Apple inches closer to making 32-bit apps disappear from iOS

Heads up, mobile game devs: over the weekend, 32-bit apps were temporarily scrubbed from Apple's App Store and rendered all but invisible unless you had a direct link to download them.

It's another step in Apple's long-running effort to excise 32-bit apps from its marketplace, one that's especially meaningful if you have a 32-bit mobile game on the App Store (TouchArcade noted yesterday that games like Ridiculous Fishing and Super Crate Box were among the apps that disappeared.)

While it appears the apps have since been restored and can once again be found via browsing and searching the App Store, the threat remains. Apple has of course required all app submissions to be 64-bit since 2015, and has been foreshadowing a big 32-bit delisting for some time. 

Last fall the company spent months working to remove abandoned and/or outdated apps from its storefront, and in April it pushed an update to iOS devices that included a pop-up message warning customers that their 32-bit apps might soon be rendered incompatible.