from you soon.

Thanks,

Thomas

Dear Thomas,

The iOS 8 SDK requirement for both new apps and updates were announced by Apple itself. Please refer to the following:

• 64-bit and iOS 8 Requirements for New Apps
• 64-bit and iOS 8 Requirements for App Updates

As seen in the above announcements, Apple mentioned both 64-bit and iOS 8 -- not just 64-bit.

However, with regards to the iOS 7 support, Crosslight iOS Unified should still work with iOS 7. It is just we areencouraging customers to upgrade to iOS 8 whenever possible to comply to Apple's requirements in the shortest time possible.

Hope this helps.