What does deployment target mean?

Question

this is a very simple question I\'m assuming. Can someone tell me what deployment target means. If I choose IOS 10, does that mean only users with iOS 10 can download the ap

Answer 1

The deployment target determines your app's ability to run on older iOS versions.

App with deployment target set to 10 will work on iOS version 10+ (10, 11, 12, 13 ...) but won't work on 9.x.

When a new version of iOS is released, some people do not bother to update their devices to the latest iOS version and thus they can't download your app from the App Store.

Example

If you choose higher deployment target (e.g 12.1), your app won't be able to download for the people who even have latest devices but have older iOS version (iPhone X with 11.0). In Contrast If you choose lowest possible deployment target (e.g 6.0), you try to make your app maximum backward compatible (so even if someone hasn't updated their iOS in ages will be able to download your app).

CAUTION

Many (almost all) newer frameworks and features won't be able to run properly (Behave as expected) on lower iOS versions which increases the chances of app crashes.

What Affects Deployment Target

Following are few factors that demands higher deployment target.

1) Using latest iOS SDK (alone)

2) Using latest iOS SDK specific features (Constraints, newer XIB files etc).

3) Using fast adapting external libraries / Frameworks (e.g Facebook SDK, Firebase etc).

4) Higher Swift Version (5.0) requires higher deployment target vs writing your app in legacy Objective C) !Needs citation.

SOLUTION

We have been using Deploymate for maximum backward support. It mainly assists us about warning the following:

1) Newer APIs that won't work on lower iOS versions

2) Using deprecated methods that won't work on newer iOS versions.

This is when you start fixing your code to make it available for lower iOS versions for maximum compatibility.

Note: Xcode also informs about several pitfalls. Deploymate is neither associates with us or pay us in any form. You can look for other alternates.