How to make iPhone4 and below version app compatible for iPhone5?

Question

I have an application in iphone market which works for iPhone 4s and lower version. So now iPhone 5 has been launched which bigger size screen, my question is what all changes i have to do in my application so that it will be compatible with iPhone 5 also.

1) Do i have to rebuild my app for iPhone 5?

2) Do i have to make changes only in UI ?

3) Will the iPhone 5 will its make it compatible?

Your valuable replies will help me a lot. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Here is my answers,

1) Do i have to rebuild my app for iPhone 5?

If you want to utilize the complete screen space, you can add Default-568h@2x.png and rebuild the app and release it.

2) Do i have to make changes only in UI ?

You can utilize the complete screen space for iphone 5. You can code for screen modifications in case of other iPhones.

3) Will the iPhone 5 will its make it compatible?

Yes. It will make it automatically compatible. It will add a black strip on top and bottom to compensate for the extra space in the screen unless you add Default-568h@2x.png .

Answer 2

If your app uses the standard UIKit provided by Apple, you only need to add a 4 inch launch image to your app, and it will automatically resized itself. But if your app using custom controls or graphics-heavy like in games, you might want to adjust the images and take advantage of the larger screen.

You also have to make sure the methods you used do not deprecated on iOS6 to prevent the app from crashing. Some references if you need further reading.

Answer 3

To make older app compatible with iPhone 5 You need to look for Following things.

1. Latest Xcode version 4.5.

2. Open your project and select Upgrade settings for new version.

3. Add Default-568h@2x.png for new resolution .

4. For UI you have to change your xib's object autoresizing property.When you select View Go to inspector and select size property It will show you None, Full Screen, Retina 4 options . Set autoresize property for all your Buttons , labels and check xib for retina 4 and None both.It is same like you set it for Landscape and portrait .

5.Some other changed will be in code because some method has been depreciated for ios 6.0. 6. After doing all this .You can run it on iphone 5 simulator for testing.

Answer 4

I have an app that was using GLKMatrix3 and its supporting functions. I found that the GLKMatrix3Multiply function would always crash on iPhone 5 hardware. Easy to workaround using GLKMatrix4 instead, but the point is that I would never have found the problem without actually trying my app on iPhone 5 hardware.

I was told to file a bug for the GLKMatrix3 problem, so maybe this will be fixed. But the code runs just fine in the iOS 6 simulator.

I learned from this that, whether or not you need to rebuild your app for iPhone 5, you do need to at least run your app on a device before advertising support for that device.