The Apple Silicon Macbook may have this big drawback

The Apple Silicon Macbook may have this big drawback

Apple's silicon MacBook Pro was unveiled today, and while it has the great perk of running iOS apps, you shouldn't expect to find all your apps there. In fact, many of the big apps will not be on the Mac.

In case anyone needs a refresher, the Apple Silicon-based Macs coming out today run on the same A-series processors found in the iPhone. And they can run iOS and iPadOS apps. But it's not so easy.

The Mac App Store offers all iOS apps by default, but developers can choose to do so. This news comes from a 9to5Mac report that confirmed the App Store system.

Cross-platform support for iOS apps may be a boon for developers who do not have the ability to create apps for Mac, but Google and Facebook seem to be on the sidelines for now. The report states that both companies' apps are likely to be MIA with respect to Apple Silicon support.

Of course, both companies have web versions of their apps, and WhatsApp probably has a Mac app that works fine with Rosetta 2 emulation (if they decide not to rework it for Apple Silicon). That includes Instagram, whose web browser version has been quietly improved in recent months, including the addition of DMs.

In our opinion, the biggest question for Apple Silicon's Mac apps is, "Will there be a native Apple Silicon version for Chrome?"

According to Apple's developer forums, the start was rocky, but the application finally started working with the Big Sur beta version running on the Apple Silicon Mac mini developer kit.

If Google does not want to bring its iPhone application to the Mac, it should consider reworking the Mac version of Chrome for the Apple Silicon ARM processor. If they don't, users will rely on Rosetta 2 to run legacy versions of Chrome.

Amazon Prime Video and Disney Plus will also not join the iOS on macOS party; Snapchat also does not have a Mac app or browser mode, so your snaps will live on your phone.

Even some games (a real loss), including Among Us, will not be ported; 9to5Mac notes that Candy Crush and Real Racing 3 will not be ported either.

These titles may become available after launch, but that's for another time.

Categories